Happy New Year!

 From our backyard- I can't believe how much snow we have this year! Only a few inches here, but we have probably 10-12 inches now and more is falling. Northern Ohio had almost nothing last year.

The lovely Miss Molly from the kitchen window. She doesn't go out in the snow much anymore, but she used to act like an arctic snow beast in her younger days.

Christmas Time Again

©AGC LLC all rights reserved; Tina Elkins stylist and photographer

It is nearly Christmas and I didn't even upload something for fall! I love shooting Christmas images and am looking forward to it again this season. This image is one I did a couple of years ago that is currently on card product. I confess that this is a studio shot, but it is a good one. I prefer shooting on location, but when I can't get out somewhere I try to build sets that have a sense of place.  I love all things botanical and I like the vintage greenhouse type look of this particular set. I work hard in the studio to create natural looking environments that I can tell a visual story with. This is one of my favorite table top sets- I love rustic white on white environments!

Lets cross our fingers for snow this season and maybe I can share some new holiday shooting done out in the real world.

Dahlias!

It is the last days of summer and we are slipping into fall very quickly. I lament the end of the summer flower season- it is always a long winter's wait for the return of garden flowers. Although I buy most of my flowers at the wholesale market, most of the dahlias I use are grown locally and soon their time will be past. I did a session last week with garden dahlias and zinnias; these are outtakes from the session. I've seen bigger and more showy dahlias than these, but I love the blush dahlias for their almost peony-like presence. Hopefully I will be able to do a last session with the locally grown flowers before the leaves start to drop.

It is putting me in the mood for fall tabletop shooting, though. There are lots of great things to cut out in fields and side-lots to places around town. The various asters, golden rod, late sunflowers and crab apples are next in line to be photographed.

New Vrindaban

 No, this is not India! This is New Vrindiban in West Virginia! Located outside of Moundsville WV, way out on a country road, New Vrindiban is one of the most unique places to visit anywhere in the United States. It is an intentional community of followers of  ISKCON  (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), otherwise known as the Hare Krishna's to most Americans, and is a vacation retreat for Hindus from all over. This part is the so-named "Palace of Gold" which was built initially to serve as the home of Hare Krishna founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada; it is now a memorial to him as he died before it was completed. It is a very Indian style of building and the crazy thing is that it is in the most unlikely place- West Virginia- really?! They welcome visitors to both tour the Palace of Gold and visit the active Hindu temple and small community just down the road. I have visited twice now as a curious traveler and a vegetarian with shared sympathies and have always enjoyed the hospitality and openness of the people there. The image below is a huge waterlily pond with the rolling West Virginia hills in the background, and then a guardian lion outside of the Palace of Gold's upper stairs. If you travel near Wheeling WV and have a couple of spare hours, check it out- you will be surprised in a good way at this really unusual place. Banish the old images from the 60's and 70's- those days and ways are long gone. There are still some saris and saffron colored robes among people in more conventional attire, but you will find this a very tourist friendly and lovely place to visit.

 This is just a small departure from my usual photo interests, but I was going through images and really like these- I'll get back to things floral and shabby to be sure. I shot all morning today for greeting cards, but now it is raining and I've lost my good outdoor light, so I thought to spend a few minutes going through my image files. I like shooting scenics and more journalistic things too; I actually crave getting the "money shot" when it comes to events and action scenes- I am out there with my aging Nikon like I was a photojournalist when I travel. I have viewed so much of my life through the lens I can't put the thing down- almost anywhere I go I have to have some kind of camera with me, even if it is just my phone. Maybe next year will see a new camera in my hands, but my old reliable D80 is still doing the job for me.

Raspberries!

About the only thing in my garden that actually thrives are my run-amok raspberry vines. This is a wonderful 19th century split wood berry basket with some traces of paint. It is my favorite basket but it usually lives on top of a pie safe with heaps of redware and stacked boxes where it is camouflaged and lost in the excess. I love bringing it out for photos where it is better displayed.

Once in a great while even I take off for a few days! My family and I recently took a vacation to Michigan's upper peninsula to hike through the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore along the south shore of the truly mighty Lake Superior. I have never seen such beautiful and dramatic water in the great lakes! Unlike my "backyard lake", Lake Erie, Superior is magnificently green and blue with rolling and crashing waves that look like the ocean. We hiked along the dramatic coastline, and along the way I tried to make a little "greeting card art" too.  I was walking along and noticed a clump of beautiful thick moss that had been disturbed. I picked it up an saw that it looked like a heart- light bulbs went off and I "helped" the shape out a little until I had a perfect heart. I can't help it- 22 years of working in photography has permeated every cell of my body and I just can't help seeing greeting card shots!

