Arting again- Tacoma Art, Wedding and Family Photographer

This is a post for me, but I thought it might be a good one for this blog as opposed to the private one I keep for making notes on the MFA work I want to do.  It's not about photography, but it is.  I guess it's more about process?  I don't know.  Forgive the rambling, there's stuff to get out.  

For as long as I can remember I wanted to be an artist.  Except, I'm not BEING one.  I think about it a lot, I talk about it, I plan things.  But I haven't been MAKING things.  I've been drifting, trying to figure out who I am, what I want to make, what will get  me into a show, blah, blah, blah.  I've been paralyzed by fear of making something WRONG.  Of messing up.  Of... I don't even know what, but everything.  

I've been watching friends be successful and while I'm happy for them, I've become more and more miserable.  Why not me?  Well, dumbass, you haven't been making anything.  If you haven't made anything, you don't have anything to submit.  You can't keep submitting the same sad images, hoping someone will finally take it.  It doesn't work that way, and you know it.  

So this morning, I walked past some flowers my husband bought me a while back.  They were dying, but there's something about them I find beautiful.  Then I remembered I wanted to try lumen printing.  , I dug out some old paper I had laying around from my art school days, found a piece of cardboard and a large piece of plexiglass I didn't even remember having and hied off to my upstairs closet to mash the flowers onto some paper.  It's sitting outside right now, soaking up the sun.  We'll see how it looks when I put it in the fix.  

Making a simple print felt good.  For me, the thing about photography, and why I'm so interested in alt process is the MAKING.  My hands are on it.  My hands made it.  It's deliberate.  It's a THING.  

Before anyone gets on me for slamming digital, I'm not.  I like digital.  It has its place.  It's definitely the better system for a lot of situations.  But there's something about getting your hands on something and having ONE chance.  I can't shoot a bajillion frames and get one that comes out, nor can I composite these.  I've got ONE shot and if I don't like it or it blows away or gets rained on or a squirrel eats it, well, hell, I need to start over.  

But I have a whole box of old paper, a yard full of weird plants and a lot of time on my hands.  I think I can do this.  

Throwback Thursday- Tacoma Vintage Wedding and Family Photographer

I'm trying something a little different with this blog.  Yes, it's still about photography, so you'll see a lot of that.  But I'm also going to try incorporating different elements.  You'll see the pattern develop as time goes on.  :)

You've all seen the Throwback Thursday posts on Facebook and Instagram, right?  Now you're seeing it here, too.  I'm going to use it to highlight past work, things people may not have seen before.

This week, we're digging waaaaaaaaay, way back, to when I first started with photography.  If you've read the bio on my website or on my Facebook, then you know I've been shooting for 23 years.  I started when I was 13, and I dropped my dad's rather expensive camera in a stream while he was salmon fishing.  What?  I was bored and cold.  That makes for accidents.

ANYWAY.  He made me learn how to use the camera properly after that (first lesson- HOLD ONTO THE CAMERA).  We lived near the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, NY, the place of many a wedding and family session, I'm sure.  They have absolutely gorgeous gardens there.  So I did what most people do when they first pick up a camera- I took pictures of flowers.  One of them even won second place in the teen category that year in the annual contest Vanderbilt Mansion ran.

Sadly, those images seem to have been lost to the ages.  So you don't get to see them.  But they were spectacular.

(I can totally claim that, because there's no evidence to the contrary.)

Instead, you get my first attempts at black and white, from my HS photography class.  I was.... 15?  16?  It was junior year, so 16.

Welcome to Dorothy, circa 1994.  Gotta love it when you set a 16yo loose at the local ren faire.

And my first foray into color printing.  This was when you developed your paper in a tube you had to keep rolling on the table while your chemicals (all 3225235 of them) were kept warm in a crockpot next to you.  Touchy, touchy stuff.  

(Yes, that is, in fact, me at 16.  Short, fake red hair.  I had just gotten my braces off.  Oh, such a fashion nightmare...... )

Why am I posting these?  A lot of photographers would NOT want anyone to see this kind of work.  Well, I'm a firm believer in knowing where you came from.  Past work, no matter how old is part of that.  Yes, even when it's hideously printed, badly exposed tarot booths from the local Ren faire.  Because you know what?  I'll never be that terrible again.  Nope.