Susan Brandt Graham Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Susan Brandt Graham Photography

April 12, 2016April 17, 2016

Showing Rose Photographs

This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Showing Photographs at Rose Shows

Showing Rose Photographs in Rose Shows – Cost Effective Mounting and Matting How-To

Especially for my friends in roses: those who already show photographs in rose shows, and especially those who would like to but haven’t yet because they think it is too expensive.

FREE pdf that you may download, share, print, link to, etc. I wrote this to be freely shared:

HOW TO MOUNT AND MAT_for new pdf 04102016

For those who would prefer the information in a Kindle format, readable on any device with the free Kindle app, it is $0.99, the minimum price Amazon allows:

Many readers here know that while my interests have grown in many directions, digital photography for me began with roses. I purchased my first digital camera, a little Nikon Coolpix, in 2004 to have a light weight camera that would fit in my purse to take to rose shows that I judged. When that camera died – I wore it out! – in 2008, I bought a Canon G9, a compact digital with many manual controls and RAW capabilities. I had to take a class, “How to Use Your Digital Camera,” to learn how to use that camera and also the software necessary to process RAW files. One thing led to another, and in the end, I did the entire photography program and also picked up a certificate in Web Design. When I outgrew the G9, I got a Canon 5D. I now use a Canon 5D Mark II.

In the spring of 2008, I began thinking about and working on photography in rose shows. In 2009 I was appointed the first Photography Chair of the PSWD of the American Rose Society, and in my three-year tenure wrote Guidelines for Judging Rose Photographs for shows in the District. I was intimately familiar with “growing pains” in this district with respect to the new discipline in rose shows.

In 2012, Curtis Aumiller was appointed the first Photography Chairman for the American Rose Society, and I have been honored to work with him and the wonderful committee he put together to develop rose photography at the national level. With a lot of hard work, national guidelines were approved by the ARS Board in September of 2015. It felt like birthing a baby. As any parent knows, the really hard work lies in nurturing and raising that baby to maturity. That’s where we are now, in my opinion. I’ve gotten the sense that one obstacle to be overcome is a perception that showing photographs in rose shows is very expensive because of the mounting and matting specifications. While it is true that dry mounting and double matting a photograph can be expensive, that is not what is required for rose shows. Photos need to be mounted in some manner to a backing board and then matted. Specified dimensions are 11×14 in on the outside, with images ranging between 5×7 to 8×10.

Shows last a day or two. These images are not intended for sale. They are lovely images, but not intended for gallery shows. The purpose of the mounting and matting requirement is to standardize the display; to make it possible to display the images; and to separate one image from another by the use of mat to give focus and visual weight to the separate images. Here in the PSWD, the last time I judged photographs laid on a table and unmatted was in 2008. Once people saw the beautiful displays that mounting and matting gave, that approach is what was used. But nationally, this is something of a new concept.

The first rose show season after adoption of the national Guidelines for Judging Rose Photography is just getting underway. The anthropologist in me sees this first year as a critical time. The Ob/Gyn in me asks, “What does this baby need to thrive?” The answer, of course, is, like all newborns, “a lot of things.” I am seeing those things come from many people, including ARS President Pat Shanley and the wonderful photography committee members. Our Chairman is the one who “gets paid the big bucks” – not true; totally voluntary job, often with little thanks – to handle the growing pains of this new discipline in our shows. I have a very positive feeling it is all going to work!

I woke up this past Friday morning wondering what I could be contributing. I decided to do a Power Point presentation showing how easily and inexpensively rose photographs could be mounted and matted to meet the specifications of the Guidelines. Once I finished that, I decided to also convert it to a pdf so it could easily be shared. Some of you saw that version on Facebook. There was such a good response, I decided I really needed to do a cleaner version in Word and then convert that to a pdf. I got that done by early Sunday afternoon. That version is the link posted just below, as well as at the beginning of this post. That pdf may be downloaded and shared. The link may be posted on websites and in newsletters. I want people to know that displaying their rose images in a rose show is not complicated and it need not be expensive. This is how I show my rose images in rose shows.

HOW TO MOUNT AND MAT_for new pdf 04102016

By the time I got to that point, my three day weekend had pretty much been consumed. I’m familiar with how to publish Kindle e-books, and given the work I had already done, I knew it would not be hard.

