Day 14

Last night was the awards ceremony at the Orange County Fair. There were over 1000 accepted photographs this year, and out of all of those, just look at what my two little ones were doing!:

Left: Sown, Purchase Prize

Right: Newberry Springs, off Rt. 66, First Place for Non-Tradition Prints; Purchase Prize

copyright Jennifer Geisert

My photos are now included in the permanant collection of the Orange County Fair, and the hope is that they'll go on to be exhibited around Orange County. I'll be notified of where they'll be on show, places like airports and whatnot. Yay!

Me and My New Friend With the Awsome Moustache

July 2008

copyright Jennifer Geisert

This year's fair theme is "Say Cheese", and in addition to there being lots of cheese-related items (hats, giant blocks of chedder that are being carved...), there was also a whole building dedicated to cameras and the photographic process and history. There was a giant camera obscura set up, and there were cases filled with old cameras. I spotted another version of the Kodak Duraflex I have, as well as my Brownie Starflex that I was taking for a test drive last night. (I'm finding it far more fiddly than my Duraflex.) Lots of awsome stuff.

See more about the Orange County Fair here.

Day 13

John and Dot

My Grandparents

photographer unknown

"Everyone likes this picture. If is very good of you. You look so happy and content. I love you Dear."

I have always loved this snapshot.

Day 12

Newberry Springs, off Route 66

copyright Jennifer Geisert

And now for a shameless plug:

If you're in the southern California area, and you're headed to the Orange County Fair anytime between now and August 3rd, swing by the visual arts building and check out the photography section. There you shall find the above photograph, taken by myself, Jennifer Geisert, and a blue ribbon. (Yay!!) You shall also find my other entry, entitled Sown, which has been blogged some time ago.

I have only entered the Orange County Fair once before. I think I was in 1st or 3rd grade, and I wrote a short story to go along with a computer "animated" (or as animated as anything on a Commodor from the '80's could be) picture. I think it was about a castle and a prince and princess. It probably wasn't me that entered the fair, probably someone did it for me, most likely without my knowing. Anyway, my story won 3rd place, and I was given $5.00. My dad, who at the time was writing short stories, told me that that was more money than he'd ever made from a piece of writing.

So anyway, go to the fair! If visual art isn't your thing, maybe Alaskan pig racing is. They've got that there too. They also have deep-fried pickles this year, from what I've heard.

Expect another shameless plug in a few days...

Day 10

Duomo

Copyright Jennifer Geisert

I'm seeing Pisa for the first time next week. I saw the tower from the train once, it was smaller than I imagined it to be. But so was the Mona Lisa. I will, of course, take the obligatory photograph of both myself and my fiance holding up the tower, because you can't not do that. I'm sure there are amazing little churches and side streets to explore, and day trips to Lucca to be had. I can't wait.

Day 7

Windowpane

Copyright Jennifer Geisert

It's a quiet evening, which means a quiet photograph. Windowpane is so still that it's managed to largely escape my attentions until recently - it fades into the background of my other many photo files. I just noticed it one day, and I fell in love with it.

Another show is opening tomorrow night. Which means it's been another busy week for me. I've been meaning to work on some new Polaroid emulsion transfers, and to finally finish an encaustic piece I started about a month and a half ago, but all I really want to do is sew little squiggles onto my little pieces of canvas and buy some gorgeous clothing I've had my eye on for forever.

Day 6

Amboy

Copyright Jennifer Geisert

I feel busy. Work has suddenly gotten crazy, and when it rains, it really does pour. I come home tired, but in a good way. However, I haven't done much in the evenings (like water my tomatos or basil or peppers....again....oops), and I think Netflix is partially to blame for this. Netflix and I are still in the honeymoon stage of our relationship. I've watched more films in the last two months than in the last two years, I think. I'm currently working my way through the first season of One Tree Hill. I began watching the show last September/October on Soapnet every afternoon as I worked in the kitchen on my upcoming exhibition, and I just couldn't understand what the hell was going on, and where all the non-crazy parents were. Now I'm totally addicted.

I've begun applying to exhibitions again. I'll find out next week if I was accepted into the latest one. I've never really thought much about it before, and I'm sure that the fact that I'm thinking about this one an awful lot has somehow jinxed me, but you never know.

