#elementoftheeye

[elementoftheeye]

rooting around the archives, sometimes an image gets stuck in your brain, it is one that you see and keep going back to... you make stories that maybe only make sense to you. This was shot in a public/not so public location. Maybe that drives the emotion, carves that moment into your memory... what is the story that you make up in your mind?

[fine-art-stephane]

hair pose

translated from a @elementoftheeye photo

[peintre-stephane]

pact  

translated from a @elementoftheeye  photo

[elementoftheeye]

Maybe this is more appealing. It is another of the freelensing. A bloom on the Bradford pear tree. Coffee...Trying to decompress from the Easter weekend. Wondering where I fit in. It is easy for me to stay home and mess around the house, or go to a park and walk around the woods. It exhausts me to socialize with other people, be it family or friends... I do question if I really have friends, I mean I am not asked to go with anyone to do anything. I don't think I could be a hermit, at least I wouldn't question if I had friends, or if people were just pretending. Anyway, the dogs are asleep and I am working. This is where I am pretty happy, feeling like I am earning my money. What do I need?

[elementoftheeye]

My latest acquisition. Going to send this one away and get it Cleaned, Lubed and Adjusted. Of course after I hospital bills get paid. I mean until them I will be using it is a sweet HEAVY camera. I will probably look for another lens too.

[elementoftheeye]

Tears

I sit here, thinking how much I miss one of my friends that passed some years ago... Really missing you Dan.

[elementoftheeye]

Inspire weekend, a professional photographers of Pennsylvania conference. I am on the board of governors, which really doesn't mean much to anyone other than me. Our 1st program was "Facing the Fear of Failure" whish was really appropriate because Kristy talked about her life and how she deals with print comp when she enters... meaning even if you don't get a great score you had the balls to enter and now you can learn from the situation. The above image is thumbnails of the images I entered... so I needed 2 merits, or scores above 80 out of 100... mind you these are professional photographers judging. Image1 was the first image of the print competition... not always a great place to be. It scored a 78, I cheered because of the speaker, and I want the viewing room to not be so serious that no one enjoys themselves... we are not competing against each other we are competing against 12 elements, there is still a shit ton of subjectiveness but... so everyone laughs and cheers along. Good time! The rest of the competition, we are all talking and chatting, cheering each other. ANYWAY, my camera image does lack a WOW factor... but it is really a good image and I am sure some other shit is wrong too. The judging is randomized, so they don't judge all of mine at once... next was image3 the flashbulb, my 1st time entering in a commercial category... scores 81... Merit! I make a joke about that being easier to cheer than the 78... more laughing... Next is Money for Nothing image2... 78... that one actually hurt a little I spent the most time with that image... the comp continues, people are chatting, pointing out things that they see or things that the juror sees but we can't because we are watching on a projector...starting to worry a little... I really want 2 merits and only have 2 images left. my next one was image5, "The vulnerable" my last minute entry... I really don't think it will merit, and I really want to leave the room. It got an 81, merit! cheers.. everyone was rooting for me, everyone was cheering each other! My last image pops up toward the end of the category, image4 "Where's the soup" dumb title, but I thought I was being a little cheeky... Freaking 83!! I got 3 merits! Still a ton of room for improvement but YES... the room cheered and I got congratulations... we still cheered everyone... we were awestruck by some of the entries... they were so good, and shit yes we are all in the same room cheering everyone that had the guts to enter... Now I wait for critiques, and see if I want to do anything else with these images.... OH, I also got my service award and a Best Commercial image with my flashbulb!

[elementoftheeye]

Pinhead shot.. well pinhole shot It was still light after work last night so I grabbed a preloaded can and went out on the deck... 3 cans actually, this was the best exposure, and actually the shortest. The light was miss leading and I didn't bother with the light meter because I don't know the hole size anyway. I stood the can on end and pulled the tape off of the hole and tried to stay still as I could for 1 minute... the others that were over exposed were 2 minutes and 1.5 minutes... this is better than expected especially since it was a little breezy and I figured the can was moving a little bit. The paper gets a little dirty inside the can, probably from removing the tape... I can do better. Bottom line... I am doing something with photography...

[elementoftheeye]

Just another backyard pinhole shot... I haven't slept well is a few days... can't turn off my head and some body pain. These things make me very melancholy, maybe depressed. I will try and combat with work, music and a lunchtime walk. I gallery sit tonight, that should be nice and quiet before coming home and going to bed.

[elementoftheeye]

Working with cyanotype... still needs some work...

[elementoftheeye]

Feeling lost Still grinds me to say that this is sexual themed.

[elementoftheeye]

I am involved.

[elementoftheeye]

Oddity of this paper... Either I get crazy high contrast or this... Wondering if my developer is exhausted, it shouldn't be since I only developed a handful of prints... Next Sunday is World Wide Pinhole day and I would love to make something nicer than I have in the Past! Hoping for a bright sunny day... then I can use this HDPP and get better results.

[elementoftheeye]

Finished photo... I scanned the negative and retouched in Photoshop... mostly dust spots.

[elementoftheeye]

You all are always the 1st to see my photos. My fails and triumphs... this is in between... but pretty good focus... it's still in the water rinse, so we'll see when it's dry.

Not much beats being in the darkroom listening to CCR & Pinkfloyd.

[elementoftheeye]

So many years ago... as I come down from my weekend high... I am bombarded with so many emotions... I do get a huge lift from these weekend conferences, but when they are over I feel loss, maybe more lost. I feel like I need to go out and shoot, create and loose myself in my art. I chat with other photographers that enter into the competitions and they say they just shot their image a few days before the deadline... while I struggle to find something maybe from 10 or 15 years ago... ever since I got to shoot in Texas with the art nude models that always felt like my calling. I did do it for years... but the outlay of money was crazy, crazy for little return. Maybe I changed, maybe the world changed... I'm not sure, it got to a point where I could not afford the model fees, the locations became harder to find... maybe these are straight-up excuses. I miss it, but I am truly afraid to try it again... and the result would be the same. I think for the time being, I might ask around and see if I might hang some prints around somewhere... Again... not adult content but kind of stuck with this general situation... I will comply.