Brooklyn Botanical Garden

 

I managed to make it out to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden the other day (it's Free on Tuesdays you New Yorkers!) and I really have no excuse since I literally live across the street. The sky was beautiful (pre-Hurricane Irene) so I thought I'd take my camera along. I did a little HDR using a simple version of Photomatix on the photo of the statue. Yes, that's corn at the BBG in the 2nd photo.

And I couldn't leave without subjecting M to a portrait on a tiny bridge.

Quote

"We wanted, it seemed, what we already had, a lover and a friend to create with, side by side. To be loyal, yet be free."
- Patti Smith

GEMS

I managed to find myself surrounded by a room full of talented filmmakers last night when Alexandra Roxo organized a Women in Film career night at G.E.M.S., Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, a much needed organization for girls in NYC who, through different circumstances, found themselves caught in the brutal commercial sex trafficking game. There turned out to be more speakers than girls there, but hopefully our messages of 'You can realllly do this too if you want' came through to those girls that might be interested.  Each of us were able to briefly tell our stories and what it is we do. I found myself really wanting to make them FEEL that this is hard, but possible. No one in your family has to have done anything in film before, you don't have to go to film school. You just have to have the desire and the perseverance to keep working towards it, to keep asking questions, wondering and paying attention. And I'm sure most of these girls have had to overcome more difficult tasks already.

I must say it was fun and inspiring for me to sit and listen to my colleagues. The vibe was warm and encouraging and the interests were varied. Afterwards, there was dinner and a bubble blowing contest (amongst some of the filmmakers, not the girls mind you). All in all it was an excellent night.

A run down of the wonderul women there so maybe you masses of people following me can also be inspired:

Deborah Kampmeier
Lisa Myers
Alicia Van Couvering
Danielle Lurie
Jade Healy
Jen Ruff
Nicole Emanuelle and Devyn Waitt
Daniela Capistrano
Risa and Christina
Leah Meyerhoff

old photographs today

These were taken a few years ago near my old apartment on a snowy night with my ol digital Olympus EVolt500

 

 

I was sprucing up my hard drive today and came across some old photographs and thought I'd play a bit with photoshop again. There's something about old photographs that I respond to (No, these aren't ACTUALLY old...they're from 2009 maybe? But they're also not Hipstamatic. Thank you.). There's something in the format of old photos. There's something in the grain and desaturation and in the impromptu snapshot. The framing isn't perfect; one couldn't see the final product of their efforts until long after. There was no deleting a picture that wasn't perfect. Pictures reflected people who weren't smiling perfect smiles, there was less than perfect exposure, and there was a real documentation left after all of it. I remember taking these pictures and the one I like the most now (the first one of the handles in a bus) is one that I was very frustratingly trying to get in focus while the bus bounced down the street hitting more bumps in the road than it was missing. It's a good reminder that everything is relative, right? The right photograph presented in the right medium in the right instance can make all the difference.

Erickson Beamon

A still from an Erickson Beamon shoot I did a few months back and I keep coming back to it. It always feels very evocative and seems like it could be in a Lynch film or a Jaromil Jires flick. Or maybe even a Terry Gilliam. On a rainy, gray day like today maybe I'll watch "Valerie And Her Week of Wonders" now.

Ahhhhh

 

David Hasselhoff teaser