The pdf information will be gotten out and around to a variety of places this year. What about next year, or the year after? I decided Amazon is a pretty good repository for information, easily accessible by anyone anywhere. Amazon requires a minimum list price of $0.99 USD for an e-book, so the Kindle version is not free as the pdf is, but it is as close to free as I could make it on a Kindle platform at Amazon.
The result is this:

How to Mount and Mat an 8×10 Photo for Rose Shows

I hope this information will be helpful to people who already show rose photographs, and especially to those who have considered showing rose photographs in our shows but who need a little encouragement and an explanation and guide of “how to.”

Wishing you good light and beautiful roses ~ Susan

Slideshow of Some Rose Photographs

April 2, 2016April 17, 2016

Colorblindness – New Release

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Seeing Color Colorblind

Colorblindness – Seeing Color Colorblind

“Colorblindness,” more accurately color deficient vision, affects 8-10% of people in the US. Roughly 10% of those, or a total of 1% of the US population, have a severe red deficiency, called protanopia.

“Seeing Color Colorblind” is now available in Kindle format from Amazon. The book contains a series of diptychs showing images as seen by people with normal color vision, and how they are seen by someone with a severe red color vision deficiency – “colorblindness.” There are different types and degrees of what has been labeled “colorblindness.” These images speak to severe red deficiency or protanopia, the type of color vision my father had and my son has. My son sees both sides of the diptychs in the Kindle as the same. Yes, I know it is very surprising to see for the first time – and the tenth time.

protanopia colorblindness — Seeing Color Colorblind: Pomegranates

A preview of the Kindle is here:

Susan’s Amazon Author Page

In the coming months look for hard copy formats as well.

February 19, 2016

Persephone: My Fate, By Choice

“My Fate, By Choice” from the Persephone Series in Color It Red 2016

My thanks to Red Dog News editor Tim Anderson, along with jurors Ann Marquis Hart and Pat Berrett, for selecting “My Fate, By Choice” from the Persephone Series as a winner in Color It Red 2016 contest.

My Fate, By Choice

Persephone color it red 2016 — My Fate, By Choice

This is the fifth year for this particular competition, and it is always interesting. There were some beautiful entries this year. All the winners may be seen in the Color It Red 2016 gallery. Be sure to click on the little thumbnails to see the full images.

Sometime later in the year, this image will appear in the Single Image Showcase section of Anderson’s Shadow and Light Magazine.

This is but one image from the Series. More images, and an explanation of the series, almost as an autobiographical photoessay, may be seen in the e-book available at Amazon. The book may be read on any device with the free Kindle app.

Once again, many thanks to Kelly Angerosa who played Persephone so beautifully.

February 6, 2016February 8, 2016

2016 Insight New Mexico

2016 Insight New Mexico, organized by LeRoy Perea and held in the Fine Arts Building at EXPO-NM, starts the 2016 photography show year for me. This is a juried show for women photographers in New Mexico. The Opening Reception will be held on Saturday, April 2, and then will be open to the public from April 3 through April 24, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm, daily except closed Mondays. All exhibited images will be available for purchase.

I would like to thank the jurors for including the two images I submitted for the show, “My Fate, by Choice” and “I Choose Both, Free as a Bird,” both from the “Persephone’s Choice: Every Woman’s Dilemma” series.

I would like, once again, to thank Jim Stallings for introducing me to such a compelling myth which served as the inspiration for “Persephone’s Choice: Every Woman’s Dilemma,” the series from which these two images come, and Kelly Angerosa, who provided both beauty and substance in the role of Persephone.

More images from the series may be seen in this Slideshow. They are also available in a Kindle e-book at Amazon.

I hope friends who are in the Albuquerque area in April will try to visit the show.

January 24, 2016

Spring Will Come

Spring will eventually come. Although it may not seem like it this weekend, with the record-breaking blizzard on the East Coast, warm bright days with green trees and flowers are ahead. Here in New Mexico, the winter, so far, has not been bad, although who knows what will happen over the next couple of months. The increasing daylight hours can already be seen and felt.

In the fall of 2015, when I was introduced to the Persephone myth, I’m sure that I was initially attracted to its explanation of Winter, of which I am not fond and never have been, and its promise of Spring. After all, Persephone is the Greek Goddess of Spring. When she returns to Earth from the Underworld and her obligations as wife of Hades and Queen of the Underworld, she brings with her Spring and its glorious days.

This weekend I encountered an interesting article over at Digital Photography School that talks about photographing with meaning.

There comes a point, or a plateau, as in every photographer’s career (whether you are an intermediate or professional photographer) where you hit a wall. It’s a crisis of self that you are faced with when you have reached a certain point of technical proficiency. Well, basically you hit a plateau because you already know […]

Source: How To Photograph With Meaning

To be perfectly honest, I had not consciously thought about being in the winter of a “crisis of self” in terms of photography. At some level I knew that I was at a plateau and had been for some time, but I did not have time to worry about it because of so many family life crises I had to deal with in the past year and a half. I try to photograph something every day to keep up my skills, and almost every day I learn something new about photography. But, I did not sit down and plan to do something different; I did not think I had time to fit thinking about something like that into my life at the moment.

