If you find yourself in Philadelphia

you might want to check out a photography exhibit that my dad - Will Brown - is part of at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Common Ground: Eight Philadelphia Photographers in the 1960s and 1970s.

The show is up until January 31, 2010. My father has (I think) 22 photographs in the show, all showing buildings and a few people in South Philadelphia, where we lived when I was born.

It's pretty exciting for him. Though he's made photography a career, he pursued the commercial side of it, and the good stuff (ie what's in the show) is mostly work he did because it interested him.

I'm super proud.

Follow your dreams.

a second panorama

I think we (ie my father) have solved the problem of how to post the panorama on a blog. Here is a view of the street I grew up on, and where my parents still live.

I recommend viewing this very large. Just click on the X at the bottom of the image.

I have been tempted to change the layout of this blog for a while; I have found the column rather narrow and the colors overwhelming. Please let me know how you like this simpler layout.

a new feature

My father, a photographer, has been making panorama photographs. In the past few weeks, he's sent me links to 4 new ones, and I thought it might be interesting to post one on this blog every week.

(I still haven't figured out how to post the actual panorama to my blog -it's run by Flash, which apparently Blogger won't support- but if you click this link you will go to the panorama associated with this image.)

This is my parents' roof, after a big storm on Sunday. Because a panorama is basically a bunch of still photographs stitched together, my father was able to put himself in the photo, along with my mom. The structure to the left of my mother is their solar hot water heater. And behind her is Eastern State Penitentiary. When I was a child I thought that the penitentiary was actually a castle, and I had fantasies about one day living there. (A child can dream.)

new starts

I have been neglecting the blog this week. My excuse is that I don't have anything great to post. I do have a shawl/lace scarf to share, but I don't have any good photos. And I've started running, but again no photos.

What I do have is this, which I took yesterday. The economy has been on my mind. I talk about it with everyone I meet, even complete strangers. We're all strategizing on what we're going to do when the rug is pulled out from under us, what will be our backup plan. I've been trying to rack up hours at my day job, but it is completely miserable and I really have to drag myself there every day.

My backup plan is photography. There must be some way to make this work, whether through stock photos, photographing theatrical productions (my original plan) or just portraits of local people. In the meantime, I'm trying to master my new camera, learn Aperture and refresh my dormant photography skills.

What's your back up plan?

a new toy

I have been thinking about alternate ways to make a living. Not that I want to quit designing, but I'd love to quit my day job. I'm not yet ready to announce my new money making scheme (and everyone seems to have one these days), but it involves photography. And that means that I need a better camera. An SLR.

I've always had cameras, and I used a 35mm SLR (my trusty, vintage, no batteries required Nikon F) from high school until I made the break into digital in about 1999. And that also meant moving to a point and shoot camera, which was alright. If you haven't noticed, many point and shoot digital cameras offer many manual settings. In 2003 I upgraded to a Canon Powershot S50 (another point and shoot), and that's what I've used until now.

Last night, I opened the box to my new Canon Rebel Xsi. It's beautiful: light, quick, a huge screen on the back. Even more interesting is that it makes really dull shots look good. Hopefully this won't make me into a lazy photographer.

I started reading the manual last night, and there's a lot to learn about those buttons on the back. What does the one with an asterisk do?

It's all good. A Christmas present for myself.

white winter warmth

This is the radiator in our bedroom.We keep it turned off because it gives off too much heat.

White winter view

This is the view from our living room window. I took this photograph last February. Last summer, while visiting Christopher's grandparents in Maine, his grandmother mentioned our balcony. In fact, she kept talking about our balcony. We weren't sure what she was talking about, as we have no balcony. Then I remembered that I'd sent her this photo, which includes part of our fire escape.

Edited to add: I recommend checking out the other participants in this winter wonderland week. You can find a list of them here. (You might need to scroll down.)

Edited again to add: Mary Jane asked what else I see out the window. Other than the trees and street, if I actually stick my head out and peer I can see an art museum. We can see the Verrazano Bridge far, far away. And we see a line of airplanes flying towards and over us into LaGuardia airport.

Here's a less white photo of the view (though it was snowing, so maybe it still counts towards the winter whites??)

warm winter whites

Hot chocolate. What better way to stave off the cold?I'm going to have to start taking white photos soon, which is hard since I'm at work during daylight hours...

White winterness

I learned from Mary Jane about the White Winter Week being hosted by Shari at The Glass Doorknob, and I have decided to join it. This means that I have agreed to post a photo dealing with "winter white" every day for the next week. Hopefully I can find something; it may prove to be a challenge. It will be interesting, in any case.
My first post is a picture I took when we went snowshoeing last week outside of Seattle. We came out of the little warm cabin at the top of the mountain and were putting on our snowshoes when I noticed a rather outgoing little bird.