I've also gotten shamelessly excited about music, in particular the recent release of Portishead's THIRD album. The first one in 11 years. Wow. I just think that if you are creative and it's what you love to do, you'll never actually retire from it. You'll do it til you die. And while you may take a break, and you may take years to return to it, you WILL eventually return to what you love. Creativity doesn't stop just because you want it to.

Incidentally, the above Polaroid is one I took after a two year break from photography. A friend and I just got in my car and drove to the desert, to Route 66, and spent the day photographing. Unfortunatelly, I think it was possibly one of the hottest days of the year, well over 100 degrees, but we managed. I had the air going full blast, a cooler full of water in the backseat, and sunblock in my backpack. It was an awsome day, and I can't wait for more. Maybe next will be Vegas at night with it's neon.

Day 5

Sown
Copyright Jennifer Geisert

In October of 2007, local wilderness areas burned in some pretty horrific wildfires, but you might not know it today. The dry season was followed by an exceptionally wet season, and the abundance of life is unbelievable. Even the oak trees with their blackened trunks and charred branches had new green shoots and leaves springing from them.

Perhaps a Shooting Star

Copyright Jennifer Geisert

Seeing wildflowers and mustard carpeting the hillside, you'd never be able to picture the way the land looked 6 months ago. My guide assured me that absolutely everything we saw today had been burned to the ground. You can still see some evidence, where the trees have burned so completely and hot that they've left ghostly impressions in glassy ash on the ground, the only bare patches among the new plants.

Limestone Canyon

Copyright Jennifer Geisert

I've always loved photographing the local canyons, so today was a special treat for me. I'd been invited to hike through areas restricted to the general public, areas that you can only access with a guide. It was a lot to take in. I need to go away and process today, so I'll leave with a wonderful quote my fiance saw:

"Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints."

Day 3

Spring Medley

Copyright Jennifer Geisert

In another lifetime I would have the time and energy to garden. As it is in this lifetime, however, I manage to kill seemingly hardy plants like cacti. I have three plants of my own, a basil plant, a tomato plant, and a bell pepper plant. So far, the tomato is looking pitiful, the basil's leaves are being eaten by something, but the bell pepper is fine.

Day 2

Fresh Cut

Copyright Jennifer Geisert

The seemingly simple process of Polaroid emulsion transfers is not at all simple, in fact. The sheer ammount of crap I drag out to the kitchen from the back room and dig out of various kitchen drawers is unbelievable. The list is as follows:

Polaroid Daylab
Polaroid film
source photographs
contact paper
siscors
watercolor paper
watch
extra garbage bags
air duster
black jacket (my Daylab has a light leak so I take pictures with my coat covering the maching)
distilled water
brayer
paper towels
saucer
frying pan
wooden spoon
4 flat Correlware dishes of various sizes
did I mention paper towels?

And so, I worked for four hours, past the time everyone else decided to go to bed, past the time when the cats are in their night hyper stage and fight, past both episodes of the Golden Girls, taking a break only for chocolate pudding gone wrong. (How can chocolate pudding go wrong, you ask? By eating the kind cooked on the stove, left in the fridge long enough to get a crust, that's how.) All of this after a normal working day at the gallery. As I said previously, creativity does not understand a full work week.

The end result is the above image, "Fresh Cut", also known as my entry to the jurried exhibition at my work. And the pleasent suprise that I don't have to work every spare moment until Monday to frame the image - it was done today in our framing department. Now I can spend my Friday night relaxing with Sweeny Todd and Jell-o.

Day 1

Cedar Grove Park

copyright Jennifer Geisert

I tried writing a daily photo blog once before and predictably lost interest. In another lifetime I'd love to have the time to photograph interestingly every day and to sit down at the end of it and write about anything that comes to mind, but there just isn't enough time in the day. However, now my next big project to work on is a book of photographs, and I suppose this is as good a start as any.

Today was a day off for me, although I rushed around all over the place. I work in an art gallery that's putting on a jurried exhibition for the local art league, and I've been encouraged to submit something. The catch is that the image has to have been taken somewhere in the city, and I have no images that fit the criteria. Oh, and the deadline is Monday. So I spent my morning walking and driving from one end of the city to the other with the intention of getting some good images. But that typical thing happened, where you decide you're going to be creative and then the creativity doesn't come. One thing creativity doesn't understand is a full work week.

At any rate, I have images to play with over the next few days. Even if I don't get accepted, I'll at least have a nicely framed image.