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Photo 52: A Play on Light {The End}

One full year! We have officially made it to the end of Photo 52 and our exploration of light. I am so excited to say that I have not missed a week in this journey. Congratulations to my wonderful friends who have traveled with me on this journey. I think we have all come a long ways, but the photography is only secondary to the supportive friendships cemented over the course of this year of learning.

I had planned to use this final week to pick a favorite from the prior 51 weeks, but I got derailed by some new and very different favorites that I love and have to share. I had the honor of photographing an incredible dancer, choreographer and dear, dear friend: Catherine Cabeen. We met in elementary school and she is one of the few people I know who has successfully pursued and achieved her childhood dreams. I admire her more than she will likely ever know. And now you get to admire her too, because she is stunning and she makes magic with her graceful limbs. 

I will also note her patience: in honor of our light-inspired journey, I used her shoot to make my first foray into the world of off-camera flash. Always something new to learn.

Stay tuned for P52's next project which will debut in October. But before you go, please take a final spin around the circle, starting with my exceptional photographer and friend, Lisa Rigazio.  You can check out the very beginnings of the project here.

Stacey Leece VukeljLG2A9293008.jpg

One {August}

August, a month of summer, a month of travel and a month of uninterrupted time with my small person. On one of my favorite moments on our recent trip west, he and I were up a little early and while we waited to join everyone for breakfast, we went and got hot chocolate (gasp!) and sat on a dock in the early morning sun. This image will always make me smile.     

My dear friend Kim has been off on some travels of her own. I can't wait to see what her One shot is this month.  

Photo 52: A Play on Light {51}

In our final week on creative settings, I am back home and far from the lovely nature that dominated my shots this month.

While perhaps rather less beautiful, there is something I can't resist about shooting the city streets in the dark. And so, here are a few moments taken during a great night out with some of my fellow blog circle participants on the Lower East Side this week. I had to push my settings (a little grain, anyone?) and look for alternative light sources to give life to the image. 

We are in the final weeks of our P52 before we take a bit of a hiatus and prepare to launch a new project we have had in the works for a few months now. Be sure to take a spin, starting with the always incredible work by my friend Lisa Rigazio. 

Photo 52: A Play on Light {48}

We are down to the final month of our 52 week exploration of light. Discussions are already underway as to where we go next, but in the meantime, we are spending this final month engaging in a bit of a creative twist. We are using creative settings, or simply our own creativity, to play up the light in an image. Call it an exploration of our inner light, as it were.

spinning

Please continue around the circle to my incredibly talented friend up in Harlem, Sarah Roemer Davis.   

One {July}

One for July. One for Tom and Sarah. One for hot days when reality feels unreal and accidents are anything but happy; a hope that beauty may grow from a barren place and broken hearts may be healed.  A flawed image for a flawed time.

Please take a moment to consider registering for the bone marrow registry or make a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. You may just help save a life someday. 

And as we cast off July, please take a moment to visit my dear One Circle, beginning in Chicago with my kind and inspiring friend Jessica Remus.

Photo 52: A Play on Light {46}

In this week's color study, my P52 circle focused on yellow and orange hues. While this would have been the perfect time for some golden hour images, small guy and I went in search of shelter from the scorching heat wave instead. In his first visit to a movie theater as a "big kid", we found some yellow lighting among the heavenly air conditioning. There was far less visible light in the theater than these images indicate - to get these shots, I had to push my camera settings and manually focus in the dark.  Fun to play, even if they aren't beautifully crisp. 

Next up, please check out the beautiful work of my friend, photographer and architect  Lisa Rigazio in Maryland. Her creativity this month has been inspiring and I can't wait to see what she and the rest of the circle come up with. Please take a spin!

Happy Birthday, Photo Blog!

It has been one year today since I launched this site and I am so glad that I took the leap. Having a home for my personal projects and a venue that demands attention and maintenance has helped keep me behind the camera regularly, learning and growing along the way. My heartfelt thanks to all of you who have been so supportive of this little passion project. I hope I can continue to keep you interested in the year to come.    

