pretty light/

Another favorite from my shoot in Santa Barbara with Charles DeLisle.

hans wegner/charles delisle

Just back from a shoot in Santa Barbara this past weekend and thought I would share an image from it because I  loooove it! A Hans Wegner throne and an amazing rug. Not sure who did the rug, but Charles DeLisle did the interiors. Pretty...

scenes from vienna/the MAK

As I was looking for more Otto Wagner images from my time in Vienna (which I didn't find yet...) I ran into these images I shot really quick at the MAK museum. When I asked some friends what I should not miss in Vienna, every single one said the MAK. I would agree. The building and bookstore alone are really good. I didn't get to see the collection because they were redoing a bunch of it, but I just sat on that pink couch in the second image and enjoyed the space.

alvar aalto/light

I got a little sidetracked today and forgot to post until just now! So this will be a quickie, because I am working on the next People Watching post and I am just having so much fun with this one! I'm excited for you all to see it!
But alas...I was running through the Aalto pics again and I had to chuckle a bit because I remember when I shot this first shot, I thought "ooh! it is Alvar Aalto's ghost watching me". This is of course in reference to the patch of light on the ceiling. It felt like it was hovering somehow. Then I looked behind me and saw it was just sunlight bouncing off the table. Sometimes I get a little kooky.

favorite picture I took today/gustavsberg, sweden

Ok, there are two favorites, both from my visit to an amazing glass artist out in Gustavsberg, Sweden. I cannot wait to talk more about her because I am in love with her work. But People Watching has first dibs on that, so it will have to wait. But I can share a couple of iphone shots.
Tomorrow I go out to the Swedish countryside to see a girl about an ax!!!

window light/

I am in love with this window at the new San Francisco Heath factory. Every time I am there I go visit it, which sounds crazy but I just cannot keep myself away! These are a few shots from last weekend. Clearly it is still a construction site in this area. Just the prettiest light ever...

evening light/

chez moi.

morning light/

pt. arena/

Some days, you just have to jump in the car and drive.  Yesterday that is exactly what I did and I ended up at Pt. Arena Lighthouse. One of my favorite things about the Northern California coast is the play of light and fog and the fleeting beauty that occurs in brief bursts. You have to just stop and watch. An elegant, subtle light show for all to see but that so many miss.

heath tile factory/

The new Heath Tile Factory in San Francisco, is getting close to opening. Yesterday the new neon sign was installed. I'm looking forward to shooting this space in the coming weeks. I've been lucky enough to see it transform from an industrial dry cleaning plant to this glorious factory/retail space! The collaboration between Heath and Commune Design certainly continues to flourish.
The second shot is where the kilns are going to go. Seriously... look at that light! So gorgeous! I love that Heath is carrying on Edith Heath's tradition of a natural light factory, just like the one in Sausalito. I am sure it will be a joy to work and create in.

milano/notte

I arrived in Milano yesterday and after a lovely meal with friends, I peeked into a friends apartment. This is what I saw in an unlit room, as rendered by my iphone. I really love it. It somehow reminds me of a Brancusi photograph.

note from london/day 3/max lamb

I just had the best day!!! I cannot really say too much about where I was or why, but this is a quick shot from my phone that I love. I think it is nondescript enough. Fantastic London live/work space. Can't wait to share more. Soon!

About to drop off the map for a few days to shoot the first house for the book! I am rather coming unglued with excitement. When all the planning was getting frustrating, or irritating, I would think about being in this particular house finally shooting the book. So much prep goes into these trips that finally getting to actually shoot just feels like aaaahhhhhhh! I am happy.  ; )

washington square/nyc

 Another shot from that apartment on Washington Square I visited. This image I just really love. It is quiet and calm and the objects in it are a mix beautiful and functional. And I am a sucker for paint chipping and peeling from the wall. This used to be where the artist that lived here would draw. It is easy to see why. I would never leave this room if I lived here...

