M Chat Sighting
I was sauntering up 7th Ave in New York City yesterday working my way toward Penn Station after a business meeting in the Meatpacking district when I spotted the same graffiti cat I had fallen in love with in Paris. I hadn’t realized Monsieur Chat had made it to the US so this was a very happy surprise.
Paris
NYC
Mom, before you worry about me in places like the Meatpacking district - it is now full of high-end fashion houses (including one of my clients) and over a hundred people waiting in line to buy a new iPhone at the Apple store. The worst crowds I have ever experienced, thicker by far than anything I have ever seen at Walt Disney World, were at Penn Station at rush hour. I suspect the sold out Bon Jovi show at Madison Square Garden certainly helped the body count.
Smithsonian Folklife Festival
Originally uploaded by Karon
The Folklife Festival has outdone themselves with an amazing Bhutan Buddist temple in the middle of the mall. I spent a few hours on the mall and only made it through the Bhutan sections of the festival so I have NASA and Texas still to go. Yes, Bhutan, NASA and Texas is a strange combination, I have no idea how the Smithsonian comes up with these festival choices.
Edit to add: This image is part of the Smithsonian Photography Initiative slideshow of the “Best of the 2008 Festival”.
Money Has Changed Hands
I can now say I have officially sold my first photos as I have delivered said pieces to one of the buyers and received money. Whohoo! Three more deliveries to make. I sold six pieces and am doing a trade with another artist for one her prints for a total of seven Artomatic framed photos that I will not have to find a home for in my apartment.
My Artomatic Display
Originally uploaded by Karon
Turned out much busier than how I saw it in my head but thankfully the labels helped to anchor the photos.. I wanted a backdrop that would catch a visitor’s eye from across the room and I do think it works for that. I already have much better ideas for next year.
I made a sale opening weekend which absolutely thrilled me. Granted, it isn’t completely real until after the show when money and art change hands but the email asking to buy a photo made my day.
This Friday is Meet the Artists night so it is a great time to come see the show. http://artomatic.org/
Cathedral Illumination
Britt, Erica and I caught the first night of the National Cathedral “Lighting to Unite” illumination show tonight. It is absolutely gorgeous and runs from sunset to midnight tonight, Saturday and Sunday so there is time to see it. I suspect it is less crowded if you go after the families have left to put the kids to bed.
Jefferson Memorial
Originally uploaded by Karon
I am particularly pleased that I was able to get a wide-angle shot inside the Jefferson Memorial with no people in it. Another advantage to getting up at an ungodly hour.
Friday Morning
Originally uploaded by Karon
Dawn at the Tidal Basin
I was at the Tidal Basin before 7am today to photography the cherry blossoms. Sunrise is lovely but the effort it takes to get up that early just convinces me more than ever that I am not a morning person. It did turn out to be nice if rather overcast and I never needed the umbrella I had brought with me. The lighting really wasn’t very good for photos the first couple hours thanks to overcast skies except for about a wonderful 10 minute stretch where the sun came out from the clouds and hit the Jefferson memorial beautifully. I think the whole morning will be worth the photos I got then.
I was interviewed by the Weather Channel. Or Channel 7 doing interviews for the Weather Channel. Not sure which. But we had a nice chat about the trees and how it wasn’t quite yet peak thanks to the cooler weather the last few days and they they took some close up shots of me taking photos for the “B roll”. I assume I was coherent but it was still really, really early so I’m not entirely sure.
Another benefit of being there at such an ungodly hour was I had the Jefferson Memorial to myself for a few minutes. By the time I got around to the Roosevelt Memorial the tour buses of high school kids were out in force. But the sun came out then and for the last stretch of the circle around the basin I even had blue skies. I was stopped by two family groups and asked to take photos of them. That is about average.
The plan after the tidal basin was to have a big breakfast at Les Halles or that restaurant at the Willard. However it was after 11am so I went for the steak frites lunch special at Les Halles. The plan was also to go over to the garden behind the Smithsonian castle but I was absolutely beat. I couldn’t figure out why I was so tired when it was only 1pm until it hit me that I had already been downtown over six hours and covered almost five miles. Tomorrow is a busy day so I came home and had a nap on the couch. This made the cats very happy.
Now I am awake and starting to dig through all the photos I took.
Revisting the Past
Originally uploaded by Karon
I haven’t been posting many photos on Flickr recently because I haven’t been taking any. It has been cold and I am a wimp so I have hardly left the apartment the last couple weekends. As I haven’t had new photos to process I have been going through my old ones and checking for tags. I also decided to get some Moo cards printed up which is when I discovered the London photos I uploaded to Flickr are the low-res versions. I can’t find the high-res versions on either of my drives or my backups but I have the original files in several locations. I decided to take another look at my London trip so that I could switch out the low-res for high.
I wasn’t all that pleased with my London photos when I returned. The skies most of the time I was there were grey. Not a nice dark atmospheric grey but a blown-out, almost white, looks like nothing in a photo, grey. Bleh. But since that trip I have an upgraded computer and better knowledge of photo editing programs. I don’t like making huge changes - I wouldn’t switch out those grey skies for the brilliant blue of another photo’s - but I do like being able to tweak the contrast, saturation and the like. In revisiting my trip I found quite a few more shots that I like. Over the next few days I will be uploading them.