I was thrilled to pieces last week when my schedule included a stop at this family’s home, it’s been a couple years since I’ve seen these adorable cuties and I couldn’t wait to see how much they’ve grown!!  I’m never not having fun when I photograph them and their parents – such a beautiful, amazing family with beautiful and amazing kids and a beautiful and amazing new puppy!

(I think I’m going to exceed my “beautiful and amazing” quota for the day…I’d better be careful…)

I is turning 8 soon (like perhaps even maybe today) so here is my birthday joke for the day to one of the most adorable girls I know:

 

What did the frosting say to the cake?

“Mind if I “stick” around?”

Ok, enough silliness.  The point of this post is to showcase a couple of highlights from our session together about three days later than I planned.  🙂  I’ve been horribly under the weather this past few days so my apologies to Amanda for getting this up a little late.  Here are a couple of sneak peeks for the bday gal & her fam.  Love!!

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Just a glimpse into an amazing and fun session with a pretty awesome family that I love!!  Thanks for stopping in!   xoxo, Mare

 

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This month’s theme is “Shadow Play” and I couldn’t wait to post this image from this past fall. The moment I saw the theme I thought “YES! I have it! Perfection!!”

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Now please take the time to go visit the lovely & talented Corey Sewell, one of my favorite Atlanta Baby and Child Photographers – I can’t wait to see what she’s cooked up this month!

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  • Anna-Karin - February 26, 2012 - 9:22 pm

    That is adorable!! I can see the joy in her face coming up with the shadow. Great choice for this months theme!

  • Tara McGlinchey - February 26, 2012 - 11:25 pm

    What a fabulous shot! Love her expression.

  • Anna Mayer - February 27, 2012 - 10:01 am

    I love that. She is actually “playing with shadows”. Looks like a monster or something. Shadows are one of the great childhood mysteries/joys.

  • Corey - February 27, 2012 - 10:37 am

    So fun, Mare! I love how she is concentrating on creating just the right shadow – too cute!

  • Dena Robles - February 28, 2012 - 11:08 am

    Sweet! My favorite bit is how she seems to playing with her own shadow.

So it’s been a couple of months since I participated in the Elevate Fine Art Exploration study but I am THRILLED to be back.   Last month I had to bow out at the last minute due to illness but I am happy to share in this cool little project that I am very proud to be part of.

So traditionally fine art photography is photography that someone would want to hang in their home as an art piece but I’m going to veer away from that this month and show off an ongoing project that I have sort of inadvertently taken on over the course of the past several years.  I didn’t start on this as a project intentionally, it sort of took form over the course of the past 2-3 years.  Now I feel like perhaps it is a project to document my life as I have progressed on a sort of life journey (more on that in a moment).

It’s known that some artists document themselves, some to the point of obsession, it’s not the case here – I tend to self photograph only when the whim hits me, some weeks it’s several times and other times months go by without one photograph of myself.

It is written that Rembrandt sketched his own face thousands of times during his tumultuous life.  There are theories about this “obsession” (I disagree that it was an obsession).  Some suggest that he was his most readily available model, other theories go deeper and suggest that he used his visage to test new (painting and sketching) techniques.  Still others suggest (and this is my favorite theory) that to a greater extent his self portrait studies were done as an outlet for feelings & ideas concerning the nature of human existence.  That’s my favorite theory because I find myself questioning these very things during this stage of my life, I feel like I am on this extended life journey that has to do not only with self expression of others but also trying to find the root of my own existence.  That as well as coming to fully embrace and accept my own existence on this planet, in this plane – however you choose to look at our human condition.

Please don’t think I’m being all fancy with the work that I am doing, I am using the simplest tool I have, my iPhone 4 camera.  My husband often jokes that my iPhone camera is a narcissists’ (wet) dream because it has created a little bit of a monster as I search for perfection in my own human condition – I am far from finding it, by the way.

So for this month’s exploration please allow me to share some of my “work”, I joke with friends that I am looking for the perfect Facebook profile photo but that isn’t it, I’m simply seeking something in myself – what it is…I don’t know but the Facebook perfect profile photo is something we can ALL relate to.  I suspect Rembrandt never found what he was looking for (and if he was around at the time of Facebook I suspect he wouldn’t have any of that nonsense!).  I’m ok with not know what it is I seek – honestly I’m just enjoying the journey.

