Lynda's Blog

Happy Easter!! And since it's Easter, I started wondering where Easter Eggs come from. I mean, where did hooking up eggs with the Christian celebration of Easter originate? According to About.com the ancient Egyptians, Persians, Phoenicians, and Hindus all believed the world began with an enormous egg, thus the egg as a symbol of new life has been around for eons. The particulars may vary, but most cultures around the world use the e colored as a symbol of new life and rebirth. A notation in the household accounts of Edward I of England showed an expenditure of eighteen pence for 450 eggs to be gold-leafed and colored for Easter gifts. The first book to mention Easter eggs by name was written five hundred years ago. Yet, a North African tribe that had become Christian much earlier in time had a custom of coloring eggs at Easter ... so it's all about Spring and birth and for Christians, resurrection ... which makes this photo I took recently of some "magic eggs" in a bowl of water a perfect photo for Easter. Happy Easter!

I have a student in my class who has been insisting that this book, Markings by Dag Hammarskjold, is a Hindu Holy book. Despite all my efforts to convince this student otherwise, she remains insistent. Strangely, just today I ran across a copy of the book in a box in my attic where I store old books I bought at the flea market. The hardback copy is one of the original first edition USA printings. The book is a dairy of sorts kept by Dag Hammarskjold, the son of a Swedish Prime Minister during World War 1. After Dag was killed in an airplane crash in 1961, the diary was discovered and published, even though he had written in it that the writings were private and concerning "my negotiations with myself---and with God." The book is composed of short sayings such as "Dare he, for whom circumstances make it possible to realize his true destiny, refuse it simply because he is not prepared to give up everything else?"

At any rate in this particular copy what grabbed my attention wasn't the book, the author, or the sayings, but a hand written note in the front from whomever once owned the book. With delicate penmanship the person described how much the book meant to her (I'm assuming it's a woman's handwriting), how it was a gift from someone very precious in her life, and how she would cherish it and keep it with her always.

Yet, here it is in a box in my attic.
 

This photo looks as if I've traveled to some exotic, far away land inhabited by beautiful people :-) ... but I took it here in North Carolina. The model I had scheduled for a studio appointment was over an hour late, so I popped in the art studio next door to see if I could find a replacement. That's when I saw M. dressed just as she is in the photo below, even with the scarf around her head. She was working on a painting (she's an artist), and I knew she would make a perfect model. When I asked if she would be willing to pop into the photography studio to model for a few minutes, luckily she said, "Yes!" ... this shot was taken one continuous light (a softbox) positioned just slightly above her head and tilted downward. I could not have found a better model for this lighting set up. Indeed a happy accident! I took only a handful of shots of M. before my scheduled model arrived and M. returned to the art studio.

 






























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Released today were the winners of the White House News Photographers Association Awards, and among them are some truly stunning portraits. Check out my two favs # 8 titled "Out of Gas" and # 9 "MLK Legacy" ... some all around fantastic photos too. # 12 is especially creative use of reflections on window glass. Yes, you have to watch a 30 second commercial before they let you see the gallery :-( ... but the photos are great and they also gave video awards (at the end they have stills from the videos, but you can click to watch the videos). Here's the link: 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/conversations/white-house-news-photographers-association-awards/2012/02/27/gIQAogEtiR_gallery.html

S is a friend of mine and a published poet who is always fun to photograph! On the background she's painting a poem on which she's currently working. In fact, she not only writes poetry and paints, but knits gorgeous scarfs and hats, and she has quite the green thumb too. In addition to her poetry, I took some photos of her with her plants and her yarn ... some really fun photos which I'll post on the blog later ... so stay tuned ...

Inspired by Yousuf Karsh's famous photo of Helen Keller's hands, I asked my model, Alexis, to hold an egg while I played around with the lighting in the studio. In the end, I settled for one single spot light positioned high above and behind Alexis's hands, which nicely lit her fingers as well as the egg (a crystal egg I bought at an Art Museum) and slipped between her wrists creating a little sliver of light. "Cradle" (the photo's title) is one in a series of my "hand" photos that have been chosen for a gallery show in March at Methodist University. If you live near Fayetteville, North Carolina, please come to see the show, which features photography, sculpture, drawing, painting, graphic design, and even 3D art!

It's almost showtime! :-)

I grew up eating in little local diners. My parents loved them. Often they knew the owner or their friends ate there, or both. Even when we went on vacation or out-of-town, my parents still stopped at the little local diners because the food and the atmosphere was simply better and much more homey than the chain or upscale restaurants. One of their favorites, and one of my favorites too, was a little diner in an old railroad car in Maryland. The waitresses wore bright yellow aprons and called everyone "honey." Each table had its own jukebox. So when I saw this story in the New York Times last week about the Miss Albany Diner, I couldn't help but feel sad. In almost every town across the USA, local and locally owned diners and restaurants are slowly being replaced by the chain restaurants. Something very precious of Americana (American culture) is being lost. Lost too are the unique people and atmospheres found in these diners. Indeed, tragic.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/nyregion/miss-albany-diner-a-landmark-is-closing.html?hp

Excited! That's what I felt this week when I heard two of my photos won Duke Divinity School's "Illuminating Messiaen" Photography competition! There were winners in seven categories, and my photos won in two of the categories. The competition was challenging, fun, and really very cool! Here's one of my winning photos (see all of the winners by clicking on the link below the photo):



























Check out all the winners at: http://www.divinity.duke.edu/news-media/news/20120208messiaen