roll on, roll on

(one)


(two)

(one): taken with the holga (while riding a bike!) in new orleans, september 2014. saw that cloud of white hair, that blue polka-dotted dress, pointed that plastic camera and said a prayer. so many of my photographs are prayers. both before I hit the shutter and after. 

(two): taken with the holga (while standing on a concrete table) in panama city beach, florida, november 2015. I said a prayer while I shot this one too. though mostly because that concrete table I was standing on boasted a sizable, ominous crack. 

both were submissions to roll film week back in july over on flickr. flickr, ye olde harbinger of ubiquitous internet photograph sharing. I hold onto it as tightly (and unapologetically) as I do blogspot and goodreads.

one two three four five

monday//golden

tuesday//red

wednesday//brown

thursday//grey

friday//orange

poppytalk's fall color week= fini. but karen's nanoPHOmo is just beginning. clearly, I am a girl who needs an assignment.

in other news, I have been singing this song all. week. long. endlessly looping in my head, over and over and over. colors and the kids, you know. colors and the kids.

12.12.12

once upon a time, the twelves got together. and so on that day (in the middle of a shoot, somewhere in the middle of tennessee), I took a photograph, just one photograph. and here it is.

I'm sort of a sucker for auspicious days such as these.

and in case you're interested, this is the day the tens got together (10.10.10) as well as the elevens (11.11.11).

green

green, green is the word over at words to shoot by, a little photographic collaboration I contribute to.


green is a good word for right now. green is everywhere. especially here in the great pacific northwest. what struck me most when we first moved here five years ago was just how deeply green everything was, is. lush carpets of moss cover a wild variety of surfaces here-- slabs of sidewalk, tree branches (sometimes entire trees), rooftops and the occasional abandoned car. we are covered in carpets of tactile green and I have grown to love it.


(the above was shot with a polaroid sx-70, impossible project PX680 color shade film, july 2011)

the end

day twenty-two: my shoes (and socks)



day twenty-three: something old (candies from our 1999 trip to italy, stored in the freezer because I cannot, will not throw them away)



day twenty-four: guilty pleasure (fizzy fruity sugary drinks)



day twenty-five: something I made (with my most favorite scraps of paper)



day twenty-six: color (and a little more of that downtown mural project I love)



day twenty-seven: lunch (dollar taco and a bottle of strawberry jarritos from the downtown food carts because the sun was out)



day twenty-eight: light (dining room, late afternoon)



day twenty-nine: in my fridge (I cannot keep up with the amount of clementines this family is consuming)



day thirty: nature (on the way to school in the morning)



day thirty-one: me, again (in the bathroom with the little chalk fishies and the paint-by-number palm trees and the good light and the crazy bun)


this hereby concludes january photo a day (a little instagram photo challenge). week four (plus a few days) and a right good diversion from the january blahs, if you ask me.

almost there

day fifteen: happiness


day sixteen: morning


day seventeen: water


day eighteen: something I bought


day nineteen: sweet


day twenty: someone I love


day twenty-one: reflection

week three of january photo a day, a little photo challenge over on instagram. to be clear, this is a diversion. a thing I am doing to take my mind off the month they call january. januuuuuuaaaaaaaarrrry. we are facing our first long stretch of rain here in portland and it's possible I will not make it.

more

day eight: my sky


day nine: daily routine


day ten: childhood


day eleven: where I sleep


day twelve: close-up


day thirteen: in my bag


day fourteen: something I'm reading (or, re-reading)

(week two of january photo a day-- a little photo challenge over on instagram)

kick start

day one: me


day two: breakfast


day three: something I adore


day four: mailbox


day five: something I wore (in my hair)


day six: makes me smile


day seven: favorite

(week one of january photo a day-- a little photo challenge over on instagram. you know, a little something to kick the year into action. thank ye kindly for the daily prompts, fatmumslim)

11.11.11

(bathroom self portrait taken at 11:11 this morning and posted at 11:11 tonight)

nablopomo!

people, it's nablopomo (aka national blog posting month) and every year I participate. every year, I try to post something (anything) everyday for one month. and every year, I fail. but I do love the trying. I do so love the trying.

hello november, hello nablopomo.

brown friday

the most pleasing stack of bricks, maybe in all of gjilan.


the most spectacular cup of macchiato, my very first cup of macchiato. and sort of a big deal, since I don't really drink coffee.


the most awesome co-teacher, ian. artist extraordinaire and a bit of a renaissance man, if you ask me. ian, my friend.

okay so I guess kosovo is sort of coming out in bits and pieces. though I predict the dam will break soon because there's a big fat stack of polaroids I can't wait to share. the biggest fattest juiciest stack.

(the last of poppytalk's autumn color week)

grey thursday

should you find yourself in a crowd of teenagers (particularly albanian teenagers), you'd be wise to whip out a polaroid automatic 100. I found this out the first day we visited one of the schools in gjilan. I took one shot and in a matter of seconds, found myself completely surrounded. the requests came at me from every angle and I shot until I ran out of film. or until it was time to go home, whichever came first.

there's magic in the moment you peel that film apart but even more so when you let them peel that film apart. and the way they look at that photograph and then the way they look at you when you tell them they can keep that photograph. that they can take it home and keep it forever.

I don't think I kept even one for myself. I really wanted to but I just couldn't. felt too good to give them all away.

(for poppytalk's autumn color week)

orange wednesday

dear colored clothes pins and paint palettes of gjilan, I love you.

on an unrelated note, I think maybe I'm finally coming down from that post-trip high. today has been rough.

(for poppytalk's autumn color week)

yellow tuesday

I could have spent hours at the market in gjilan. hours and hours. the smells, the sounds. the color. my goodness, the color. I could have spent hours.


frizer për meshkuj= hairdressing for men. there were at least a hundred lovable little details around gjilan like this. ordinary everyday things seem to take on magic properties in foreign countries. what is that?


but really, the nightly workshops we held at the ringjallja center were my favorite. packed to full capacity each night and more albanian teenagers squeezing into that attic space than I thought possible. paper flying and scissors scissoring and paint screaming out color. it made me happy to be alive, I tell you.

(for poppytalk's autumn color week)