I hope it's safe and enjoyable!
Autumn has finally arrived in Clarksville. The leaf colors are blazing, and today we have proper Hallowe'en weather with a forecast containing crazy wind and rain and thunderstorms. There are wet leaves everywhere. I'll probably hunker down and make some cupcakes.
Enjoy my little scarecrow. Last Saturday was Clarksville's "Fright on Franklin" event for children of all ages. I spent a good two hours photographing costumes, kids, decorations. It was windy and cold but great fun. This little guy was dancing to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" for a while and it was too cute.
I've made a surprising realization - I really like photographing children. Who'd have guessed? I don't mean in a formal portrait way, of course. It doesn't seem to be in my cards to have a passion for anything remotely commercially viable. I mean that I love making candid portraits of children, when they hardly know I'm there. I love the range of expressions they display before they learn how to control the face they show to the world. They are so present and fresh.
Labels: autumn, costumes, Hallowe'en, halloween, photographs, photography
¶ 1:07 PM 0 Comments
Nashville has a full-scale replica of the Parthenon in one of its parks. No, I don't know why. I drove past it just about every day on the way to work, but never stopped to visit until my friend Lex was visiting this past week. We were walking around the side when this vista was in front of me. A photograph. There's also a nice duck pond in the park, but I haven't processed those photographs yet. I'm finding myself quite in need of some rest and quiet this weekend.
Labels: a day in the life, friends, Nashville, Parthenon, photographs, photography
¶ 11:07 AM 0 Comments
The above photograph constitutes proof of my first solo photographic show! I was asked (with a week to get it ready) to be the Featured Artist for the month of September at Canyon Road Steakhouse, our new favorite restaurant in Clarksville, TN. With the help of our houseguest and a mad week of ordering prints and finding matting and frames, the show is now up. There are at least 20 photographs of mine hanging in that long hallway at the restaurant. Yee-haw! Not bad for the first couple of weeks of voluntary unemployment.
Labels: Canyon Road Steakhouse, Clarksville, exhibits, first show, life, photographs, photography, TN
¶ 11:02 AM 0 Comments
I’m living in a new town, without work yet (I had thought I’d be at least teaching water aerobics by now, but that hasn’t worked out), and our house hasn’t sold so we still have two sets of utility bills. I like to hold up my end of things. At the moment, all I’ve got is a masters degree, the fruit of my creative pursuits, and a backlog of photographic prints.
So, if you like my photographs and have a little discretionary income earmarked for arts or entertainment, do consider a purchase.
I have the following items to sell.
4 x 6 Photo greeting cards, blank inside; for those of you who like to send cards, or as a gift for a friend of yours who does: I’m offering a set of 5 photocards for $10 each, plus $2.50 shipping. Shipping stays the same even if you buy multiple sets. What a deal!
Here is a link to single sets of 5 cards: Single sets of five, which includes this photo: 
Here is a link to sets of 5 of which I have two to sell: Two sets of five, including this photo: 
I have three sets of 5 of 
If you’d like to mix-and-match and create your own set of 4 or 5, I have some single prints which you can choose from here: Mix and Match!
I have the following sets of 4 photocards for $8 each, plus $2.50 shipping: Sets of 4!
I have 5 x 7 prints for sale also, $5 per print plus $1.50 shipping. Shipping stays the same even if you order multiple prints!
Single prints here: Single 5x7 prints
I have two of each of these:Two 5 x 7 prints
The items listed here are what I have in stock, but if there's something else you'd like, a print of something not listed here, I will be happy to make one for you, just let me know what you have in mind. I will also take commissions for $25. If you have a theme, or a subject, or an idea in mind that you would like me to interpret, I will happily do so in the form of a photoessay. You’ll receive 5 x 7 prints (and a special bonus!)
You can pay via paypal, hnjames@gmail.com (please mark as “personal” to avoid fees), or send a check or cash (email hnjames@gmail.com for address!). Please leave me a comment with your order so that I can get it moving as soon as possible, and as ever, feel free to email me if you have ideas for a commission or some photographic work I can do for you.
Thanks so much in advance for your help! I appreciate anything you can do, even if that's just pointing this to someone else who might like some prints.
Labels: color, photo cards, photographs, photography
¶ 9:30 AM 2 Comments
This is from September, that's how behind I am on making and processing photographs. Le sigh. To post more, I have to make more. I'm slowly rehabilitating this practice.
