Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, KY

Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, KY
Originally uploaded by siddal

Halloween Cave Hill photo shoot now up on Flickr :-)

Cemeteries in the Mist

My friend Greg has been uploading some fantastic early morning cemetery shots to his Flickr stream.

Enjoy!
And argh, still haven't uploaded my Cave Hill shots into Flickr.  *note to self*

Technical and other difficulties

Hello all, I'm sorry if you have had problems accessing my blog as of late. I just took a look at it today, and something must have been wrong in the code of one of my posts, as it was immediately directing people to the Etsy Stork video page. I deleted that post, so hopefully all will be fine now.

I can't believe November is almost half over and it's been such a while since I have written. I was away for a bit, enjoying the delights of faerie land with some dear friends. Upon my arrival home, my poor kitty girl Pembrose suffered a broken leg while at the vet. It's a long story that I won't get into, but needless to say we were horribly shocked and saddened and outraged.  She had surgery yesterday, came home this morning, and will have to recouperate until February. November has been a journey from the sublime to the horrible, thus far. But J., BatCat and Pembrose and I are hopeful for good times ahead; we are strong. Pembrose is about 14, and also has CRF, but she is tough and full of love. She is doing so well and is very glad to be home.

I do still need to upload my Halloween photo shoot from Cave Hill Cemetery and hopefully I will have some other creative things to share with you soon. But right now my main focus is taking care of Pembrose and making sure she gets all the love and attention she needs.  I wish you a lovely rest of what is left of the autumn (and sending good weather vibes to all east coast friends!), a bountiful harvest celebration and lots of joy.  I'll be speaking to you soon. xo Robin

{photo of Pembrose from last month}

Happy Halloween and Samhain Blessings!

DSC_0012
Originally uploaded by siddal

Hope you have lots of fun!

Halloween on Hillcrest

Devilish
Originally uploaded by siddal

My photos of our annual jaunt to "The Halloween Street" are up on Flickr, if you care to take a look :-)
I hope you are enjoying all the delights of the Season! I am quite a bit behind this year. No decorations, pumpkin still uncarved, etc etc. But I have enjoyed a few spooky movies, including the much-talked about "Paranormal Activity," goodies like pumpkin cheesecake and apple cider, and have been reading some Clive Barker.

If you enjoy checking out ghosty things, I highly recommend perusing the old fashioned spirit photographs on Flickr. There are also some fascinating post-mortem images as well.

And finally, here's one of my favorite childhood Halloween moments:

Happy Blogiversary

It is hard to believe that it has been one year since I started this blog. I am really enjoying sharing my work with you, scant though it may be right now, and I thank you for following along on this little journey with me.

Happy October

I hope everyone is enjoying October so far. It's one of my very favorite months: changing leaves, cool breezes, sweaters, my husband's birthday, and Halloween! It is also typically busy for me, and thus, I have no new work to share right now. Mundane life has taken over with a vengeance. Ideas are brewing, though. I have some plans to rework a story I wrote about bees in 1995 (eep!), and then illustrate it with image transfers. It's actually more about a bee keeper than the bees, so hopefully I'll be able to pull of these shots without getting stung! I have long been fascinated by bees, and the myths surrounding them. One of my tattoos is of an engraving of a bee, and I like to think of bees as one of my totem animals. I think I need to channel some of their more industrious qualities!

That said, here is an appropriate Flickr Commons favorite image for Halloween season and for bees:

Girl dressed like a bee in costume. Wildflower Preservation Society, Illinois Chapter. 1902.

Original size and material: 3 1/2 x 4 inch hand-colored glass lantern slide
Digital Identifier: B83516_G34c

Part of the Illinois Urban Landscapes Project: www.fieldmuseum.org/urbanlandscapes/

Wishing everyone a delightful autumn weekend!

Joy

Well, today is a very good day my friends. I just went into my attic to retrieve some things I want to sell on eBay, and I found my negatives and slides from my college days and post-grad. As some of you know, I had thought these were missing, lost in our last move. This was devastating, to say the least. I certainly don't want to be mired in old work, but there is some of it of which I am still very proud, and which I would love to share. It was especially painful to think that the 4x5" color negatives I shot on a land camera for my BFA show were gone forever. But now they are found, and I can eventually scan them. We have a scanner at work that scans slides and negatives.

