Bottles on the Flatbed Scanner

A friend of mine bought a box of old bottles at a tag sale this weekend. The husband used to collect them, and the widow was eager to clean out her attic, so a sale was born.  I like the look of old bottles -- the shapes, the character of the glass, the imprinted writing and images.  Many of these contained patent medicines, and some are imprinted with name of the doctor and his location, others with the medicine identification.

Whittemore 

Boston 

U.S.A.

Can't tell from the scan, but this bottle is octagonal, about 6 inches high. 

Dr. S.A. Tuttle 

Boston, Mass

This may be the oldest and most valuable -- imprinted on the side is an Indian face, and the neck slants in one direction.  On one side is imprinted "Indian Sagwa,"  on the other side "Healey & Bigelow."

The bottles are tinted green in real life - from impurities in the glass..  The scanner picked up more of the irridescence of the old glass.

These images are on sale at my gallery www.riverwindsgallery.com or on my website www.maryannglass.com.

Persephone's Portfolio: 2 Tulips

These tulip images were the beginning of what I call Persephone's Portfolio.  

According to Greek myths, Persephone was kidnapped by Hades, the god of the Underworld.  She was the daughter of Demeter, the earth goddess.  Demeter and Hades came eventually to a compromise:  Persephone would spend half the year with her mother on earth -- marked by Spring, with the earth coming alive -- and the other half of the year in the underworld -- marking winter, when the earth goes dormant. 

I named a series of flower photographs Persephone's Portfolio because I imagined these images might be  Persephone's memory of flowers during her half year underground.  


This tulip -- it's the same tulip, just from different angles -- was photographed in my kitchen.  The background is tissue paper.  The further away the paper is, the more abstract it looks.  They were originally color slides.  I scanned them in, converted the to black & white, and threw in a few Photoshop tricks.


These images are available on my website www.maryannglass.com or at my gallery www.riverwindsgallery.com.

Using the Flatbed Scanner

It's better than a camera.  Place your item on a flatbed scanner.  Using the preview function, decide on the crop.  Leave the cover up to get a black background (and scan in a darkened room).  Scan.  Voila.  These are from my garden.

The scanner picks up detail better than a camera, and the light source that "scans" the image gives a lovely light.  The depth of field, i.e,. how much of the image is in sharp focus, is very shallow, which gives the image depth.

For more images, check out my gallery www.riverwindsgallery.com and my website www.maryannglass.com.

View from Vanderbilt

One of the classic views of the Hudson is from the Vanderbilt mansion in Hyde Park, NY.  I almost never drive down Route 9 without taking a short excursion to the overlook there.  This was taken after shooting a wedding at Wilderstein.

This shows the vivid greens of late spring -- all the rain we've had helps too!

These views are so accessible you barely have to get out of the car...

For more of my images, check out my gallery www.riverwindsgallery.com or my website www.maryannglass.com.

Private Moments at Amy and Mark's wedding at Round Hill

Saturday Christine and I had the pleasure to photograph Amy and Mark's wedding at the Round Hill House, in Washingtonville, NY.  The ceremony began with the signing of the katubah in the front parlor.  After the signing, with friends and family participating, the rabbi took a few moments alone with the couple.  This photo was taken as the door was closing for their private session.

After the signing, the bride and her friends retired to the bridal suite to relax, drink some champagne and spend time together before the outdoor ceremony in the garden.

Both Christine and I remarked that Amy was one of the happiest brides we had seen in 8 years of shooting weddings.  While sitting in the suite, she turned to us and said, "This is how I had always pictured my wedding -- surrounded by all my friends and family."

The rain stopped in time for the ceremony, plenty of food and drinks were served by F.E.A.S.T, and a great band kept the crowd on their feet dancing past midnight.  Lovely wedding.

For more wedding photos, check out our website www.feteaccompli-photo.com.