So bear with me and my exploration of self in self “portrait” study.  These images were done with a purpose in mind, I truly believe that I only can recognize my OWN vision in my art by recognizing myself and my place in the world.  I know that I open myself up to criticism about self indulgence and although that may be true on some level, at the heart of it I feel in every fiber of my being that until I know myself fully I cannot judge others – be it their intentions or their beliefs.  This is huge for me.  So huge that it defies explanation, it’s an experience one has to live.

Ok, I’m bearing my soul here, some of these are dumb, silly, cute and just plain WTF inducing.  Enjoy!

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This shot (above) makes me smile, I like the eyesmile here.  🙂

 

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I found this tutorial on this hair do on Pinterest, it’s one of my favorite shots – isn’t that funny?  It doesn’t show anything of ME but I love it

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I’m including this one because it’s sort of dumb, me hanging off the bed seeing how gravity deals with my facial structure

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This shot is in the SkyLofts at MGM Grand after I left a party at WPPI 2011 last year.  All of Vegas at my feet (as if!).

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My extremely talented friend Dena made me this awesome scarf (which I wrapped around my head as a joke)  I like how the photos of my daughters are in the background of this shot

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This seriously grainy shot was taken at House Of Blues, super dark in the restaurant but I liked the ceiling behind/above me and the memories associated with this night out with my husband to see CAKE

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Finally this was taken at home, I like the light as it falls on my face and how the shadows are filled with skin color

 

 

I’m sure there’s a treat in store at the next stop on our Exploration blog circle, you will be visiting  Arroyo Grade California fine art children’s photographer  next, she’s a talented friend (and I look forward to meeting her face to face in the next week at WPPI 2012!!)

 

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  • Gina K. - February 13, 2012 - 10:10 am

    Love this! Great self portrait exploration, and you can tell that you are really enjoying the process. You definitely have some FB profile keepers in there :).

  • Nichole Van - February 13, 2012 - 10:24 am

    LOVE that you shared this, Mare! Not only do I love seeing your cute face, but I love your sense of wonder with what it means to just be human, haha. Love it!

  • wendy - February 13, 2012 - 2:31 pm

    OK, I love that you did this for this month’s post! Being in front of the camera is so hard for me. I love that you are exploring “self”. And you are too cute!!!

  • kamee june - February 13, 2012 - 5:50 pm

    i think we should make this one of our themes for one of the months: self portraits! i really enjoyed this, so much! cheers, to you!!

  • jefra - February 13, 2012 - 10:28 pm

    I love this whole theme! What a cool idea for an Elevate post. And number two – the earring – the best!!!

  • Jennifer N - February 14, 2012 - 12:04 am

    you are so fun! you all should make a self portrait fine art month 🙂

  • Cara - February 14, 2012 - 5:27 am

    What an interesting fine art concept. and executed with your phone, nonetheless.

  • Renee P - February 18, 2012 - 10:23 am

    How fun! Getting in front of the camera can be so hard

  • elizabeth pellette - February 26, 2012 - 11:58 am

    love to see your beautiful face

Last night I drove down to Wilmington, just south of my home, where my first studio resided from early 2007 until this past December.  Wilmington, as you may already know, was the former home of all things Marmalade (well if you came out to my studio anyway!) for almost five years.  The #1 reason Wilmington attracted my eye in the first place was because of an amazing old building, a delapidated train depot built in the 1860’s.  The depot stood majestic, beautiful, aged, glorious, despite being shuttered up with mismatched plywood boards, its’ facade crumbling in pieces to touch for anyone who dared near it.

For me the depot was nothing but perfection.  While I discovered the depot long ago, I rediscovered it for photography purposes in 2005 when I started scouring locations for my newly birthed professional children’s photography business.

During the long days of summer, before I moved Marmalade Photography out there, you could find me and my (mostly) compliant (but often resistant) children at the depot stopping for some time in the shade of the brick building, photographing mini sessions together.  In my dreams, dreams I had only shared with my husband during this time, I had this SOMEDAY dream that maybe I would hit the jackpot with the lottery and be able to purchase this building for my very own studio purposes.  Was it illusions of grandeur?  Perhaps.  In my naive mind, the thoughts of a dreamer, it was completely attainable (no matter how prohibitive the cost!)  I had huge plans for this old, decaying brick structure.  I’d figure out a way to keep the old and bring it in with the new.  It would be mine.  I was mostly convinced of this.

