baby sister

from the fall. dreamy, watercolor-esque portraiture is PERfect for your sister's wedding.

why I love annie leibovitz

rich, beautiful fashion magazine shoots.

and simple, breathtaking portraits.

I know its nothing new to like her photographs, but I love them and the detail in which she captures people. hopefully one day I'll get there.

my wonderful neighbors, who so kindly let me come down and photograph them in the middle of the day. most of what I shot was on film, trying to work out the kinks in my twin-lens focus. keeping my fingers crossed, though I'm pretty hopefully that I got some wonderful photos regardless of perfect focus.

thursday hard at work

my boss, feverishly styling a wig.

mid-way between here and there

as I was driving up to evanston, the light over the lake turned a beautiful erie greenish blue. by the time I was able to stop and pull on to the beach, the light was gone. but I still love the sky over a great lake in almost any light.

tuesday on the river

I managed to escape work for an hour to have lunch with my mom. luckily she is fully supportive of me stopping to take lots of pictures.

a sweet surprise

morning light in my bedroom. trying to photograph in low light with my double camera, slightly tricky. hopefully my little violet will get enough light there, even if my camera doesn't.

test shots

from my twin lense reflex, actually using film.
some quirks, but I'm excited with the possibilities
(this post brought to you by the letter G and Mike's computer!)

the itinerant filmmaker

mike, from the fall. I had to promise not to take pictures of his face in order for him to sit for me, but I managed to fudge that a little bit.
computer is in the shop, but hopefully I will take pictures everyday this week and just post a massive quantity when I get it back.

nyc, douglas james and LT

These are from a trip last spring, and some of my first experiments with my double camera.

They are still some of my favorite shots.

wells and lake

an overcast, saturday commute

from the fall

what's not to love about an abandoned train track in the middle of the city?

UIC and Halsted

the view after mike's open studio

a start.

I'm starting this to help me take pictures.

My job keeps me very busy, but also pretty unsatisfied creatively. This is a problem that I've been struggling with for several years now. How do I continue to do the craft that I'm good at, and keeps me employed, but doesn't really feed my soul?

That sounds incredibly cheesy, but I start getting very cranky when all I do is wigs. I work with the idea that I will be able to travel when I'm not working; that in the hours that I'm not working, I will do something that makes me happy. And I do manage to do that to a certain extent, but I want something to encourage me to do that on a daily basis.

So, taking a cue from my downstairs neighbor, I'm going to try and take at least a photo a day. Or find an image that I love. Or a piece of writing that makes me want to make it into images.

so here goes.

a start, 'cause if I continue to wait for the perfect beginning, I'll never get started.

A view down the boulevard.