From the garden: Tulips and Peonies

These were from my garden this year.  The double tulips are angelique tulips -- they almost look like peonies.  Not sure what the spiky ones are -- I buy bags of bulbs from Home Depot and by the time they come up the following spring, I find I don't remember what I bought or exactly where I might have planted them.

This is from my tree peony, which gave me four blooms this year -- a record for this plant. Last year, nada.  I bought the bottle at an extremely organized junk shop in Red Hook.  I like using the old bottles -- they have nice shapes/proportions.

A small, elegant wedding at WIlderstein

A couple of weekends ago I had the pleasure to photograph a very small but special wedding -- only 12 guests --  of Johanna and Mike.  The ceremony was at Wilderstein, one of the historic Hudson Valley homes in Rhinebeck, NY.  The grounds are springtime-beautiful this time of year. The ceremony was in a small gazebo and we all made it up to the porch for photos before the downpour!

Cocktails and dinner were served at the Rhinecliff Hotel, the apparent home of some dedicated royalists -- the photo of the Queen is the first thing you see when you enter the front door.  We borrowed it for this homage to the recent royal wedding.

The bride and groom each bring into their marriage a wonderful 5-year old boy.

Best wishes to Johann and Mike and their two boys -- it was a very special day.

For more about wedding photography, check out my website www.feteaccompli-photo.com.

Vintage Car Details

It's almost impossible not to respond to the beauty of vintage cars, lovingly (and expensively!) restored.   I was talking with a guy who restored muscle cars -- he had put $40,000 into one car, and thought it was now worth about $80,000.

The new chrome, the colors (cars used to come in other colors than grey and silver), and the unique details make these cars sculptural works of art.

Naturally photogenic, the only real challenge to photographing them is to be aware of the reflections and cropping in closely enough to get rid of the busy background of the car shows.

Bannerman's Castle Photo Tour: May 28

Perfectly sited on the Hudson River, Bannerman's Island is one of the most picturesque ruins in the area.  On May 28, for 3 hours, photographers can take their time, set up their shots, and photograph the castle, the residence, the details, and the view.  We will leave the Newburgh dock at 8:30 for a half hour boat ride to the island.  A light lunch will be provided.

The cost: $110, which will help with the restoration.  To sign up, contact neilcaplan@aol.com.

To see more Bannerman photos, check out my website www.maryannglass.com or my gallery, www.riverwindsgallery.com.

The Pleasure of Stuff

I come from a family with collections -- salt and pepper shakers, arrowheads, thimbles, African violets, clocks, souvenir silver spoons.  I myself collect demitasse sets (little cups and saucers) and kitschy little buildings, the type sold in tourist centers.  I have more than 80 of them. So I like stuff.  And when I'm wandering around a city, I photograph stuff.

All of these photos were taken in Leon, Spain.  We spent a couple of days there before beginning our Camino de Santiago walking tour with Fresco Tours.  The plates in this photo were souvenirs of the Leon Cathedral, which is about 50 yards away.  Beautiful cathedral with extraordinary stained glass windows and I still regret not buying one of these plates...If you look closely, you can see my reflection in the center bottom.

I used this photo in my calendar last year, for December.  This photo combines my obsession with stuff with my interest in icons -- a double win.

This was a window display.  Love the colors.  What I like about all these images is the rhythm of the objects.

Next April we are going back to Spain -- this time to the Basque country. Fresco Tours has arranged a fantastic trip -- Christine and I will be leading the photo tour, which will lead us through scenery both urban and seaside, medieval and modern, and featuring really good food and wine.  For more information, check out www.frescotours.com.

Rain Reflections: Spring in Beacon

Right off Old Schoolhouse Road (great name!) is a nature preserve with a short walk around a pond.  I drive by it several times a week.  Looking for shots on a recent rainy day - not heavy, just kind of spitting - I finally stopped and got on the trail.

I'm not sure this is the best photo I've ever taken -- in fact I'm pretty sure it's not -- but it intrigues me.  My favorite part of this image is the tree reflections in the stream broken up by rain circles.  I actually think the weeds on the right side add to the composition -- they add variety and lead the eye into the trees.  Not every shot has to be winner -- as you shoot you benefit from trying different stuff.

