Dance on Wednesday

Source: Uploaded by user via Emma on Pinterest

I know I should be posting a video right now, but I couldn't find any that I thought were worthy of commenting on. At least where I would be saying something new. I only spent time looking last night so by next week I should have more to comment on. Instead I thought I would share some wonderful photographs of ballerinas. These are of Alessandra Ball (featured in my documentary!) from the Ballerina Project. Enjoy!

Source: Uploaded by user via Rachel on Pinterest

Day 21: A self-portrait.

Sunrise, Again

In my many slides that I am attempting to organize I found some photos of a sunrise on Wrightsville Beach back in February. I originally posted some photos I took with my little digital camera here. It is interesting to compare the two formats. Also please disregard the hair in the corner, I need to rescan a few slides and pay better attention.

Slides!

Months ago I took 3 rolls with 36 exposures each of slide film that my husband gave me for my birthday (which is in November). It seemed to take me forever to shoot them, then to send them off for development, and finally to scan them into the film. They wonderful and perhaps looking at pictures of cold weather will help me with the sweltering heat of late. Here are a few random images. I will have posts specific to the slides soon, but I thought I'd share a few for now.

Thunderstorms

Today the clouds have rolled in and a thunderstorm seems to be in my future. I can hear the rumbles currently and the light outside is magically shadowless. My daughter is asleep and I hope she will stay there for awhile so that I can use this time to organize the footage that I have recently captured from my documentary.

I still have slides to scan from so long ago. They are just sitting on my work shelf, waiting, collecting dust. Perhaps, I will get to them this Holiday weekend. The problem I am having is that my daughter loves to look at them as well and she is only starting to understand the concept of "being gentle."

Springtime!

I'm embarrassed to admit that I still have 3 rolls of slide film sitting on the counter ready to be sent out. All my pictures of the first buds of spring languish in the canister. Soon, I hope.

For now, I have these strikingly similar photos of tulips I recently bought for my daughter. She recently learned to say the word, "flower," and know points them out everywhere. Even in places I didn't notice them previously.

I love the dreamy quality of overexposed shots. Though the faux-grain of digital is not anywhere near as pleasing as film. Here, I was trying to decide whether the blown out window adds or detracts from the mood. My opinion changes with each picture.

Ballet Movies

Here are some more pictures from my recent Holga tests. I am so excited about some of them. Hopefully, I will get some good ones when I work with the ballerinas as well.

This weekend my husband let me escape to the movie theater so I could see, Mao's Last Dancer. It was not spectacular, but acceptable. Unfortunately, there were no really good dance sequences. They were all shot pretty blah and simplistic. Regardless, I am thrilled that there are two ballet movies out this fall season. If you also include Frederick Wiseman's most recent documentary, La Danse, this has truly been a great year for ballet movies.

I sort of knew that Mao's Last Dancer was not going to be all that great because it's release was held for while, which is never a good sign. Though, the fact that it got a fall release gives it a little lift. I probably say this a lot, but the film has potential and if re-edited it could be much better. The conflict needs to be established much earlier than it is. One reason I really wanted to see the film again was to see Amanda Schull in another dance film, but she doesn't dance at all. I knew she didn't dance much, but I thought there would be something.

There is a scene in the film where the dancers in China get a smuggled VHS tape with Mikhail Baryshnikov on it. The minute I saw that tape I knew it was going to be Baryshnikov, but there were actually some murmers of surprise in the audience of five. Though one women I think was trying to inform the rest of her ballet knowledge, she did this throughout the film. It was fun, I am glad to know she has some basic knowledge, perhaps she would have more if she paid better attention to what she was watching. Am I being to critical? But, really what other dancer would videotape have needed to be smuggled into a communist country in the 1970s?

The ballet film that everyone is excited about, even males and non-balletomanes (which is amazing), is Black Swan. It's definitely a trailer worth watching. I am very excited to see it and hopefully I will be able to sneak away again, maybe even twice if it is as good as everyone is saying.

Summer's Last Stand

Inevitably, it always happens that summer tries to hold on longer than expected. The beginning of the week began cool and I was pulling down sweaters, shirts, and PJ's from storage. My daughter wore a flannel jumper and a knitted cap. We drank hot chocolate. And then...

