Do you Google yourself? I do! I used to do Search Engine Optimization professionally, so checking my rankings on certain key search terms is part of my regular routine. But it’s also fun to search for my own name!

Tonight I found a really cool description of my work…

Cheryl Spelts Photography
This native Southern Californian photographer specializes in fine art photography. Using a popular slow-shutter technique, she is able to create surreal double-imagery to magically immortalize moments in time.
http://www.greatersandiego.worldweb.com/BusinessIndex/Photographers-Commercial/

I also like this one…

Spelts, Cheryl
Photography, 20th Century, modern — ,
http://wwar.com/categories/Artists/Photography/index30.html

So I guess I’m soooo last century, huh? At least I’m modern.

Google yourself! You might find something really fun!

I love both these images – shot yesterday – but the second one positively glows. It looks like a watercolor painting to me. It was shot at f1.2 at 1/2000th of a second, and only the petals nearest to the camera are in perfect focus – the rest are just a beautiful blur.

My favorite fun lens is a Lensbaby 3G. It looks really odd, and the images it creates are not exactly normal – but it’s fun, and if the conditions are right, it can create the most beautiful images! I walked around in downtown Fallbrook today – just headed north from the studio, with just my camera, my keys, and a LensBaby! I have some attachments that make the LensBaby more versatile, but I left them in the studio – I wanted to see what I could get with one lens, walking just a couple of blocks.

While I was shooting in front of the Art and Cultural Center, I looked up and noticed a woman with a camera across the street in the Village Square, and then another one, and another. Because the LensBaby is good for shooting close up, I’d been so focused on the small things directly in front of me, that I hadn’t noticed all the people with cameras across the street. I have a feeling there was a class at the Art Studios this weekend – and I was totally wishing I could sneak in and see what they ended up getting! A few of them started to make their way across the street as I started to walk back, so they were shooting in the exact same area where I shot, just moments later. It would be fun to see what other people would do – so if you’re reading this, and you were there, send me your link so I can check out what you got!



Plant life, abstracted by the lens. There is a large Bird of Paradise in front of the Art and Cultural Center, and these are the stems and leaves. I have a shot of a flower below from this same plant, but this is the shot I prefer. I mean look at those colors!



This looks like a watercolor painting to me – it looks unreal. And look at the egg-shaped circles of confusion. Beautiful!



This was right in front of the Art and Cultural Center – it’s a potted plant and I love the way the leaves blur into nothingness. That is what the Lensbaby is all about!



Another abstracted shot – this is a patch of weeds bordering the sidewalk – but the lens abstracts them so beautifully, it looks like paint on a canvas.



The rest of the images are less abstract, but still fun. This one is the same Bird of Paradise plant as above, from another side, with the window display of the Art and Cultural Center in the background. The window is decorated in a really pretty color palette right now, and this bird fit right in. It still abstract, in that it’s the lines and colors that make the image – rather than the subject matter.



Behind the Art and Cultural Center and Primo’s, there’s an old pepper tree. One hundred years ago there were a lot of pepper trees in Fallbrook, but slowly they seem to be disappearing. This one is not that old, but it is old, and it reminds me of the kind of a tree frequented by elves and fairies and all the little creatures that populated the poems my Great-Grandma wrote to entertain us when I was a child. The sun was shining, the sky was bright blue and beautiful – my Great-Grandma would have loved this tree and this moment!



Bark from that same pepper tree.



One of my neighbors has a big plant with these long yellow blooms. Each bloom is as long as your hand.



On January first I shot this same tree right before sunset and it was covered in yellow-green leaves. Now it’s bare.



And finally some more weeds, just around the corner from my studio. Backlit and beautiful!

Electricity

Running Water

Computing

Printing

Keys and Cards

Journaling

I went to MOPA today with a couple of photographer friends to see the Arthur Lavine/Harry Callahan exhibit. It made me realize how much I miss being in school – not because I miss going to classes, but because I miss being around other photographers and talking about art. It’s so great to be looking at something totally beautiful, and to be able to discuss it with other people who get it! And who may see it from a different perspective and make me see things I didn’t at first.

The Callahan exhibit is huge – a big cross section of his work is shown and you get to see his proof sheets and negatives. You get a real feel for him and his images by the time you’ve wound around and seen everything.

And the stuff by Lavine is brilliant! He’s the guy who shot that really iconic image of brotherhood among workers – hands pulling on a lever – you’d recognize the image if you saw it. Really really beautiful stuff.

They also had a small selection of Ansel Adams images on display.

Then after the museum we headed over to the Prado for margaritas and more conversation. I’ve had lunch at the Prado before, but never been there for Happy Hour, and it’s great! Fabulous passion fruit margaritas in a beautiful setting after seeing some great art. Highlight of the week, for sure!

Arthur Lavine: Peripatetic Pleasures and Meditations
Harry Callahan: The Photographer at Work
Nature & Spirit: The Photographs of Ansel Adams