While I did not shoot a particular image specifically for today, I have a few recent shots that might offer my local friends some sense of relief in the midst of this heat wave. My poor camera, I just can't resist dragging it into the water, especially the rain.

Today

Photo 52: A Play On Light {44}

We are in the home stretch of our P52 and this month's focus is on the color of light. This is a bit of a tricky topic, because the wavelengths that make up visible light cover the entire color spectrum - the colors we "see" are the end result of an object absorbing or reflecting certain wavelengths and not others, not the color of the light itself.  

Another facet of this concept is when we choose to set white balance using Kelvin. The Kelvin scale essentially measures the temperature of light - whether it is cooler (blues/greens) or warmer (reds/yellows) and tells our cameras how to interpret that light. So, for example, a cool Kelvin setting is useful when shooting indoors because the blues in the setting counteract the yellows in fluorescent lights.  

For our first week, we were on the hunt for blue. I found a blue twilight and a bright blue playground, then couldn't put my camera down once I started playing with sunlight reflected in turquoise waters. I had way too much fun standing in the pool with my camera, finding ways to capture ripples and reflections of sun and clouds in the water and the bubbles. So please forgive the excessive share but there are fun details to be found if you look closely. And when you are done, please travel onwards to my dear, dear friend Kami Chaudhery. In fact, the water shots were taken in her parents' pool while we swam to celebrate her birthday on the 4th of July. Please leave her some belated greetings as you check out her gorgeous work! 

 

Dipping My Toes {Film}

Earlier this year, I got a film camera. Because clearly what I need in life is a new project. I have found it to be fun and frustrating all at the same time, especially since I can apparently extend a roll or two out for a long time before seeing the results. Months in fact. I am not entirely on board for the funky and extremely varied retro tones in these, but here are a few initial film efforts (i.e. random shots of my kid), just for fun.  I have a lot to learn, but I am enjoying giving it the old college try.

Expired Porta 160, black and white conversions in Lightroom.

Gold Hope Project

Over the past year, I have had the honor of watching a young man who is very, very dear to my heart undertake a frightening battle. One of my son's very best friends, this tiny guy was diagnosed with leukemia last summer and has been a lesson in strength, courage and dignity to everyone he has encountered. I am thrilled to say that he has the "baby" version of the disease and that his prognosis is superb. After another year of treatment he should be able to put all of this behind him and we intend to celebrate with a party like you've never seen.

But even with the most hopeful light at the end of the tunnel, the road to getting him better has been long, exhausting and lonely for his parents and family.  Documenting memories at a time like this can also be a challenge - with all the pokes and prods and needles and tubes and side effects, at the heart of the matter is a beautiful child, enduring the incomprehensible. I have been thrilled that his family has enjoyed having pictures of their little man simply being a kid alongside my son as they play and do the things that boys do, even if sometimes at a slower pace.

And so, when I saw an opportunity to apply for the Gold Hope Project, I jumped at the chance.  The Gold Hope Project is a not for profit organization that matches photographers with young cancer patients and their families. The images go to the families and are used by the organization to promote awareness of childhood cancer and fundraising opportunities for families in need. I learned this week that my application was accepted, and I couldn't be more thrilled. 

One {June}

Oh, June. Days of beautiful early summer (or around here, thunderstorms and humidity), the end of school, Father's Day and daddy's birthday...we bid you adieu. And, once again, it is time for the One.

Over the Father's Day/birthday weekend, we spent a fun day at the Red Hook Jazz Festival, a small fundraiser held in a community garden in Brooklyn. Our son's favorite group seemed to have been the "heavy metal" jazz (new to my ears), which is both entertaining and appropriate, considering his affinity for the "Mai-DEN! Mai-DEN!" hand gesture he has perfected. He stood at the front of the lawn, watching intently and occasionally throwing his fists into the air and dancing a bit. Then he returned to our picnic blanket and settled in to (unsuccessfully) practice the time-honored tradition of the berry toss: 

Please continue around our little circle to the beautiful and, for today's post, particularly electrifying work of my dear friend Sarah Zalan in Denver.  I am so very excited to have a trip planned to see her in the not so distant future!