It got warm again. On Thursday we went to the gardens in the afternoon and spotted tank tops and shorts. We were overheated in our long sleeves even in the shady bog gardens. The days are so beautiful and warm and I can bask in them knowing they are about to end. I don't think they can hold on much longer. Those leaves in the trees are changing. I'm not dreaming anymore. I can see them in the pictures. Some pictures at least.

Photo from the Past

Things have been so busy here that I haven't had time to scan any new pictures nor take my film to the lab. Soon I will be back logged with photos, but for now I thought I would repost this photo. For some reason it makes me very happy. On Wednesday my sister is moving to Hawaii and she is in the process of getting rid of all of the things she has acquired these past years. Between helping her and working on job applications. I have been swamped and even at this very moment I hear my daughter crying out for me. So I gotta go. I'll try to be back soon.

Holga Photos at Battleground Park

Today my sister gave me her Diana F+ camera and it reminded me of these photos my husband and I took with our Holga before we left for Vermont. She also gave me a book printed by Lomography that included many pictures taken with the Diana. It made me want to got the beach to take pictures. Or maybe I just want to get out of Greensboro, if only for awhile.

It is the first week back to school for everyone here it seems; the public school and the colleges/universities. A few weeks back it was odd to not be preparing syllabi and thinking about new ideas for my classes. Now I miss my students and that first week back when every one is coming to see you and explaining how the summers flew by. The college I worked out was very small and I am very close to the students. So not only do I miss that beginning of the school year feeling, but I miss my students!

Playing Catch-up

We got back from Wilmington a little later than we expected yesterday and were utterly exhausted. I was fast asleep by 9:30 and that hasn't happened in a long time. I have three rolls of films to take to the lab today and should have some pictures up from our trip tomorrow. I hope you enjoy some of these lingering flower photos from the arboretum.

It's nice to visit Wilmington and it makes me miss living close to the beach. Even though we did not visit the beach as often as we should have when we lived there (barely a 15 min car ride); it's really the smell and the texture of the air that I miss. I don't think we can move back there because there is not a lot of work in the city, plus they are letting urban sprawl get out of control, but that was happening when we lived there. Nothing has really changed that much in the three years that we have been gone. Some restaurants have come and gone, Mayfaire Shopping Center has grown, UNCW's campus has grown extensively, but that is about it.

Flowers for Wordless Wednesday

Flip'n Friday: Conchetta Davis

 Conchetta Davis, Blind Photographer from Chelsea Wayant on Vimeo.

This week my student (though she did graduate in May) was featured in her very first art show. She wants to be a photographer/filmmaker and was inspired by the classes she took with me. It was very exciting to be at her very first show.

For this installment of Flip'n Friday I decided to make a portrait of Conchetta. Unfortunately I did not have my tripod with me and I had to hold my daughter while shooting (otherwise she would have demonstrated her newly learned skill: running). Regardless, I think I kept a fairly steady hand, as long as we weren't laughing!

Visiting Asheville

For the Fourth of July holiday we visited my husband's family in Asheville, NC. It is a very fun, hip, city. It's funny to me that both of our sets of parents live in much hipper cities than we do (my parents are in Boulder, CO). Ironically, we live in the same city where three out of our four parents grew up, hmmmm. Most of these pictures are from downtown because on July 5th we realized that we hadn't visited that area, so we went for a walk.

When I got home I accidentally opened the camera before it was rewound. For some reason I was getting 26 pictures on a roll of 24 and I flashed the end of the roll. I really love flares and light leaks so I thought the end result as a very happy accident.

Class Canceled for the Holiday!

We have just returned from a July Fourth getaway in Asheville. I'm tired from the trip and won't be able to post a movie critique. Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday and/or enjoyed their weekend.

Before we left we received a delivery from Dwaynes Photo that included lots of fun stuff. I am very excited about the above photos that we took with my grandmother's old Kodak Duaflex. My sister had used it once before and her photos had too many light leaks. My husband and I trekked down to the arboretum to take a test roll and I am very excited about how they turned out. Can't wait to use it again.