My day job as a photo stylist keeps me hoppin' and I do lots of things for that gig that I wish I could post.  I cannot post them here until they are published as greeting cards first; this is necessary but a little heartbreaking since I have been doing some really fun and lovely stuff, but I'll share my outtakes, like these, when I can.

What a unique place- this is a dune meadow near the cliffs that overlook Lake Superior. I have gone a little nuts with the photo filters in these shots, but I think they enhance the mood nicely.

One of the few floral things I saw was this tansy in a crock jar on display at Old Fort Michilimackinac located at the base of the Mackinac bridge in Mackinaw City. I really hate the smell of tansy, but it has great charm as a cottage or medicinal garden flower. The unfortunate smell (and yes, some folks like it's scent, I know) is offset by it's traditional use and true value as an insect repellent! If you have seen very many displays of open hearth or other early cookery, you will know that those open, un-screened windows and doors in early kitchens meant lots and lots of flies. I don't think the tansy really worked much to repel them when used as a bouquet on the table, but it might have helped as a sachet in drawers or placed in cupboards. Tansy has gotten popular recently along with a variety of  fill type flowers (September weed, baby's breath and wax flowers to name a few others) that have been seen in lots of editorial photography.

More from NYC

©Tina Elkins 2012; Banners in window

©Tina Elkins; a re-edit of my original shot with added heart banner!

©Tina Elkins 2012; cookies

 Here are a few more shots from the workshop in New York. I had to decide if any were "ready for prime time" as greeting cards; a couple were but these just missed the mark. I did a re-edit of the cups and straws shot by adding a heart banner in the background, but it still doesn't quite make it for greeting card- the story telling is a little bit off. I still like all of these as images, but will take the ideas and do a proper studio session based on them. You might find something similar to these shots on the card rack in the future.
With the tied cookies, it is very close. I love the lensbaby and the distortion you can get with it, but it is just short of acceptable for print work. I know I can get this one better, but for a workshop situation I am pleased with the result.

©Tina Elkins; milk and cookie

This one was close too, but as they say, "no cookie". I am definitely going to work this idea for a session, though. You can get away with "nice enough" on blogs, but for published work it has to be just right. Still, this is a pretty shot and really captures that daylight/lifestyle thing.

Snapshots from NYC

©Tina Elkins 2012

©Tina Elkins 2012

These are a few snapshots from my trip to NYC last weekend to attend the "Blogging Your Way" workshop taught by Holly Becker of decor8 and her photographer friend Leslie Shewring. These ladies are both tremendously talented, generous and wonderful presenters. What a pleasure to meet them! Look for a couple of more images to come.

Jars in the studio

©Tina Elkins 2012

©Tina Elkins 2012

©Tina Elkins 2012

Some of the residents of my studio! Lots of little jars and spindles live in my attic studio. Some of my collections, most of them actually, are pretty humble. These things do double duty as art supplies as well as photo props.

Teacups!

©Tina Elkins 2012

There isn't room for even one more teacup in my house! I love transferware pottery for the great variety of images and mottos that are often on them. This is a 19th century presentation cup for a child; the motto says "for a good child". Presentation (or award cups) were common gifts for children from teachers and family. Some cups had the child's name on it much like the trinkets of today- think of all the little license plates, keychains and other things you find in gift shops with the names of children.

A new blogging adventure!

©ACG LLC; Mark Galbreath photographer, Tina Elkins stylist

Welcome to Then, There and Now! I have been working with cameras for a long time, and now I want to share my photography in both a personal and public way.  Although I have photographed many things, my favorite subjects often involve flowers and all things antique or vintage.  Peonies, poppies, tulips or foxgloves- I love them all.  In objects I crave the patina of time, the charm of old pottery and the chipped history of paint (often it is chipped pottery too!). I seek out old places both real and imagined, places that I want to spend time in, places with a story to tell. For me, each photo is a visual essay.

I live with most of the things you see in my pictures, and I am making a project of photographing more of the things that I live with. Photographing antiques is a kind of time travel, an opportunity for the past and present to meet. When photographed, old things get a new life and our modern eyes get the opportunity to appreciate  little bits of the past, reminders of a time before our own and of life lived differently.

Although I have a serious second life as a painter (that’s another blog!), I have lived my professional life through the lens of a camera. I have been styling and sometimes photographing beautiful, interesting things for greeting cards over twenty years.