Polaroid Print...

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I put a new print up at day-lab.com this morning. You can find it in the photography section, just follow the link above. :)


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I posted it at the day-lab Etsy shop as well.


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..All photographs, unless otherwise noted:Copyright © Amy Shutt. Unauthorized use is prohibited.

Photo Book Pre-Orders...

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www.day-lab.com
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Home Craft, Book, WH Macy...

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I was reading this (Dominique Browning/Wall Street Journal) about Michael Smith "joining the Obamas in Washington to design the family quarters" this morning and realized this is the third reference to Victory Gardens I have come across in recent articles. There are a lot of articles about Victory Gardens in some of my old House and Garden type magazines from the WWII era, so I got out my box and started looking. But, I got sidetracked and found a few neat magazines I almost forgot I had...

These 1930s Home Craft DIY magazines are so much fun to look through. They have tutorials on everything...furniture, block printing, caning, book binding, metal and wood work etc. and I love the cover designs..






This is a particularly nice tutorial...



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This 1940 Popular Photography...

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And these 1920s/30s Nature Magazines.


This cover...

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Yesterday one of the 80 page hardback test books came in (the one with a dust jacket).
I forgot some things (like the spine etc)...and there are a few revisions that have to be made, but all in all I am happy with it...



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William H Macy is in love with the back yard all of the sudden. And out of the blue he decided to try and make me his new best friend. I walk outside, he comes running fast to be sure he is the first to greet me. He's really sweet and has to be someone's cat (or was, I noticed he was fixed), but the other cats are terrified of him. This is the cat I think beat Sufi up, but I am not sure. He is pretty intimidating as far as looks go (and monster huge).


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Seconds before she took the whole thing down...



And I really thought for once she was just going to smell the flowers...
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If Money were no Object...

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Finishing up my morning coffee and I am looking over my wishlist at B & H, which has become ridiculous. So, I threw a lot out and kept only a couple of handfuls. A few highlights...

For the Nikon:
For all that bird photography I wanna do...

Nikon Telephoto AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D ED-IF AF Lens $1090
(This is a great deal. The better Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G AF-S ED-IF VR-has Vibration Reduction and is faster-but it is almost $4,500. Even still, the f/4D gets great reviews.)
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Other fixed lenses for the Nikon:


Nikon AF-S Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G ED Macro $460
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Nikon Fisheye 10.5mm f/2.8G ED AF DX Fisheye-Nikkor AF $560
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Nikon Telephoto AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR $730
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And for Canon G9 b/c I love this little camera and have been teaching Lo to use it...


Canon LA-DC58H Lens Adapter for Canon G7 and G9 $20
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Canon TC-DC58C 58mm 2.0x Teleconverter Lens for Canon G7 and G9 $98
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Canon WC-DC58B, 58mm 0.75x Wide Angle Converter Lens for Canon G7 and G9 $150
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Other:


Canon XH-A1
This with a Letus35 Ultimate + Kessler Crane can do amazing things:
see Steven Dempsey's films HERE
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But I will settle for this..

Canon HF 10
Which like the G9 allows manual control in White Balance, Focus, Exposure, Aperture, Shutter Priority..and takes converter lenses, and lens adapters (like the Letus35)etc..
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Saturday Update..

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Yesterday I was just heading inside from the backyard, reached the porch then turned to say hi to Dorian and noticed movement coming towards me. Flying very low straight from the lake, then swooping under a tree branch that hangs right above my swing and higher again right back up over the feeder station and the roof, was a huge Bald Eagle clutching what looked like a fish in his talons. At first I thought it was a vulture, till I noticed the markings. I ran to the front door to see him fly overhead from the front yard. Opening the door I noticed a neighbor and two runners, all looking up and I think we all said at almost the same time, "Did you see that Eagle?". It was very peculiar...the whole incident. This is the second Bald Eagle I have seen in the past 4 weeks.

The day before yesterday I watched two Cooper's Hawks chase each other from tree to tree, then over the lake till they disappeared behind building tops.

Last week there was an influx of Terns and Gulls overhead.

The Kingfisher still makes his visit to the lake everyday at dusk and he rattles loudly while fishing till the sun goes down.

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The first of the three test books came in.

The colors are pretty close to exact and I am happy with that.
This is a softcover (and the cropping was too close on it), but I do have an edited softcover and a hard back on the way.










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I also got back some more test prints.
The hues are so close to what I see on my screen it's almost like I had it calibrated. Even in different sizes, the images were consistent.

I tried different lightness/darkness/saturation/hue levels (even some monochrome tints) etc and they all still came out almost exact, which is great.

Today in the yard there was a Crocus and a few Muscari blooming..

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Today we started packing up my things from the attic at my parents. They are moving in a couple of weeks. We found the Beta machine and a million Beta movies (good ones too), 120 Minutes (my old favorite MTV show) taped VHS tapes from the 1980s, more albums, my old Edie Brickell and Depeche Mode shirts from the 80s, all my yearbooks from grade 1 to 8, hundreds of cassette tapes (half being The Cure)..and the list goes on and on....

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Photography, Inventory, Updates...

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This week...

I pulled a muscle in my back again (third time in 3 months)! And I was just reaching for a box on a shelf. I've been slow and whiny for the past few days.

Started day-lab inventory and hope to have a new update by Monday.

Started getting notes and files and ideas together for the new photo site to send to Melissa by Sunday/Monday.

Fixed my broken dishwasher, disposal, and car (saving myself a million dollars).

Sent test book out for printing (and more files for test prints).

Started laying out new book ideas...one has to do with polaroids and one has to do with other people's old old photographs.

Bought 1 color pack and 1 b&w pack of peel apart film for my propack polaroid (and was sad to see they stopped making square format 88).

Booked a flight to Las Vegas to attend a photography convention/tradeshow in February with Miss Emily Porter.

The cover and a few image spreads from the test book..







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Next week: taxes.
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Paroquet + Test Prints

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Today I got back some test prints of some 35mm scans. I am fairly pleased with this round. Next, I need to send off files from the D300. I imagine the quality/clarity should only be better.


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The colors in this Carolina Paroquet are far more beautiful than I could have imagined (the background is gray-gray and not beige-gray, as I had thought). It just gets me motivated to get started on the neverending Living Room again. I really have been procrastinating for awhile now.


I posted it a few months ago(looking beige-gray) over HERE (see below):


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I have been pretty interested in black and white and/or monochromatic landscape photographs (and portraits a bit) lately...


Alvin Langdon Coburn
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Ansel Adams
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Edward Weston, 1929
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George Barker, 1880 albumen print
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Jed Devine, 1944 palladium print
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Yousuf Karsh 1956 photograph of Georgia O'Keeffe
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Tunica Hills Hike Photos...

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Some pictures from the Saturday hike with CC Lockwood and photo group.


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raccoon + turkey tracks:

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And Mr. CC Lockwood, a test shot after he fixed some settings on my camera for me:

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It was a really nice hike in such a beautiful place..just a really nice day.
I was sad to see it come to an end.

Now, I just want to sign up for all of the future workshops too.
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