pour le moment

au revoir Ottawa and all my fab SPAO people. I had a fantastic workshop, lots of great creative folks and now I am off to the west coast to get mucky. Merci ms. Aviva Cohen for snapping a photo of me as I prepared for my departure.

Aching for the Ether

Image by Ed Ross

































Image by Kristen Hatgi

It has been 4 months since I made my first wet plate image, and it feels like an eternity. I had to return to the west coast from Ottawa to take care of my home and ended up in renovations. So on the eve of my return to Ottawa to teach another Modern Tintype workshop at the School of Photographic Arts Ottawa. I am truly ACHING to get out my wet plate gear.

I have found some lovely wet plate folks out there scattered across the world like Ed Ross from San Francisco and Kirsten Hatgi from Denver.

So upon my return I will endure the cold rainy days and attempt to shoot in the rain with my new (old) brass lens.

Goodbye Ottawa- you were good to us!!!!

Favorite Ottawa Places
the Shanghai
RawSugar
Bridgehead at Elgin & Maclaren
Adorit - the best of vintage and fairly traded goods at awesomely fair prices
Galerie La Petite Mort Gallery
School of Photographic Arts Ottawa
Cube Gallery
the Carleton Tavern

The hunt for the holy grail

Who loves you?? Thats right...




















yes, it was arduous, it was hot, very hot, we could not find bubble tea, but we hunted with earnest - for an insert for my daughter's 45rpm record We were told it was an impossible task, it could not be done...we met with much head shaking. But we persevered and yes, we found one. I can't tell you where. But for all of you who are also hunting for the illusive 45 inserts, think, independent, that is where you will find one.

Extreme Analog on Elgin St

I'm meltiiiiinnnngg......no, I am not made of sugar, but, oh my! heat and humidity are not friends of liquid emulsion. We had a full day of shooting and as the day heated up so did my metal plates which resulted in images dripping right off the plates! Luckily the morning was cool enough that I was able to get some interesting shots of Dave the butcher on the street at our local Bridgehead. I suppose it is a curious site to see me load up my speed graphic and put that dark cloth over my head. Extreme Analog

Dances with rats

My sister was recently traveling in Europe and knowing how much I love taxidermy snapped me some shots of stuffed critters. Since I now have a rat residing with us and sharing food and leather accessories she sent me this image. Why don't we have this kind of shop in Canada? Waltzing rats, most awesome.

Church of Tintype

I just spent 5 glorious days in upstate NY with tintype master, John Coffer. I am now an initiate of the Church of Tintype where collodion is holy, and chickens run free. We managed to sneak in some time to get to a garage sale where we picked up some dresses and bonnets worn by the Mennonite women. In the Mennonite community, once you are of age to enter the church, you cannot pose for photos, nor take photos. The image is me in my newly acquired dress and bonnet using a reproduction wetplate camera to set up a shot with John's assistant Nick. The countryside was breathtaking. I fall asleep with collodion visions.

Summer in the city

Summer is here... the smell of rain on the pavement, the sticky hot air, the sound of red winged blackbirds, ahhhh summer in the city.

A fair is a veritable smorgasbord...orgasbord...orgasbord

I love the smell of the fair, sugared donuts, fried everythings, spun sugar and sweet dayglo fruity shaved ice. I was surprised to find a very old fashioned fair right here in Ottawa as part of the world famous Tulip Fest. Down near Dows Lake on a lovely patch of grass was a small fair just right for folks with small children. We sat on the grass and listened to the live band and ate poutine and of course, I took photos. I pulled out my DIY kit and made myself another TTV contraption. TTV stands for "through the viewfinder". I use my digital SLR to photograph through the viewfinder of an old brownie camera to get a fabulously distorted refracted image that gives a lovely nostalgic feeling image.

If I could bend time

I would go back to when my nana was still alive and sit with her and look at old photos. If I could bend time I would go back to when my daughter was little and spend more time pushing her on the swings, and laying in the grass and making up stories.

The photobooth Tour finally arrives

Ok, so we did take a detour from our original plan to stay in Canada the WHOLE way. We decided it would be fabulous to go through a Chicago snow storm, and ice storm in Michigan, and crazy traffic jams and endless toll booths, all so we wouldn't hit a moose on the road driving through the Great Northern Shield. We loved Minneapolis and Chicago and wished we could have stayed longer but there was a turkey dinner calling us in Toronto. We did manage to get some photobooth action, which most often accompanied coffee in a mall, the ONLY time I have ever been happy to go into a mall. First one thanks to Rita for the tip was Chinook Mall in Calgary, Alberta

Bears ate our garbage

X-processed Homage to the Sunshine Coast