ALA-REMBRANDT. Magda, portrait for movie, called "Get Real! Wise Women Speak"

Please do not COPY or use any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved.

I was contacted by Joni Steele Kimberlin, Producer, Director, Writer and the maker of this film/documentary,

Get Real! Wise Women Speak,
www.youtube.com/user/cowgirlfilms#p/a/u/2/vWpY0UH114I


www.cowgirlfilms.com


She wants to incorporate this self-portrait in it as a still!!!
Interviews with interesting and famous, mature ladies, like Actress Jane Fonda, poet Nikki Giovanni, Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell, Editor Susan L. Taylor, Buddhist Nun Tenzin Palmo, Oceanographer Sylvia Earle, Author Marianne Williamson, Nobel Laureates, artists, grandmothers, activists and educators and many more, check it out? Coming out in the fall...next year the DVD, I'll keep you posted on that!
How 'wow' is this? I am very honoured to be part of this project.
Ladies over 50… we DO have a voice, we DO have experience and ooohhh soooo much to give and share… however, not taking any nonsense anymore!
www.facebook.com/pages/Get-Real-Wise-Women-Speak/25223947209


I had to rework it, so that is why I re-upload it with the original title: Ala Rembrandt:
Rembrandt van Rijn had a particular light and tone in his wonderful portraits and paintings. Dark backgrounds and warm coloured subjects.
Well, Rembrandt's paintings were never (that) dark; they were plastered with crude varnish by well-meaning conservationist, and however that is how we see them now.
He had a paint-colour named after him, Rembrandt red= orangey red.

Paul and I were experimenting once more with different light settings in the studio, still fascinated after all those years at what light can do, how it is the most important in photography ( well, equal to the often 'neglected' EMOTION'? LOL).
We love challenges; I was dressed in black and chose a black bg.
Although I'm not photogenic and don't often go for self-images, this one, ALA REMBRANDT... well, in those days they preferred a bit more curvaceous ladies, so, fitting? HEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
I am a very smiley person normally but not in portraits and NOT with longer exposures, where the smile becomes too often like a grimace.

Silver umbrella on Goddard light, just using the modelling light. NO FLASH hence the long exposure and 'softness' ( you try and stand still for 20 seconds minimum? (You DO have a heart-beat!!!)
No filters.
May your day be a good one,
Thank you, Magda (*_*)

BEACH, SAND and WATER-ART and SERENDIPITY?

Please do not COPY or use any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved.

We, my husband Paul and I, are just back from a few days in Northumberland, the North East of England. Very close to the Scottish border.

We'd heard so much about it, somehow never got there although it wasn't so far for us, less than 3 hours drive. But this time we made it, and wow, was it worth it! We were lucky with the weather…

Windy, which meant fabulous waves...

Cloudy and sunny, which meant fabulous light, light-play and interesting skies...

Only a bit of rain during the night, which made everything look fresh and vibrant!

We had rented a cottage at Seahouses, a small colourful harbour.

A good place to start, almost in front of the Farne Islands, to the north you have beautiful dunes, white beaches, and Bamburgh Castle Epic and majestic.

But let me come back to this in a later blog, after I have processed the photos?

What I really wanted to write about is that, besides the more obvious, I love to photograph the UNOBVIOUS. I arrive on a beach, I see the sand-patterns blown by the wind or shaped by the sea, some have stones, others have shells, and with wild seas you'll have lots of seaweed all very interesting, because of the variety, colour and shapes. I love looking, making compositions, when it all comes together, I'm thrilled, touched, and yes, it releases emotions.

I do understand that it is NOT to everybody's taste, but I do not take them for anyone...

So I uploaded some of them and as expected, they did not get much attention, which is fine.

And that is what I wrote in the write-up under the images yesterday.

SERENDIPITY:

Today, I discover what Seth Godin,

http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/

wrote in one of his latest blogs:

QUOTE:

"I need you to see things my way"

And that's the frustration of the marketer or the artist who hasn't figured out how to navigate critics and the marketplace.

If you need the validation and acceptance and patronage of everyone you meet, you'll get stuck, and soon. Everyone isn't going to get it. Everyone isn't even going to get you, never mind what you sell.

Experienced marketers and artists and those that make change understand that the new is not for everyone. In fact, it's not even for most people. Pass them by. They can catch up later.

It's not a referendum, and you don't need a unanimous vote of acclamation. No, you merely need enough to stay in business, to keep moving, to make a dent. And then your idea can spread.

If the kids in the back of the bus/audience/store don't get it (or don't get you) it's their loss. Focus on those that want to celebrate the work you do instead."

No need to say more he?

Thanx, M, (*_*)

CAMERA GEAR anno 1993...

Please do not COPY or use any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved.

Going through some old negs and prints, I came across this 'Polaroid' we made for fun, of some of the photographic gear we had then in 1993.
Only 2 things survived, the 2 Hasselblads.
For 'sentimental reasons' I kept the Canon AE1 (which I'd had since 1979, it was the world's first camera with an embedded microcomputer and was designated as the official 35mm camera for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, U.S.A.)
I also still have my favourite of all times: my Nikon F4, later joined by a second one, but that one now drains the batteries!
Light-meters, lenses, flashes with heavy flash-packs...
All analog... there were already 'rumblings' amongst our peers about something called digital(?), but, no, nothing was EVER going to replace the quality of film...

Oh dear, I resisted a very long time (about another 14 years), well, until I 'had' to agree that digital was 'as' good?
I still feel that film has something digital doesn't, but the technology has made things easier especially during pro shoots with lights, no more Polaroids to see if you have got the lights, composition, position, etc. right, no more darkroom, loading your precious film on the bobbins (in the dark, by feel), mixing the chemicals, the temperatures, the nail-biting wait for the results. (probably gobbledygook to a lot of you? haha)
Having said that, where with analog you had the work before and in the darkroom... now it is very much after... in the digital darkroom.
The basics and rules of photography have NOT changed, you still HAVE to know them and learn the skill!!!

thanx for your time and comments, greatly appreciated, M, (*_*)