If you want to go out shooting with me and try some different locations, give me a holler.  I lead Hudson Valley Photo Tours -- there's more information about that on my website www.maryannglass.com.

Making a Photo "Speak"

One of the many great features of digital photography is that you are not wedded to either color or b/w -- each image can be viewed both ways. And it is equally easy to make an image sepia -- with film you had to bleach the image in the darkroom and apply more chemicals to get the effect. With digital, it's just another menu option.

I'm always drawn to old white buildings in this classic vernacular style.  Although I've photographed any number of them, I still haven't figured out really what to do with them, i.e., how I need to present them to get at the underlying compulsion to photograph them.  A straight image doesn't "speak" enough.  In an effort to dig deeper, I used a "glow" filter on this shot, to give it a luminous presence, as if remembering it in one's mind. 

Continuing with this idea, I used the glow image and added the grayscale/duotone/quadtone feature in Photoshop to give the image a rich sepia tone.  Because old photographs often have a sepia tone, this soft brown pushes the image further back in time.  I'm still not satisfied -- there's something there I haven't quite brought to the surface.... 

Spring in Beacon: Reflections

I mean literally, not ruminatively...

This is Fishkill Creek, as it winds through Glenham, on its way to the Hudson River.  Hard to resist a good reflections shot.  This kind of image is always fun when the water is completly still and you get a mirror image, but I like the ripples in this -- just enough to visually understand what you are looking at, but with a beautiful texture from the moving water.

This photo, along with any others on this blog or on my website www.maryannglass.com are available at my gallery www.riverwindsgallery.com or by contacting me directly,

Fleeting Spring Color: Barrett House Show

This is another photo I took last week.  I wanted to capture the red buds on the trees  as well as the lacey delicacy of the bare tree limbs.  Such spring color is fleeting -- this week it's all different -- the leaves have come out and everything is green.

When I photograph I look for bright cloudy days right after it has rained.  The rain brings out color and makes the trunks darker, for better contrast,  and the clouds above give an even clear light so I don't lose color in highlights and in shadows.

This image is part of the Barrett House show in Poughkeepsie NY opening next week - May 14 -- on the 2nd floor.  Photoworks '11  - a national juried photography show -- will be on the ground floor.

This image is for sale at my gallery www.riverwindsgallery.com or at Barrett House in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Spring in Beacon

The color is glorious this time of year -- the spring green - so chartreuse - is a joy to look at.  I was out shooting last week to catch the green, the red buds, the forsythia -- very delicate, very beautiful.

This was taken while stopping at the east end of Main Street in Beacon, buying a goodie at The Coffee Shoppe.  The blue in the background is Mt Beacon; the street lights in the lower right corner are at the Howland Center.  Not sure the lights really make for a good composition, but wotthehell.

A couple of my images from this shoot (not this one ) will be shown at the Barrett Art Center in Poughkeepsie, NY, on the 2nd floor.  The show opens this weekend and features Photoworks'11 - a national juried photography show,  and work from the Advanced Photo Seminar, a group that meets at Barrett once a month.  It's always an interesting show and well-worth attending..

County Fair Photos at Millbrook Winery

I call this Nemo.  It's one of 11 photos I have at the loft at the Millbrook Winery in Millbrook, NY.  Sponsored by the Dutchess County Arts Council -- a really terrific organization -- Art in the Loft features 3 artists at a time in 3 shows from spring through fall.

I took this shot to illustrate the over-abundance of visual stimuli that any county fair offers.  I like the clash of styles -- the modern lemonade, the old-world landscapes on the swing, and of course, multiple Nemos.  I also like the light trail in the upper left corner.  This image has a classical diagonal line composition and the orange/blue/yellow color scheme gives it a lot of energy.

This photo is for sale at the winery, or at my gallery www.riverwindsgallery.com.  The complete portfolio of Carnival is on my website www.maryannglass.com.