That never came to pass and instead I moved my business into the North Water Street area of downtown Wilmington in early 2007.   I drove by that old depot regularly, it became the beacon to entering work mode for me.  The sight of the old building never failed to make me smile and dream of the “what if…” aspect of it.   In May 2007. upon almost completion of studio fix up, I had my first session out of the studio (I’ll include photos below).  This was a vintage themed session, something not seen often at the time (now very ubiquitous in our little photo world).  It was vintage not because of my vision but because the mom of the girls was SO into the historical aspect of where my studio was located (aided by my waxing poetically ad nauseum during our client intake process) that she brought all these AMAZING vintage props and we had a blast going from location to location in my old beat up town.  Of course our session together wasn’t complete without taking the girls to the old train depot up the street.

Through the almost five years that Marmalade Photography resided in Wilmington I used the train depot more often than I could count.  I used it for the amazing session with triplets that had me laughing the whole time, the shoot with the family with four brothers, some of my favorite people were photographed there by yours truly, I used it at workshops and mentorship programs with other photographers, I took my kids there, I continued to dream as I drove by it, clients always remarked at how awesome that old building was.  Without doubt it was an iconic building.  With its’ crumbling red brick exterior, covered with peeling old (probably lead!) paint and fluorescence, shoddy old roof, boarded up windows, occasionally open door to the bottom level where vandals and curiosity seeking types would break in to check out this formerly majestic site.

Some brilliant soul has done a YouTube video of my former friend, she really aged in the past year and it’s clearly evident why they had to do away with her.  Sadness fills my heart when I view it because her former glory is still evident behind her sagging exterior:

Sadly my dream is now ended.  I had to drive to Wilmington last night for an away volleyball game for my daughter.   I anticipated my usual excitement (and braced myself for that bit of sadness that was to be expected after leaving a beloved place that was a home).  As I drove up Kankakee Street towards the railroad tracks I immediately noticed the pile of rubble that took the place of my familiar old friend. All these years the familiar  that greeted my entry into the downtown area was GONE.  I was in shock.  Utter shock and disbelief.   I had no idea that this demolition was planned far in advance, to my knowledge there were still plans to move this structure somewhere else in town.  Imagine my disappointment that progress killed my beloved building.  Video killed the radio star.  High speed commuter train service killed my 1860’sish friend.

With that I bid adieu and am including a random sampling of photos taken over the years there.  It seems to be a fitting end to five great years in this amazing and sometimes comical old town.  Leading off with images of my first client session at the depot – here is a small sampling of work we created together:

 

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Oh I forgot to mention one last tidbit about my move out of Wilmington.  It seemed as if the universe spoke to me that everything would be all right, a confirmation that yes, I was making the right move at the right time leaving my Wilmington space.  It happened that on my last day, the day I was handing over my keys to my landlord, Charles,  a letter arrived from my friend and former workshop attendee and mentee Stefan.  In it was this great photo of my two girls at the train depot from 2008, it was my last piece of mail in Wilmington.  Given that this studio is no longer mine and this train depot is no longer Wilmington’s – it was a fitting end to an amazing run.  Goodbye old friend, thank you for helping me create beauty and art for so many grateful and wonderful families and for me.

 

Children

 

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  • Janine Dietz - February 10, 2012 - 11:08 am

    What a beautiful story to accompany your beautiful images. So sorry to see such an amazing building gone but I know that no matter where you end up, you’ll be creating just as beautiful images there too.

It was a very busy weekend here in Marmaland – the highlight of which was this wonderful opportunity to photograph Little H, she’s seven months old and filled with curiosity and happiness.  One of my favorite stages of a child’s life.  My thanks to her beautiful parents for inviting me into their home to capture photos of her at this amazing stage.

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We were fortunate to have a mild February day and were able to get a few images outside their lovely home in Old Town

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LOVE how her pea pod topped knit hat mirrors the pad she is lying on.  NEVERMIND she’s in foot grabbing stage!  Did I mention this is one of my favorite ages?

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LOVE this quiet, contemplative spot.

Welcome to the Marmalade Family Little H.  xoxo

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