Tuesday, February 12, 2013

A DIFFERENT KIND OF LOVE STORY

We love our friends. They listen. They are aware of our bumps and love us anyway. We share life experiences--times in our lives that only come back when we tell stories or look at photographs. Friends may work together, they have lunch and shop, they laugh or cry over a cup of tea or a glass of wine, they like to go on trips together. Friendships are precious and worth the time to nurture. 

And yes, I'm selling one of my friends.

She is beautiful, a great listener and she ALWAYS tells me when I make mistakes.  I still love her, but I've really moved on. We don't go out for walks anymore.   Now others remind me when I'm technically malfunctioning. I'm not young, but I'm trying to keep up, but my friend still clings to the old way of doing things. I thought I would too. I thought an artist "would only use film." Then one day several years ago I met a new techie friend. No more days in the dark room looking at negatives my friend and I produced together.  No more watching the "magic" of a photograph peering out of the chemicals. (I sort of miss those days.) Now lucky me--my darkroom is me hunched over a computer!

My friend needs those days. And I found someone who will care for her and use her. Good-bye to this lovely twin-lens reflex medium format beauty. Five lenses. Manual all the way. Thank you for making memories with me.

PHOTO NOTE: The following was an exercise in playing with Aperture Priority (I usually stay on Manual but I enjoyed this exercise.) I also played with depth of field by changing the aperture or f-stop. And as you can see, I had a little fun with textures on the first two. The last one is a black and white. Because my background and subject was black and white, it almost fools the eye except for that spot of color on the camera.





Friday, February 1, 2013

ANOTHER TIME, A DIFFERENT LIFE

Forty years ago you invited the boss over for dinner with his wife and all the other managers in your company and their wives. Women wore dresses, hose and heels.  The hair probably had hairspray in it.  It wasn't unusual to use the china, crystal and silver you received as wedding and anniversary presents.  And forget about putting that stuff in a dishwasher if you had one.

Who lives like that now? Royalty--or maybe Donald Trump.  Somebody with servants. Not me. I love mis-matched pottery and potlucks and I'm happy to add that only friends and family cross the threshold now.

We moved four years ago to be closer to family and got rid of A LOT of stuff. Clearly not enough. This week, the process of clearing out started again.


These lovely Gorham lead crystal glasses were gathering dust in a cabinet.


The crystal somehow goes with the lacy tablecloth that requires ironing.


I let the glasses go. They are included in an estate sale this weekend with other items that begged to be dusted but were not used. 



It's a little sad because these glasses speak of another time when dinner was an event.  (I keep thinking of Downton Abbey. Can you imagine getting dressed for dinner EVERY night? Where are the comfy yoga pants when you need them?)

Anyway---I said good-bye.  I feel a slight sense of loss and at the same time feel "lighter." Besides, it wasn't a total good-bye. This lonely glass was left behind because of a slight chip. So I enjoyed a glass of wine and toasted "another time, another life."

NOTE: I'm enjoying Kim's 52-week class Beyond Beyond. The assignment in week 1 was to take a series of photos of the same topic from a different perspective.  Life then and life now also is a different perspective. It all changes.