self portrait/

The light in my bedroom was so incredibly beautiful after the storm on Saturday. Nevermind that is was freezing and windy outside. the sun felt so good on my back.

daily life/first thing I see

Yesterday, this is the first thing I saw in the morning. I am not one to grab my camera when things like this occur. I usually lie there and watch the light move, but for some reason I did shoot it yesterday. Add to this the sound of howling wind in the trees around my house.  It was a lovely way to wake up.

humble objects/

I sometimes run across scenes like this, found in a stairwell, and feel a overwhelming surge of happiness. You are probably wondering why. Well,  I have a love of humble, utilitarian objects and seeing that ladder basking in a beautiful pool of light?  I just think that ladder deserves it! My mind goes to how much things like a ladder or can opener or a whatever (insert unglamorous object here), are important to making our everyday lives easier. This ladder is a workhorse and not beautiful in design so it is overlooked. But what would we do without it? So when I stumbled upon this scene all I could think was, how nice that the ladder gets to take a little nap in that beautiful pool of light! And how beautiful it looks with the light glinting off it like that. A beauty finally equal to its functionality.

brooklyn loft/

Went on an impromptu visit to a loft in Brooklyn last Friday and I got a bit enamored by the stairwell (typical me...). The light was so pretty in there. The wind was howling outside and the casement windows were rattling but I could have stood in there for quite awhile to just bask in that glow. The view wasn't so bad either...

light/

Yesterday's post has me thinking about light. I guess every photographer has to be a little in love with it. Some love to create it, some to manipulate it and some just wait and utilize what is there. But being a photographer, or maybe just a lover of light, changes your view of the world. My friends will tell you, often times mid sentence I just stop talking because I have been captured by a wild reflection off a window, or the quality of light that is hidden behind a cloud. Maybe it is just being a visual person...I don't know. I freely admit I have no answers as to why some of us notice this stuff and some don't. I just know what is true for me. Light moves me...more specifically, natural light moves me. It is a fickle, seductive mistress at times but we have come to have a beautiful and deep relationship. My love for light makes my experience of the world deeper, more rooted in the ephemeral quality that is life itself.

PS - Sometimes I hear music and I feel it sounds like light somehow. This Bon Iver song sounds like dawn to me.

Have a great weekend, friends.

maria moyer/light

Yesterday I spent the day with Maria Moyer, photographing her home for my project on craftsmen (and women). One of my favorite things about working on my own projects is being able to take a bit of time with these people and shooting their space. You can't really get to know a space by just showing up and shooting it right away. Spaces, like people, have moods. They change with the light, with the season, with what is going on in the person's life. Yesterday, I was able to just watch the light in Maria's house as it bounced off walls and ebbed and flowed with the day (see the two shots today of the same room only a couple of hours apart). I love being able to watch light. It is how you get the most beautiful image. Patience. And the beauty of being able to go back a second (or third, fourth or fifth) day to see what mood the space is in is how you really reveal what a space is really like. And somehow, I think it reveals what the person that lives there is like as well.

nostalgia/

Isn't it always the way... I have been asking all the people in my craftsmen project to go through all their stuff from the past...basically looking at their entire careers and pulling out important things for me to shoot.

Yesterday, my sister and I descended on my Dad's house to clean out underneath his house. (I was elected to go under the house with all the dust, cobwebs and black widows - oh the joy!) I had no idea what I would be going through was my entire artistic life. In the dustiest of boxes that we excavated from underneath there was almost every significant piece of art I have done in my life. Every bit of graphic design work I did in high school,  so many of my first forays into photography and even my entrance portfolio for Art Center were there to peruse. It was rather humbling...

So I am continuing in the same spirit now that I am back home. I have been looking at some of my past work from older versions of my website. This image is one of my favorites from one of my road trips through the South. It is actually in an old slave cabin on a plantation in Louisiana...kind of depressing, I know. But that window light...