The Rooflines of Cherokee Street 6

Untitled, a photo by Hilary (curioush) on Flickr.

The Rooflines of Cherokee Street 3

Untitled, a photo by Hilary (curioush) on Flickr.

The Rooflines of Cherokee Street 1

Untitled, a photo by Hilary (curioush) on Flickr.

Autumn-y

It was pretty dry here this summer and I think that might have something to do with why I haven't seen very spectacular colors this fall. 

But these trees in my neighborhood never disappoint; they're always happy to put on a show. 

Pinholio show at Good Citizen Gallery

Hi!

I've been sort of laying low on the photo front for a while, but I saw a call for entries to a pinhole photo show, and I've really been wanting to make some pinhole photos, so I took some at the Missouri State Fair and submitted them to Good Citizen Gallery in south St. Louis, where Pinholio will be held. 

And yay!  They accepted two of my photos—the one above, and another.  You'll just have to come to the show if you want to see it. 

The opening is Friday, November 18, 2011, starting at 6:00 p.m.  Come!

Good Citizen Gallery
2247 Gravois Ave. (just a smidge northeast of Jefferson)
St. Louis MO,
63104-2852

Photo refresh at Firecracker Press

 (inside the Firecracker Press. Isn't it beautiful?  Smells great too -- I love the scent of print-making.  Go have a look.  And a sniff.)

The Firecracker Press on Cherokee Street has been kind enough to carry some of my photos for sale for the past few years.  On Saturday I stopped by to swap out the photos that I had there with all Cherokee Street-related photos.  Many from the late, beloved, be-missed Globe Drugs.

The photos below are among those I've got at Firecracker now.  If you are in the neighborhood, pop in and take a peek!

 



Other places where you can find my photos for sale.

radishes!

Originally uploaded by Hilary (curioush)

A few weeks ago, in my kitchen.

I've been taking more photos lately, after a several-month period of not taking many. Got quite a backlog to go through now.

in with the new

I'm not really out-with-the-olding much. But I am determined to produce some new work right now -- or at least post more stuff that has only been seen by me up to this point.

Have made a pledge to myself to post something new on Etsy every day this week. Here's the first -- I make most of my own prints because I want to know that the prints will be as I intended the photo to look. But on occasion I try something new, and I had a slew of photos professionally printed recently on metallic paper. The effect is odd and interesting and I really like it.

I don't think it will work with just any image, but I've been really pleased with how the ones I've chosen have turned out. Including this one. Find it on Etsy here.

Win one of my photos on Indie Fixx

Hey there --

It's Jen's birthday over at Indie Fixx, and she's giving readers a chance to get a gift.

I'm offering up a photo (winner's choice!) as part of the giveaway.

Visit her blog here to find out how to win this or one of nine other gifts.

Hurry, the contest ends Monday, June 22!

FINAL DAY of sale, off to Cherokee

Just about my favorite place in St. Louis right now is Cherokee Street. Besides City Museum. And all my other favorite places. But really, I love it. A lot of cool stuff going on and it just keeps getting better. In fact, did you know I have another blog? Well, I do. Trying to keep track of all the art-related goings-on on Cherokee. Because there are a lot. Galleries, art supplies, music, dancing, theater, etc. Here's that blog, should you ever want to take a peek.

I need to take some more film for my developing class Tuesday, so I'm packing up the cameras to go take some on Cherokee right now. Sometimes I feel awkward taking photos when there are a lot of people around. Despite ... well, everything about me, I don't always love attention. So my hope is early-ish (for me, anyway!) on a Sunday morning it will be pretty empty over there. We'll see.

The photo above was taken from the upstairs of Foam. Don't they have a great view? I can't wait until that place opens. I think I read a rumor there may be something brewing (I swear this was an unintentional pun) sometime this summer. The photo was shot on Ilford Delta film on my Canon AE-1.

For anyone who was considering ordering a photo or postcards during my 30% OFF sale -- it ends as soon as I wake up on Monday morning, so place your orders now! Take advantage of the sale!

30/30

I've just listed some new photos in my Etsy shop, including the one above.

And, and, AND! My birthday is on the 30th of this merry month of May, so I will be offering 30% off everything in the shop through the end of the month. Stop by and see what's in stock, or don't hesitate to ask me about custom orders.

Darkroom class: a whole brand new one

Okay, I believe I'm starting film developing class next week, for real this time. Yay!

Got to talk to the instructor on the phone last night and she said I could bring 120 film in addition to 35mm, which is great because I love to take photos with my medium format "toy" cameras (Holga and Diana) and I've not been delighted with any of the prints I've gotten so far from when I've sent that film out to be developed and so now I can try my hand and it and see if I can get something a little more like what I had in mind.

