Giving the Inner Artist an Outlet and a Voice

Can Facebook actually be inspiring? My college photography professor commemorated my 49th birthday by posting this image that I took in 1989 when I was 20. How amazing that this professor kept one of my images and posted it for me to enjoy. It reminds me that I had a vision of becoming a photographer, with a unique perspective and dual point of view - color and black/white.

Year 49 for Amy is the year of reconnecting with my inner artist, giving her an outlet and a voice.

Berkeley Marina Graffiti

Went on a photo safari with my friend Rachel today at the Berkeley Marina. My
intention was go shoot black and white - came up with this image.

Suburban Shots

View images I took this morning of Suburban Oakland, along the Piedmont side of Piedmont Avenue. Again, shooting from the hip, allowing my eye and hand to be attracted to the light. Loosening up.

Urban Landscape 5-3-10 Kaiser's Oakland

Inspired by the documentary film Beautiful Losers, I went for a walk around my block this morning and started taking photos again. To un-block myself and stop over-thinking, I shot-from-the-hip. I first started doing this in high school and took some of my most interesting shots this way. What it means is holding the camera away from your face, just by your side and shooting without looking into the view finder. It really loosened me up. The few shots that were more "composed" were less interesting than the ones that I took with the camera acting as an extension of my "attention".

Checkout the images on www.amykweskin.com. Here's the link to today's shoot.

Amy Kweskin Photography

Amy Kweskin Photography is back! Although this website looks more like a blog than a portfolio, it makes me happy to see all the colors. 2010 is the year of Creativity!

Flash Back to College

Find Amy in this photo.... from the archives of Kate Butler. This must have been 1990/91? The Photography majors - how many of us are still in photography? At least Clay Enos who is doing some scary stuff to his face, as are Kate and I.

Photo of the Day

Dee-Dee and Sharon told me about their friend Elizabeth Fraser who almost every day creates and posts a painting on her website champart. Her work is absolutely beautiful. I like the idea and am going to work up to posting a photo on my blog as often as possible.

Elizabeth's images are for sale. I'll have to figure out if I can do the same. Sharon encouraged me to pursue professional photography and I respect her opinion as she and I majored in photography together at Ithaca College. It would be a dream come true to be able to be a photographer, consultant and coach - who runs a retreat center on a farm...

Holiday Get-Away

This week I spent hours on the internet looking for an inspirational holiday get-away. My ideas ran far and wide. Kayaking in Canada, a cruise, volunteering in South America? I kept visualizing a pina colada in my hand, white sand beaches, blue water, palm trees, snorkeling and kayaking. Finally I found something that fit the bill - an all-inclusive holiday resort in Jamaica. So, I depart on Tuesday and return on Friday.

Looking forward to my favorite things - adventuring, photography and writing.

Inspired to Photograph

I've been inspired to take out my "real" camera and get back into photography. Most of the photos on the blog are with my mobile phone. These are with my "35mm" SLR digital camera. Just starting to exercise my photo muscles again. Here are some shots from today.

Photo 1
British Library with St Pancras station in the background. Eurostar will start departing from this station on 14 November.

Photo 2:

Baker Street tube station.

Finally, Etchings Exposed!

Too many etching chemicals results in funky self-portraits. Here I am preparing to enter the aqua tint room.

Tonight was my final etching class at the London Print Studio. I loved the entire five week series and will miss my Wednesday destination. Here are some shots of the studio, our inky table, and the press being turned.

I'm very please with my final work which derived from photo I took in March at Harpers Ferry in Virginia. Here is the original photo and then a black version, reverse image and finally, two colors.

Making an Impression

I've just completed my fourth week of etching at the London Print Studio and it has been a tremendous experience. It is so nice to have a non-work hobby, a place to get dirty with no consequences. These are my images from the first four classes - this last week's work is still drying.

Doing the Snow Dance

Snow snow snow
Yippee hi ho
Tomorrow it will glow
Snow snow snow

Oh yes, it is supposed to snow ten inches tonight and I am so excited. All day I’ve been excited ever since hearing the weather report this morning. Poor Stephen was trying to sleep but I kept doing the snow snow snow dance.

All the sidewalks are prepped with sand and salt. Now they’re doing the streets. This is one pro-active city. Not even a flake has fallen. They know it is going to be chaos tomorrow when it snow snow snows. The Tube can barely handle rain.

This morning on my walk to the Tube I encountered a photographer with two giant digital Nikon cameras slung around his neck. We smiled at each other, which is very rare in this city, and then he held up an ice scraper. Secret message?

Paparazzi: Can I take your photo scraping the ice off that car?

Amy: Why? How are you going to use it?

Paparazzi: Its for the newspaper. I need photos showing that its cold.

Amy: (bundled in warm outfit) Okay. Do you have permission to scrape the ice off that car?

Paparazzi: Oh yeah sure, I’ve been having people scrape the ice off these cars all morning.

Amy: OK.

Paparazzi: Look at me and smile at the camera while you scrape.
(takes multiple flash photos in five seconds with both cameras)

Paparazzi: Great, thanks, don’t be surprised if you see this in a national newspaper that identifies you with a made-up name.

Amy: Cheers. (is this journalism) I don’t even have a license much less a car.

Paparazzi: Grazzi as they say in Italy.

Well, I think he said the Express newspaper. I bought it after work, stood at the newsstand and flicked through every bloody page but no photos of me. Almost famous.

Tomorrow they’ll get great shots of me doing the snow snow snow dance!