I’m not really certain exactly how a casual mention of the Persephone myth in an email from friend Jim Stallings set off the photography frenzy that followed, but it did. Within two weeks I had done a short series inspired by it, using my well known subjects of sunflowers and butterflies. Once that was done, however, I began to think of a series involving a model to tell a portion of the Persephone myth. Although I had worked with a model on someone else’s project in the past, and although at one time I did maternity portraiture, I had never hired a model I chose for a conceptual project. I wasn’t even sure how to go about it. But almost, as if by magic, the perfect model appeared. I shocked myself by walking up and asking her if she would be a photographer’s model and, almost as surprisingly, she agreed.

With Persephone, Greek Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Underworld as both a starting point and inspiration, this conceptual photographic series also became an exploration of the meaning of being female with both body and mind. What began as a small personal project for this photographer also became a search for meaning of self, reflecting back on life as a woman, anthropologist, and obstetrician-gynecologist. I didn’t consciously set out “to photograph with meaning,” but it is a series that came to have a lot of meaning to me personally, whether it does to anyone else or not. In the first month of 2016, I surprised myself again by publishing a small Kindle Book. (That added another surprise. While poking around on Amazon, I found a copy of a book, Anthropologists at Home in North America, in which I had published one of my early anthropology papers [1981]. That was a bit of shock, and definitely a pleasant reminder.)

I feel like a new spring has arrived for me in my work as a photographer. Today, I cannot say where things will go from here. Kelly Angerosa, my model for Persephone, and I will work together in the spring. I’m looking forward to that next adventure!

January 22, 2016April 17, 2016

Persephone and Her Choice Now at Amazon

This entry is part 8 of 10 in the series Persephone's Choice

Persephone’s Choice: Every Woman’s Dilemma is now available as a Kindle ebook at Amazon

Click on the image below for a free preview:

Those of you who are regular readers here have seen this work from the time it was barely an idea, now up to its presentation as a Kindle ebook.It is important to note that you do not have to have a Kindle to be able to view the book. Amazon offers free Kindle apps for desktops (PC and Mac), laptops, tablets, and smartphones (iOS and Android). In fact, since this ebook features images in color, I can view it better with an app on any of my devices other than my Kindle Paperwhite, which shows the images in black and white.

If you have followed the Persephone series as it developed here, you have already seen most of twelve images that are featured in the ebook. New text has been added: a discussion of myth, meaning, and various approaches to interpretation; a look at the mind-body dichotomy in human society; and some autobiographical references. From the Preface:

Persephone, Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Underworld in Greek mythology, became a truly fascinating mythological figure to me in 2015. I became determined, almost obsessed, as a photographer, to interpret a portion of her story. A complex myth, the part that initially captured my imagination involved Persephone’s cyclic descent into the Underworld and return to Earth each Spring.

Now that this small portion of the story is completed as a photographic series, I realize I was so driven to do the work because it presented an unexpected opportunity for me to synthesize much of my adult life – as a woman, as an anthropologist (PhD University of Arizona), as an obstetrician and gynecologist (MD University of Kansas, residency training University of New Mexico), and photographer (University of New Mexico).

As I worked with the images from what was intended to be a simple photoshoot, I began to realize that in many ways I was telling a story of an archetypal Woman, through one woman’s learning what it is to be female, in both body and mind. This is not a story about a woman learning to accept society’s or other’s definitions, but rather it is about a woman defining herself to herself, in her many complexities. Twelve images from the series are presented in this volume.

Myth, “the repository of the collective unconscious” – I learned to say that as an anthropologist. I learned what it meant as a photographic artist well into my mature years.

It is fitting that the portion of the myth involving Persephone’s cyclic descent into the Underworld and return to Earth, bringing Spring with her, consumed so much of my time during fall and winter. I first became aware of the myth on September 15 in casual email correspondence with friend Jim Stallings. By the end of September I had submitted for jurying three images inspired by the myth, using subjects well known to me: sunflowers and butterflies. All three were juried into 2015 ANMPAS (Annual New Mexico Photographic Art Show) and shown there in December:

2015 ANMPAS Persephone — Heart of the Matter

I spent much of October photographing beautiful split pomegranates from my mother’s dwarf tree. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with all of those images; I just knew I had to photograph them.

