Feeling that spring

I feel it coming around the corner and along with that warm weather I am starting t get that inpsiration to start shooting again. It has been a while since I actually felt inspired to take my camera out and go exploring for no reason. So look out I hopefully will have some new images to add soon!

Portfolio

Check out my new portfolio tab on the right!

Etsy

Got a new site set up and etsy to sell my frames and the scarfs my mom crochets. Check it out. teddysgirls.etsy.com

CJ’s Frames

After years of framing my own photographs and helping others frame their photographs and art, I became rather disappointed in the framing choices out there.  I once worked at an art gallery where the exhibiting artist hand-made the frames for his painting. Each one unique and made for the particular painting.  I fell in love with the frames…many of them spoke to me more than the “art work” themselves.  The time and creativity that can be put into a frame is often overlooked.  Many of the frames available at frame shops are plastic coated ply wood.  Molded to please the lowest common denominator of a customer.  Palatable.  And for many it is about the art and not the frames, which is a viable argument.   Of course I believe the work framed is the focal point but it must be framed in a way that uplifts the work and doesn’t water it down.

So in a fit of craftiness I started experimenting with hand finishing frames.  I found a real enjoyment in creating the frames.  They start out as naked wood and after layering paint and sanding and playing with many tools and paints a unique creation is formed.  No frame has been like the next and I like that.  I really have enjoyed this process and I want to develop more styles and frames.  So here are some examples.  I open to selling them and of course I will make something custom if anyone desires.  Feel free to ask me.  I would love any feed back on the frames!  I want to know what people like and don’t like.

A little paradise in winter

A few weeks ago my friend Ryan invited me to go the arboretum at “The Planting Fields”.  It is a location I had always wanted to explore but never took the time.  Since it was one of the few days this winter where the sun was peaking out I decided to tag along.  Here in this only little plot on long islands north shore was a collection of plant life from all over the globe. It was like a trip back to the Gatsby era of old detailed architecture in abundance.  No skimping on any mundane detail of the building.  Because it was still winter we spent most of the time in and out of the green houses.  My glasses and camera lense would fog off and on as we dipped in and out of the cold to the tropical heat.  The colors and shapes of nature astound us.  The smells of fragrant orchids and palms.   A little treasure and a little escape.  Here are a few of the treasures I snapped along our journey.

Photography and yoga??????

I recently have been taking a photography class that uses yoga and a way to open up your energy and creativity to a new awareness of the beauty around us all the time.  Everyone I have told doesn’t quiet understand the link between photography and yoga and to be honest I am still trying to figure it out as well.  What I do know is I am enjoying the yoga.  I am also enjoying being back in a class and having an assignment to photograph.  Picking up a camera is something I was avoiding for a while.  I just didn’t feel that pull or I didn’t want to confront those feelings.  But I found it exciting once I had experienced one session of yoga.  Our first assignment, which really has been on going, was to photography everyday inside out homes only.  We had to have one photograph every single day.  It was a challenge but it thrilled me.  What was I going to photograph in my home that I hadn’t grown board of looking at?  You would be surprised at how much you can find.  Well here are some of the images that I created.