I can't even tell you how many times I looked for these darned things, and had totally convinced myself that I had looked in every box in the attic.

As I again neglected a Flickr Fave for Friday, here is a quickly scanned contact sheet from days of yore of the young model and the Lizzie Siddal of my dreams, who got away. I was so nervous to be photographing her (and as she was quite young, her parents had more than a few reservations about letting her model for an arty 20-something weirdo), that we never had another shoot with proper costumes and settings.

Oh Happy Day!

I hope your weekend is just as joyous!

Unidentified Woman

Unidentified Woman
Originally uploaded by George Eastman House

Flickr Commons Friday time....this week, a Daguerreotype. I never tire of them. This woman has lovely eyes. Whenever I look at old photographs, I can't help but wonder about the sitters. What were their joys and sorrows? What amazing things did they see in their lifetime? What if you only had one image of yourself to last for all time?

Pumpkins in the Rogue River Valley, Oregon

Pumpkins in the Rogue River Valley, Oregon
Originally uploaded by Oregon State University Archives

Another lantern slide. My other favorite fall thing: pumpkins! Pumpkin pie, pumpkin rolls, pumpkin bread..you get the idea :-) When I was small, my mom used to tell me that the Great Pumpkin would be bringing my Halloween Jack o' lantern. And sure enough, sometime within the weeks before All Hallows Eve, a pumpkin would appear on our hall tree. Needless to say, my parents loved the Peanuts! To this day, it just isn't Halloween season to me without watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."
I hope you have a lovely autumn

Rogue River, road to Crater Lake

Rogue River, road to Crater Lake
Originally uploaded by Oregon State University Archives

I missed last week's Friday Flickr Commons favorites post, so this week, you get two. I found this hand-colored lantern slide by searching for autumn images. When September 1st rolls around, I consider it to be fall. Sadly, I spent the 31st and 1st (the two most gorgeous and autumnal days of this week) sick in bed with the plague (a cold). But just knowing that there is a change around the corner cheered me up! I can't wait for the leaves to turn!

Flickr Commons Friday

Children in medieval costume
Originally uploaded by George Eastman House

I thought I would start doing a weekly post of some of my favorite images from the flickr Commons, one of my favorite places to browse. This looks like a jaunty summer group, all set for a Midsummer night of fun. And it is an Autochrome, to boot. One of my favorite processes ever. A good Friday to you!

Photographs in Circle Magazine

RedSpring3
Originally uploaded by siddal

Readers of Circle Magazine can check out a couple of my photos in the Fall 2009 issue, accompanying a lovely article by Jhenah Telyndru titled "Sacred Sites: The Chalice and The Grail." This issue of Circle is dedicated to Sacred Chalices. Best wishes, Robin

new transfers

Some new image transfers. The bottom one you have seen before, but this is a new transfer and I was really pleased with the way it turned out. The original photographs were taken in Italy, 1997.

Poe

Wow, summer moves apace. It is hard to believe that it is nearly the end of July. Last week I was on vacation, and my husband and I spent a few days in Baltimore. One of the highlights for me was visiting Edgar Allen Poe’s grave. We also tried to visit the Poe House, but sadly it was closed during the days that we were in Baltimore. This makes the second time I have had that happen! Maybe the third time will be a charm…someday. I did not take my camera, as I wanted a relaxed and unencumbered few days of hanging out and being a tourist, and my husband forgot his smaller digital. But I do have a few cell phone photos to share. Sometimes it is nice to just experience and not worry about viewing everything from behind a lens. Although, once I got to this graveyard, I did wish I had my camera :-\

The other night they had the episode of Antiques Road Show with the Poe Daguerreotype. Did anyone see that? If you look at their site you will see the story had a somewhat crazy ending, as the Dag-type had been stolen from a historical society!

It was great to have time off work, especially after a very busy two weeks. The Friday before my vacation I had to give a talk on the history of photography in Louisville, as seen through objects in our (the archive where I work) collection. It went well, but the period before these events is always really stressful for me. I hate speaking in public, and would rather do almost anything else.

I have some more image transfers to share, so I will scan those and post this week. I’m also thinking about creating some black and white photos, having them printed on giclee water color paper, and hand coloring them with colored pencils or paints. Since I can’t use the type of silver gelatin print that works well with photo oils any longer, this seems a nice alternative.
Best wishes and have a great week!