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What Makes Art?

When I work with my clients I have an eye toward making art from their photographs. I do document their weddings and do family portraits, but I try to reach beyond in the same way that I do when I photograph to do art.

Here are two triptychs. One recently was sold by June Bateman Fine Art and the other is one of my client couples who selected a three hundred year old tree in Bedford, NY as the site for their wedding portraits. I wish for my clients that their love and their relationship will endure as this tree has. The center photo in this triptych is a double exposure that I did of them when we previewed this locale prior to their wedding date. The movement from talking to laughing suggests the momentum of their relationship to love and joy. The last photo in the triptych was taken at their wedding. It is soft focus to suggest the dreamlike quality that my client’s tell me is their memory of their special day.

My client tells me that this triptych is one of her favorites from all the photos of her wedding day and that she has it up for her desktop background. I am thrilled to be able to give this extra meaningful work to my clients.

Wedding Portrait Under Ancient Tree

Woman In S Curve

A Young Best Man

Best Man at nine years old. Yes, and one up to the job and beyond. He even performed at the reception with his sister as back up pianist. This was indeed a beautiful summer wedding day in New Hampshire for a wonderful bride and groom. Here are photos of this special young best man.

A Young Best Man

Groom With Best Man

The Rings

Young Best Man observes Groom instructing Musicians

Ceremony Laughter

Handing the Rings

Rehearsing his speech

No Jitters

Playing for Bride & Groom

Bride & Groom Listen

Guests Applaud

Joyous Hugs

Portraits in Palladium

I have a lot of fun printing with Palladium. The post before this one, done with palladium, is a set of photographs printed together to tell a story. Here are single palladium photographs. The first photographs are from medium format negatives and one is from a 4X5″ negative. Remember that palladium printing is a contact printing method where you paint the emulsion on art papers, usually cotton or gampi, and expose the negative and dried palladium emulsion to ultra-violet light. For this I use the sun.

Maternity Portrait

Engagement Portrait in palladium

With this last portrait, I had extra fun in blowing real dandelion seeds across the photograph as it was printing. This is an added plus to palladium printing.

A Tale of Birth

I am an alumna of the celebrated art school, The Skowhegan School of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture. Recently one of my art pieces called “Birth Tale” appeared in a slide show of alumni work at a benefit dinner for Skowhegan. This piece my be selected for the published Newsletter.

“With life in motion, the amazing swirling energy of my birth experience” This is how the woman whose maternity and baby appear in this art piece. The hawk about to take flight has this energy too.

Birth Tale

Birth Tale Detail with Hawk about to take flight

Birth Tale Detail Mother and Baby

Portraits Allow for Spontaneity

Portraits needn’t be stiff. I love to let my clients be with each other. This is true, after the wedding ceremony, when the bride and groom can start to relax. A series of portraits, like these, is part of their story.

The bride, groom and I picked out this tree and field as the place for their formal portraits. We met a few weeks before their date to visit the places for their ceremony and reception. Planning with my clients allows them the ease of finding the perfect spot for their bridal and family portraits.

Kiss

Talk and Laugh

See Loved Ones

Portrait

Bedford, NY: A Woodland Chapel Ceremony

Down the hill from the 1800′s church is the Woodland Chapel. A wonderful place, in the quiet of nature, for this marriage ceremony.

The day was beautiful and the light in this space called for color for the green of the tall trees and the lovely decorations. I often use black and white, as I did here, for the emotional moments. The combination with the color gives these photographs and the memories they will evoke, a resonance.

Woodland Chapel

The Altar

Children Are Ready

Wedding Party

Bride & Groom with Their Families

The Vows

The Ring

Applause

Excitement For The Bride

Moment by moment a wedding day is lived in a whorl of excitement. However long the bride and groom plan for this day, to be in it is beyond one’s imagination. I love to be helpful and to be included in the planning. I had met with my clients on site in Bedford, NY before the big day to help them plan for the day’s events.

The bride wrote me “Thank you for being an integral part of our wedding and helping us archive our memories of the very special day…I know I felt stressed when I was getting ready and there were so many people around, but you always stayed calm and collected and I really appreciate this!!!”

Doing the decorations and flowers was Naomi Martin of Martin Jobes Design.

Enjoy these photos of the first part of the day.

Reception Dinner Table

Flower Girls & Ring Bearer

Grand daughter & Grandmother

the dress

Helping Dad

Excitement

Putting on the Veil

Carrying the Veil

Bridal Party

Art For Movies

Mr. Popper’s Penguins starring Jim Carrey is about to open. One of my landscapes has been chosen for the set.

Apple Tree Blossoming in Vermont Orchard

My art work was also been chosen for the movie “Eat, Pray, Love”.

What Is Your Photographic Story?

Actually, this was one of the few days this Spring that it did not rain. I will let this mom speak.

“As a new mom I had never had professional pictures taken of my son. Lo and behold the day we decide to shoot he is the crankiest he has ever been. So you do whatever you can do to make them happy – which in my son’s case is playing in the water. I never thought in a million years that Alice would capture the essence of my relationship with my son in my bathroom at the sink!

When I looked at the proof prints, tears came to my eyes. Not only did I see in the photos the expression and personality I see every day in him, but I also was overwhelmed with the experience that was created in each moment. Captured here were not just pictures of mother and son but a story of a mother and son.”

this is fun!

Always Hold Him This Way

Choices In Childbirth: A Concert Celebrates Healthy Birth

On Monday night, May 9th, the audience rocked with the wonderful performances of stars Storm Large, Ann Moller, Kate Northup, Elizabeth Stanley, Alysha Umphress, Christopher Hanke and Rebecca Jones. This concert benefited Choices In Childbirth.

Awards for their outstanding contributions for women’s health were presented to Dr. Christiane Northrup and to Christy Turlington Burns. The team who produced this wonderful party includes Abby Epstein, Ricki Lake, Elan Vital McAllister and Sasha Eden. Elan is the founder of Choices in Childbirth. These few photos are part of the evening of song and celebration. They are of the performance of Storm Large, who wrapped up this celebration with a whopping finale. Elan wrote me that she “especially loves the one of us dancing on the stage with Storm!”

Audience Rapt at Choices in Childbirth Concert

Ricki Lake listens to Storm Large

Storm Large with Ricki Lake, Elan McAlister joining in

Standing-Ovation-at-Choices-in-Childbirth-concert