Madame Marie

Madam Marie's - Asbury Park, December 2013

"Did you hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do.

For me this boardwalk life is through babe. 

You ought to quit this scene too." 

- Bruce Springsteen

Collection of unknowns

I have a huge collection of old photos from my great-aunt and great-grandfather that I periodically dip into. Recently, I've been trying to scan them with the idea that I would put the scanned photographs into deep storage or use them in art projects. There are many photos of people that appear to have no connection to my family at all. There is usually no identifying information on the back. Not even a date. Even if the people in these photos did, at one point, have a connection to my family, there is really no one left to identify the people who could be former acquaintances, lovers, co-workers, etc. The pictures I am talking about are those that have none of my relatives (that I can identify) in them. The unknowns who were photographed with an obvious relative could possibly be identified by my father (that's another aspect of the project - getting people identified and stories told). What to do with all the photos of unknowns? I could at least post some of them here.

Who are these unknowns? Are they actors? Dinner theater performers? Circus performers? Costume party guests? Who knows, but it looks as though they were having fun.

Sunrise at Red & Blue Hotel

I've been awake since 3:30 so I finally got up and took some early morning pictures out the window. Here's one with the sun starting to rise.

The rains have returned

Last week we had a bit of a respite from the rain and chilly weather. Oh well, it's April so there's nothing surprising about cold, windy and rainy weather. For all the lousy weather we live with on a regular basis, Northwesterners never tire of complaining about it. We ought to find something else to kvetch about. Fortunately, the days are growing longer so that seems to make up for the periods of dreariness that come and go. Plus, the rain makes for pretty photos...

Photograph worked in Painter 12

I recently upgraded my Painter software to version 12 so I decided to play around with some photos in the program today. Here is a Lubitel shot I took in Paris this past summer:

 I opened this image in Painter and then applied a woodblock effect to it. After that, I painted it with the different watercolor brushes available. This is the result:

I'm not very adept with the software so the end version isn't exactly what I was expecting. However, it was fun to mess around with the different brushes and watch the "drying" of the paint. Something different.

Blue trees

The area of eastern Washington near Wenatchee, is fruit tree heaven. Apples, apricots, peaches, cherries, pears. In the winter, the trees get a little break. Don't know why some of the trees are painted blue on the trunks, but it's a lovely shade.

Blue trees

Leslie and Son

I've been pretty thin on my posts of late. I've got a little break so you'd think I'd be on top of it, but I'm preoccupied with working on photos. Haven't shot anything for a while so I'm feeling a little antsy. Hopefully, that will change over the next week.

Thought I'd post this picture since it cracks me up (I'm a little dorky). If I had a son and had a farm or a business, I'd definitely have a sign like this one. I love how bright the yellow is. If the farmer had been around, I would have bugged him to let me take his picture. I'm sure he would have been delighted.

Some macros for a rainy day

Spent perhaps too much time indoors today. In addition to some darkroom time, I took some macro shots with the Canon G9 of stuff I had lying around. It might tell you something about my housecleaning habits when you see that I photographed a dead moth, a dead spider and a dying sunflower. They may be dead (or close to it) but they're still photo-worthy.

Some teens - digital & film

Here are some photos I took of my neighbor's kids. All but one were shot with the Mamiya C220. I under-exposed them awfully, but was able to get decent prints from them (though I wouldn't want to blow them up).

Katie

Katie 2

Sam & Ben

Sam

The last shot is the digital image. A very recognizable look to anyone who works with teenagers.

A photo

Southern Moravia Gallery

I've posted my gallery for Southern Moravia at my website. I will also change the rotating gallery link on the right side of the blog to be my France 2011 gallery (in case you were getting tired of Iceland). Enjoy!

Perseverance pays off

After much tweaking and a number of email conversations with support people, I have managed to connect my domain name with my photo gallery at Smugmug. Joy joy! To access all my galleries from my main page, go to www.leslielevenson.com. I love it when things work the way they're supposed to work. Now to go out an play/work in the sun.