By the end of October I began thinking of doing a series with a model. As a photographer, at one time I had done maternity portraits. And, once I had worked with someone else’s model on that person’s project. But, I myself had never chosen and hired a model. I really had no idea how I was going to do that. But, on October 30, the perfect person just sort of appeared. The following day I surprised myself by walking up and asking her if she had ever been a photographer’s model or if she would ever consider being a photographer’s model. Almost as much to my surprise, she said that although she had not done that before, she would be willing to do it.

Kelly Angerosa and I did the photoshoot on November 12, 2015. I spent the next two months consumed with processing the images to say exactly what I wanted them to say, getting the images out for review, and then writing this explanation and meaning of the project as a Kindle ebook.

While there is still some work to do on this series, it seems fitting that, while we will still have some very wintry, cold, windy days, the lengthening light with its hope of spring can be both seen and felt. Work is winding down on this series as spring approaches. Thoughts are turning to a new photoshoot with Kelly and a new emphasis in the spring.

I hope you’ll take the time to click on the Preview (above) and consider sharing your thoughts. To those of you who have been through this saga with me, Thank You!

January 11, 2016April 17, 2016

Persephone’s Choice: A Slideshow of Selected Images

This entry is part 7 of 10 in the series Persephone's Choice

Persephone’s Choice

Ten images from the Persephone series. I hope you enjoy them.

Image List:

Persephone, in this series, represents an archetypal Woman resolving the Mind-Body dichotomy dilemma of human females, for herself and not as defined by Society. The dilemma is part of a collective unconscious expressed in many myths, and this series incorporates images from a variety of myths. Here, the pomegranate is symbolic for the feminine body and sexuality, while the apple, from the story of Eve and the Tree of Knowledge, is symbolic for the mind and feminine wisdom.

Humans have a unique division of labor by sex not found among other mammals. Although details vary cross-culturally, Society’s and societies’ definitions of Woman tend to keep them subservient, defining appropriate behavior for both the mind and body of women. In myth, women are often seen as the root cause of so much human misery. Persephone is at least partially blamed for Winter, because she ate the pomegranate seeds, requiring her return to the Underworld for part of the year (does anyone ever blame Hades or Zeus? No. Demeter, the mother, is given part of the blame, but never the guys who really caused the problem!). Eve, with the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, is blamed for getting us all kicked out of Paradise, the Garden of Eden. The Mind-Body dichotomy, and its control in and by human society, has been a dilemma for women for ages. This series explores an archetypal Woman’s resolution of the dilemma for herself.

This series has special meaning to me for many reasons. One is that the images as composited contain so much of my world in Albuquerque: the split pomegranates I photographed for days in the fall; sunset over the Sandias; the many birds, all of which I love for one reason or another; the Blood Red Total Lunar Eclipse of September 27, 2015, a perfect day for viewing and photographing, and an event unlike any other I am likely to see again.

Model Kelly Angerosa and I have plans for new work in the spring, and I am looking forward to a new adventure. But I wanted to share in a slightly different way the images from what became a grand adventure in so many ways this past fall.

July 6, 2015July 6, 2015

Image New Mexico Opening

Image New Mexico Opening Reception was held on Friday, July 3, at Matrix Fine Art. This was also part of First Friday Artscrawl, as well as part of the Independence Day holiday weekend. I went with the intention of enjoying myself, and I did. These are casual phone photos from the evening. Thanks to friend Tim Price who took the images of me. (We know about the glare on the glass at the beginning of the evening 😉 )

The majority of the images are black and white. Some are classic New Mexico, some show what can be done with digital art not “straight from the camera” nor intended to be. It is nice mix. The show will be open through July at Matrix Fine Art.

Image New Mexico 2015 — Laurie looking at some of the other art

Once again, the two images I have in this show are “The Observer/The Observed” and “Living Jewels – Harry’s Pearls.”

I thank everyone who came to the opening, and especially my friends, some of whom really had to work hard to make it there. Thank you!

March 1, 2015

2015 Insight New Mexico

2015 Insight New Mexico: Through Her Eyes

Insight New Mexico has become the premier photography exhibition for New Mexico women photographers. Organized by LeRoy Perea, Insight is an outgrowth of the popular ANMPAS (Annual New Mexico Photographic Art Show), held in December. Both are juried shows, and it is always an honor to have images selected for showing in either one.

