Mystical, Magical

As soon as I finished leafing through the latest Anthropologie catalog (which was pretty much the moment it came out of the mailbox, as usual; I love my catalog eye candy), I had to stop and do a little digging to find out where they did these fantasic shots. My first guess was Bali; turns out it's much closer to home - at least on the same continent.

Ranging over 60 mountainside acres near the village of Xilitla, Mexico, Las Pozas is the fantastical surrealist garden created by Scottish ex-pat artist Edward James in the 1960s. Sure would love to see this crazy place in person. Hmmmm... road trip!

Papernstitch Faves

Lovely Pieces is a featured shop over at papernstitch this month, and I wanted to feature some of the other shops I've discovered on the site. There are some beautiful photo prints, and many of them have special deals for papernstitch visitors. From top:
isphotography, Sweet Potato Anna, Kitty Rogers Photography, D.S. Brennan Photography

Alexander von Reiswitz

Alexander von Reiswitz has an amazing body of work. I was stopped in my tracks when I saw these bull portraits from the "Toros" series in the window of the Lumos gallery in Soho; they seem to capture something powerful yet innocent about these massive creatures. Von Reiswitz has also created animal portraits at the Berlin Zoo and of show animals in training; you can read more on the lenscratch blog.

Rock and Film

The Brooklyn Museum's Who Shot Rock and Roll exhibit ends Sunday, so if you haven't been over there to check it out, do yourself a favor and make it a weekend outing. This is an excellent show, featuring work by some well-known and many unknown photographers, covering Elvis Presley, Amy Winehouse and everyone in between. My favorites (there were many) included Elton John wearing silver pants and platform boots, doing a handstand on the piano, and a trippy shot of former Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett by photographer Mick Rock (above). Other interesting tidbits on view: an overview of the album cover art by design duo Hipgnosis (who created Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, among many others) and film footage of an early-80's Grace Jones performance.

We even picked up a very fun and bright Yellow Submarine (PVC-free!) shower curtain to match our retro yellow bathroom tiles. Groovy.

High-O

We finally made it over to the High Line this weekend; I recommend a visit if you're in the area. In case you're not familiar with it, the High Line is an elevated railway, in use from the 30's til the 80's, that runs along the far west side of Manhattan. It's been recently transformed into a mile-long park with a long walkway, benches, and lots of unique architectural details. I also took several shots of the unique plant life that surrounds the walkway; I will be posting that tomorrow.

Photo-Ephemera

My sister-in-law generously bequeathed to us much of her late father's photography equipment collection, which includes a late 60's Polaroid Land camera, a Kodak Brownie box camera from the early 1900's, and a few Super 8-type video cameras. Included in the huge box we received in the mail recently (like Christmas morning all over again!) were a few of the original brochures that accompanied the cameras as well as some early 60s photography magazines.

I love seeing this kind of vintage print material so I thought I would share a few of my favorite spreads with you here. Wouldn't you just love to wear this excellent striped bikini/shorts/jacket combo to your next archery lesson? There's also an excellent demo showing how to make a groovy projected background from a doily. And included with one of the projectors are some great sticky letters for titling your slides and films.

It's clear these products were geared towards men, because besides the borderline-racy patterned figure study below, there were a lot of chicks in bikinis. I guess photography was really a male-dominated field back then. Times have changed!

Friday Cheer

Fun, modern, with just a touch of kitsch, these excellent compositions by photographer Zee Longenecker are getting me inspired this morning. I know, perhaps they're not seasonally appropriate - more spring-y than wintery - but sometimes on a frigid morning, a bit of brightness is exactly what you need. Plus, these prints would look great in my office! You can find them (and a ton of other gorgeous prints) in Zee's etsy shop, blissful colors. Happy Friday, everyone.

happy anniversary, my love

One year ago Sunday, we tied the knot on tropical sands, surrounded by family and friends, complete with a rainbow in the background and a killer post-ceremony sunset... It's been an amazing year. I love you!


Photos courtesy of life magical, aka Minwin, who has been truly blessed with talent.

Today I'm loving...

...style portraits from Backyard Bill.

Otherworldy Inspiration

From our visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium this weekend, some interesting almost abstract-painting-esque photos of colorful marine life. The jellies will never cease to be amazing to me. We also saw otters, sharks, seahorses, pipefish and the unbelievably weird leafy sea dragons. The never-still pipefish and seahorses were much harder to get a good shot of!

Sayonara, Summer!

In honor of the last full day of summer, here are some magical summer-y images by my friend, photographer Cheryl Zibisky. You can find these prints over in her etsy shop.

And something to look forward to (love the composition on this one):

Brooklyn in Transition

I was on my way to meet friends at Tom's in Prospect Heights yesterday, when, due to the staggering heat, I decided to take a moment's respite inside the Brooklyn Public Library just off Grand Army Plaza. I'm so glad I did, initially for the giant hurricane-strength fan in the Grand Lobby, but mainly because it led me to Jose Gaytan's amazing photographic essay on the Gowanus canal area, industrial wasteland turned up-and-coming neighborhood. His work finds the beauty in otherwise destructed landscapes. I also found much, much more stunning work on his website.

There is also a New York Times article on the show here.

These photos make me appreciate the Gowanus as it is now - as the area is cleaned up and gentrified, will it lose its magic?

All images © Jose Gaytan

Beach Botanicals

While exploring around the lighthouse park area in Montauk, I took some "specimen" photos of a few interesting plant tidbits to sketch for use in patterns and designs.

Cheryl Z on etsy

My friend Cheryl, a professional photographer who typically works in the editorial/lifestyle realm, just opened an etsy shop selling limited edition prints of her work. Right now, she's featuring several reasonably-priced prints of amazingly dreamy imagery from her recent trip to Buenos Aires and Patagonia. Visit her shop here.

Welcome to etsy, Cheryl!