Labels: abstract, autumn, details, light, NanoTime Photography, nature, photographs, photography, reflections, water
¶ 5:51 AM 0 Comments
... I was a bee so busy I missed the light completely. So I rested in yesterday's light, instead.
Labels: light, photography, silhouette, trees, winter
¶ 5:16 PM 1 Comments
We're back home as of today; now begins the re-integration into life. It was an excellent vacation in so many ways, and I'll have many things to blog about. For now, here's a photo of the place I left Saturday morning, and where I'd love to still be: Silver Bay, NY on Lake George in the Adirondacks.
Labels: a day in the life, Adirondacks, Lake George, lakes, nature, photography, Silver Bay, vacation
¶ 5:47 PM 0 Comments
After writing yesterday about Nick tearing up the carpet, I got into the act to help the process move faster. We split up the tasks, so that he was on "slicing and dicing" duty to tear the carpet into rollable strips for easier transport, and I was on staple/nail duty - given the happy task of pulling staples up from the floor with a pliers, and using a hammer & screwdriver combination to pry up the wooden trim nailed into the floorboards along the walls.
THIS WAS AWESOME. Nick said it was boring, but I had a great time. I love physical labor - it frees my mind to wander around and play with ideas. Also, I love creative destruction. I love tearing things up. I love making a huge mess and getting filthy. Or, as Austin Kleon might say , "Creativity is subtraction". I highly recommend a little creative destruction for getting the juices flowing.
While we were also moving furniture around to pull up the carpet, we decided to also rid ourselves of some of the heavy, unwieldy furniture. So the bulky gigantic chest of drawers/mirror that a former symphony co-worker gave me for free? Down to the curb. We earned pizza and beer moving that thing. Heavy ornamental screen? Gone. I see that someone picked it up from our curb already this morning. And much joy may they have of these items (or, money).
Once you start, though, downsizing gets to be addictive. "Let's throw everything away!" Well, probably not everything, but we're now committed to a campaign of cleaning out the closets and the attic, and taking stock of which furniture items are going to be discarded/put into a yard sale when we (hopefully) move next year.
Now, of course, my office is a tremendous mess, since it received the overflow from the bedroom. I'm kind of revved up to throw more stuff away and organize today.
A note on the carpet - we found a date sticker on the last strip of it. Feb 14 2007. We bought the house in May of 2007. So the previous owners painted the bedroom and slapped the carpet down over the damaged hardwood. Cheeky.
Labels: austin kleon, creativity, destruction, home repairs, photography, removing the unnecessary, ript it up and start again
¶ 4:47 AM 0 Comments
A cool, grey, and rainy day at Chez Nick & Heather WV. So I thought the photo above was appropriate. That's the shut-down post office at Thurmond, WV. If you're waiting for the mail, you'll be waiting a long time. I have that same kind of feeling of waiting for something today.
Dr. Nick is pulling up the nasty carpet in the bedroom, revealing the hard wood below. It needs some sanding and refinishing, to be sure, but it's still perfectly lovely hardwood. We are starting to think that the closets are not original; and then when someone did a shoddy job with the closets they also put down the horrible carpet, which somewhat covered that up. Anyway, Nick's doing the hard work - pulling up the staples and tacks & so forth that held the mat down - and I'm helping by moving things around and sweeping and rolling the carpet back a little at a time. Oh, we are making a grand chaos in the bedroom.
We've had a quiet weekend. I went downtown yesterday morning to the Library Book Sale (I only spent $5!) and the Capitol St. Art Fair. I ran into some artists I know, and had a few pleasant conversations.
I've still got hundreds of photos that are unprocessed, all the way back to May. I'm not sure why I'm dragging my heels, probably because I'm feeling a bit insecure. Surprise.
My novel-in-progress is going rather slowly, too. I have about 5,000 words on paper, but many more thoughts in my head. I am not out of the game yet, and this is no NanoWriMo. I consider any progress by the end of August to be success.
Still there are things to look forward to: we're going to Ann Arbor next weekend - and friends are visiting - and the upstate New York trek happens at the end of July/early August too. I'm not really in hiking shape, but there's still time to improve that.
For my friends who like 80's music, which is most of you, you might enjoy this John Maus album that you can stream at NPR First listen. It's called 'We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves'. Love it!
Labels: books, Charleston, dr. nick, NanoTime Photography, photography, Thurmond, travelling, writing, WV
¶ 2:01 PM 0 Comments