The theme of this year’s show is Through Her Eyes. From the press release:

“Through Her Eyes” the 2015 InSight exhibit opening April 5, 2015, at Expo New Mexico showcases the work of women photographers of New Mexico. It was juried by nationally respected women photographers: Jennifer Hudson, Linda Ingraham, Margot Geist and Phyllis Burchett. The show includes more than 125 images, representing the work of 61 emerging and professional women photographers residing in the state. You will see an array of diverse subjects, themes, and unique processes, and every image is available for purchase.

I am very happy that my two images were selected for inclusion in 2015 Insight New Mexico, a show which is always fun. This year’s theme, Through Her Eyes, spoke to me. “The Observer, The Observed” was photographed and processed after I returned from Texas to be with my son. The amaryllis in “Postcard Series – Amaryllis” was photographed last year, but the processing of this image was also done after I returned from being with my son. Although rather different at first glance, the underlying theme of each is life transitions, with moments of beauty and of insight, and layers of meaning.

“The Observer, The Observed”

insight new mexico 2015 — The Observer, The Observed

The Crow as symbol and in myth is a powerful creature around the world, but nowhere more so than in the Southwest. Crow is a Messenger who moves between Worlds; a Trickster who can steal Light from the Sky (the Sun) and bring it to people who need it; and an astute Observer. In early January I was out photographing a cloud bank rolling over the Sandia Mountains, with a storm predicted to follow it. Suddenly, some raucous crows appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and they left as quickly as they came. This one crow, however, stayed behind, briefly, and seemed to pose for this one image, almost as a gift.
This image will be available as a Fine Art Giclée Canvas Print.

“The Postcard Series – Amaryllis”

Amaryllis – bringing life, colorful life, indoors in the winter. These flowers hold the promise of spring, while being beautiful in the present. Postcards – old postcards, saved postcards, speak to memories of the past. Past travels? Past good times with old friends? Memories of things that made us who we are? The Postcard series combines memories of the past with beauty of the present. But, beautiful flowers do not last forever. What of the future? That is for the viewer to determine…
This image will be available as a Fine Art Giclée Bamboo Watercolor Print.

The exhibit will be held in the Fine Arts Building at Expo New Mexico (the New Mexico State Fairgrounds) from April 5th through April 26th. Hours are Tuesday through Sunday (closed on Mondays) from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. The cost to see the exhibit is free.

I hope to see my friends from the Albuquerque area there.

August 6, 2014August 10, 2014

Cooper’s Hawk

Cooper’s Hawk, Immature

This weekend, I had the opportunity to observe and photograph an immature Cooper’s hawk for almost an hour. I was very fortunate in actually seeing it fly into a juniper tree, where it was quite well hidden. I would not have seen it, had I not seen it fly in.

Over the years, I have seen this and other hawks in the neighborhood. This is the longest time, however, I have had the opportunity to be “up close and personal” in such an intimate way with any wild animal, bird or otherwise. I knew at the time I had seen something extraordinary. Later, processing the images over several days, I saw many things I had not “seen” at the time. I have evolved from finding this an “interesting’ encounter to developing a tremendous amount of respect for this young hawk. This slide show contains many images from the encounter; some better than others. I include so many in hopes of sharing the depth of my encounter with this bird and its with me.

To see the image in full screen mode, click on the button in the lower right hand corner. To control the volume of the soundtrack, click on the button just to the left of it. I hope you enjoy viewing it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

Albuquerque seems to be an ideal spot for the Cooper’s Hawk! I do indeed live in an “urban forest” area, and my own yard could be described as such. I feed many small birds at a variety of feeders, an enjoy seeing them daily and as they change seasonally.

I had accidentally seen this hawk fly into the tree. When I heard my scrub jays going nuts, I was concerned about a little fledgling scrub jay I have been attempting to encourage to come closer by feeding peanuts when I was out. I had been out and taken a few images, but the bird was hidden enough I did not try for more, initially. But, when I heard the jays, I thought if I went out, perhaps the hawk would fly someplace else for dinner that particular day. I took my camera, although I thought good images would not be possible.

The hawk had moved to a much better spot for photography. Still concerned about the fledgling jay, and with the hawk showing no signs of leaving, I decided to keep moving closer and closer. When I got close enough, this hawk put on an amazing display, which I interpreted (and still do) as a challenge to me. It was beautiful and mesmerizing; I had never seen anything like it. It seemed to go on forever, and I kept photographing. In reality, the entire display lasted 18 seconds!!!

Study on Cooper’s hawks in Albuquerque

Cornell Labs Information Page on Cooper’s Hawks

Category: Susan Brandt Graham

Showing Rose Photographs

Showing Rose Photographs in Rose Shows – Cost Effective Mounting and Matting How-To

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