The above was shot with the Diana at Bellefontaine Cemetery in North St. Louis, at the grave of General William Clark (as in Lewis &...), double-exposed with Louis Sullivan's masterpiece Wainwright tomb.

(blog post title sort of swiped from Michael Bernard Loggins. Have you ever encountered his work? Get your butt over to the This American Life web site and listen to a reading of an excerpt from his Fears of Your Life. It is beautiful.)

STL handmade feature

Oooh oooh oooh!

I am behind on a couple of things here, but before I catch up on those.... St. Louis Handmade, the super-neat site for locally made goods posted up a feature on me this week. The site's owner, Tammy Tutterow, did a beautiful job with this, didn't she?

Check the profile out here.

Phooey!

 

Turns out that the blank roll of film was NO problem, because my film developing class, which was supposed to begin tonight, has been canceled. So now I've got to come up with a new plan to learn the process. More than a few folks have told me that it's fairly easy, but I'm more of a learn-by-doing than a learn-by-reading type, so I was hoping to have the chance to try it out with instruction a few times before I attempted to tackle it on my own. Anyone local who has ideas on somewhere else to take a course in this?

The photo above is one of the handful of digital photos I took on Saturday's excursion. The Knotty Pine Inn and Motel is in Breese, Illinois, on Old Route 50. I had fried chicken there.

Oh, before I forget!: I am super excited to be participating in the Cherokee Street Open House on Saturday, April 4. Mike from Foam* has generously offered to let me have some photos on display the day of the open house. My first solo show! Yay!

If you are in STL that day, won't you pretty pretty please come by and see me? It would mean the world to me. Holler at me for details. I promise to continue to harrass you about this until it's over.

Love,
Me


*do you know about Foam? It's going to be a coffee and beer place (but way more than that) opening at the corner of Cherokee & Jefferson, right where the statue is. Got to take a peek in it the other day and the work that's in progress there is way cool. Come take a look!

Avon calling

Avon
Originally uploaded by Hilary (curioush)

As I type this I can see some neighbor kids wheeling a basketball hoop out into the alley for a little pick-up game. I don't think I've seen them do that yet this year. It must really be Spring!

===============
I've signed up for the black and white film development classes that I mentioned in this entry. Yay! Thanks again to my friend Darren for inspiring me to finally take action.

Classes start this Tuesday. I get all nervous when I think school, so I'm hoping that this isn't going to be as school-y as regular school.

Not sure how quickly we're going to be getting into the darkroom -- this is a five-week class -- but I thought I'd better get a couple of rolls of black and white film shot first before class starts in case we are supposed to be developing right away.

I haven't had occasion to really get out of St. Louis much lately, so I decided to take a drive on US-50 in Illinois yesterday. I take US-50 in Missouri every chance I get, because it is way more pleasant than the the major highways, and it's got a lot of charm. But I haven't been on it on Illinois much, if ever.

Yesterday seemed like the perfect day to get in the car and do some exploring in Illinois. Fill up a roll or two of film. Win-win. I saw some neat places! Got a whole roll of film filled! Snapped a few digitals and Holgaroids too, but my main focus (haha) was on getting some black and white photos.

Except. When I got home last night, all happy to have gotten some shots that I felt pretty good about, I went to rewind the film and. Nothing. It wouldn't rewind. Because as far as I can tell I must have done something wrong in the first place when loading the film and I actually took no photos. Doh!

I guess I'll wait and see what happens when I try to develop the film in class, but I'm not too hopeful on this one.

This is one of the digital photos I took (haven't scanned the Holgaroids yet) of the Avon Theater in Breese, Illinois. Breese is a really cute town -- as were the others I passed through along the way. Will definitely have to make another trip there. And practice my film-loading technique.

Send me a postcard, drop me a line, stating point of view

I've been thinking about this for a while -- having postcards made of some of my photos. I am accustomed to making my own prints; I get all nervous when I send something out to be printed for any reason. When I make a print I work at it until I am perfectly happy with it. If a color is a little off I make it again and again until it's something I'd be proud to show as my work. I can get a little fussy!

So I sent in one test image for the postcards to see how well I liked the results. I liked it a lot! And had four other images put on postcards. I love them so much I am thinking about which ones I will have made next.

See them in my Etsy shop here.

Firecracker Firecracker Boom Boom Boom

Originally uploaded by Hilary (curioush)

Did you used to say that little rhyme in pre-school? Did you get in trouble for saying "girls got the sexy legs"? I wonder what it was really supposed to say.

I dropped off some new photos -- including this one -- today at The Firecracker Press on Cherokee Street here in the Gravois Park neighborhood of South St. Louis.

If you have not been there before, please do yourself a favor and go! If you haven't been to this new location, or haven't been in a while, you should also go! Their work is gorgeous, and if I could I would probably paper my whole house with it.

To see more of Firecracker's work or learn about the letterpress process watch this little video from a couple of years ago.