Camera obscura

I see images in my head. When there is a memory, I tend to see it like a movie. Moving with characters. And yet, I also see images in my head that I captured with a camera. I have recently been scanning many a negative and slide from years back, thanks to a great local photog who loaned me his scanner.  These images have been tucked away in my closet and way in the back of my mind. Every so often I see one or a series of 35mm x 24mm.

Recently, I have been seeing these shots from Seattle. I went there with a good friend back in February of 2002. I used my favorite B&W camera, my Minolta Hi-Matic with that beautiful Agfa Scala slide film.

Yes, black and white slide film. I know, yummy, right?

And the scans came out as great as I could hope. Now, I can see how they print. Joy.

Looking back, a tribute to New York City

It's really surreal thinking back 9 years ago. Actually, my mind starts back to sometime in late August nine years ago. My good friend and I had the great honor of being flown from Portland, OR to Stockholm for a business trip.

We were the top sales women at Pro Photo Supply and were flown over by Profoto, the line of photo lighting, to check out their factory and be schmoozed some while in Sweden. We could not have believed our luck with this one. Hard work really does pay off. We had a hefty layover in NYC, technically Newark, before jumping the Luftansa jet to Stockholm.

And thank god we did and thank god we decided to get on the train from Newark that put us right next to MSG (aka Madison Square Garden) in the heart of NYC. We had the best time roaming about with cameras in hand photographing everything. Everything. I had heard from some people not to ask native New Yorkers for directions, esp in the subway. But you know what?  They were the nicest, most helpful people. These natives enabled us to ride the subway from the Canal Street Station to Chinatown and back without a single glitch.

My friend had asked me if we should go to the World Trade Center. And at that time, not knowing what massive changes were about to come, I said no. "No, it will always be there." Yeah, that is what I said. I will never forget that.

Especially just a few weeks later when my alarm went off at 6:30am PST. I thought it was just a prank. One of those stupid morning radio show pranks. Until the announcers didn't stop discussing this plane that went into the one tower. I jumped out of bed and turned on the TV in near perfect time to see the second plane hit.

No one will ever forget. Nor will I forget the strange sensation walking to work that morning and hearing nothing. No planes in the sky. No cars on the road. Everyone was glued to their TV or radio. No one was moving. They were certainly moved, but no one was capable of traveling. Both due to being stunned, as well as being locked into their current location.

I posted a bunch of photos on the brandMOJO Images Etsy page with the main goal being to celebrate what glorious time we had in NYC and to celebrate what makes this country so fabulous. I hope to sell at least one photo since I am dedicated to donating 10% of each NYC image sale to the New York Fire and Police Wives' and Children's Benefit Fund. It's the best way I can give back. And to share the snipits of time I captured before life in that city and this whole country changed.
I ♥ NY!