All Lit up And Nowhere to go....

A couple of days ago I made a joke to a friend of mine in England who had some snow falling and posted a fb comment. (Sorry, Erin!)

Today, I have about two and half feet outside (and still rising).

Not that I usually object to snow, but I was due to fly home to Australia today (the airports are closed - and the highways). And I have my daughter's best friend stranded in our home because her parents went to a party and the weather report was SLIGHTLY off in timing! I have several neurotic animals and family members inside my house. And the white stuff keeps on falling.

But I do have an interesting group of shots to share this season with you.

And I would like to invite people to add their own photographs this season to this album.

It is an album (or collection) of photographs of houses decorated with Xmas lights in more interesting ways.

I have only a few rules. No street signs. No addresses. No car license plates. No offensive material. AND stick to JUST the subject.

And lets have a little fun. No promotional links or ads or yuck. Just your shots. You can add your copyrights if you want. Make sure to take credit for your own photos. And don't be offensive about other people's creative decorating skills. It takes A LONG TIME to set up lights, I am told by friends.

So join me. I am snowed in. I need the entertainment.

Sara Friedman

This is the link to my site. http://www.facebook.com/album.php aid=133549&id=49759662765&ref=mf

Postcards From Home???

When I was a child in Australia, there was a popular ad campaign that ran on TV for a camera/film (35 mm) company. They had a really catchy song that had lyrics along the lines of,"...the colours of Australia, they have a different hue...No other country has them, they belong to me and you". Now this like other ads of the time seemed rather corny and probably the only reason I remembered it was because it was about a new type of 35mm film this company was producing that was supposed to make the colours look wonderful.

Just before my 21st birthday, I left Australia and moved to the United States. I was not intending to go permanently. I was only visiting a boyfriend there, but as we grew increasingly in love during my trip... and I came down with pnemonia (Boston in Winter), I was delayed a while. One thing led to another, and now years later, and two teenagers later, I am a dual citizen, an Australian-American. And I have lived in several parts of the USA.

And the colours here really are different. Or should I say colors? The browns are a darker brown. The greens are a more brighter green. Every color is just completely different hues!

When I travel back to Australia, I use a different filter, I take photos at different angles and have to pay FAR more attention to the light. And night photography is not nearly as easy as I find with a digital camera in the US.

This past week on my FB pages, I shared several of my favorite shots from Australia taken over the years. Some of the more surprising responses were from some of the Australians I knew. Queries from where the shots were taken to how on earth I managed to get that shot of that place. To be honest, this collection of shots have been the hardest I have ever taken.

I think the saying that you can never go home is not quite stated correctly. It is more that you can never quite see it in the same way ever again. Ask any person who has ever immigrated from any nation to another and they will tell you that it was one of the hardest things they ever did in their lives and no, they will never stop loving their home.

Home. That word has such a loaded meaning in many different languages. For writers, the advice given to them, is to write what you know best. For photographers, however, capturing "home" is one of the hardest things we ever try to bring to people. I know. I have agonized over it for years. Should I photograph the Opera House? (too "done"!) The Row Houses? (too generic and English colonial... could be anywhere!) For me, Australia, and especially Sydney where I grew up around the Harbour area is deeply personal and I want my photos to bring my favourite beach, my ferry rides, my mossy Harbour rocks along the Pittwater.... all of this to you.

You see, as a Photographer, my greatest fulfillment is to bring my visions, feelings and experiences to you. I want to share my home as best as I can with you.

My case is, of course, complicated by the fact that I now have TWO homes. And TWO difficult familiar places to photograph. I know what the tourists see in each and I know what the people who live here do day-to-day (in both homes). I think the day-to-day is the more "honest" expression of the cities. Oh, and there IS an everyday side to the suburban of Washington DC. Trust me. Not very exciting. But there is one.

So the next time a friend brings you some pictures from their home to share with you... make sure that you pay attention. Those are REALLY hard to capture. If you don't believe me, try it yourself. Try to get the essence of your home. I don't mean the physical buildings and such, but the sense of what it is like to live there and what it was like growing up in such a place.

Next month, I travel back to Australia to be with my Mum and Step-Dad. They now live up in the Blue Mountains, one of the most beautiful parts of bushland outside of the city - a huge tourist destination. It is a smaller town built on a mountain plateau (I believe) overlooking a wonderful green valley. It has gorgeous rock formations ... but the best is the bird life. Parrots of many different colors come from all over to visit the area in warmer months.

Maybe I'll take some more photos while I am there. And let you share a little more of my home with me.

Smile... Shoot... It's Your Memories!!!

Albert Einstein once remarked that, "A photograph never grows old. You and I change... but a photograph always remains the same." He was talking about wonderful old photographs taken of his mother that he still had and how they captured a single moment in time, a single memory, forever. She would always stay forever young in those photos, he would say, and smile.

We all have those old photos in our homes. I have many on my walls and even more in boxes to still sort. They are all my memories and some memories of ancestors that have left scratches of notes on the back to the "future" generations such as my own. Some of these messages still have meaning like the Uncles and Aunts and Grandparents we can trace, while other messages like (my favorite) "Bess's dairy cow", may have been just a little more obscured by the passing of time.

I often forget about how important photographs are to people as a frozen reference in time, until I meet or hear of someone who has lost their collection. People who have survived house fires. People who have been through terrible floods. People who have had to flee their homes from political and/or religious persecution. They have lost those memories to gaze back upon.

It is no wonder that when people go through traumatic events at home, the first thing they do when they recover themselves, is that they go looking for what they have left of their lives, usually starting with the family albums. It is quoted as one of the most commonly sort after items in debris after fires and earthquakes and tornadoes.

Sometimes I forget that as an Art Photographer, when I capture moments, they can pass very quickly by. It's kind of like the way you feel a different age than you biologically are in reality. That is the closest analogy I can come up with. I still have photos of "Freedom Fries" stands from Atlantic City and other odd now "aging" items from History like that. Precious moments all captured on raw pixelage, filed away in boxes.

I guess everyone forgets every now and then that time can pass you by. My kids that were arguing youngsters "just the other day", are now both looking at colleges and in 10th and 11th grade. I joined a group online with my old High School classmates and found a heap of old photos, and am thinking of putting those up for friends. That was a funny reminder of how much time had passed and how much wiser (hopefully) we all are now than at eighteen.

I sent a package off to a friend recently without a thought to contact her first. I hadn't spoken to her in a while and she is elderly. It was a lovely portrait I took of her last year and I wanted her to have a copy. When I got the package back from UPS, I panicked. Time had passed. It had been over a year since I had last spoken to her. Maybe she had fallen ill or moved in with family? Maybe the economy had forced her to move? Lots of thoughts filled my head with worry. I had taken a picture of her frozen in time, a moment captured forever... that she may never get to see.

Luckily, packages are just badly directed (well, I'm not sure if this one was good luck!). But it had made me think for a while that I had done a really bad thing by letting too much time pass. This time I had not.

Looking over my portfolio I realize that often I have been mostly timely with my photography. I took pictures of Coney Island when they were threatening to dismantle the older sections (and will still). I have photographed the Mid-West USA during the recession. I photographed NYC during the Bush era. I photographed the temporary 4th July war memorial on Santa Monica Beach for Iraq and Afghanistan. I was in recession Boston after the Red Sox won the World Series. Go to my website and have a look. They are all there. (www.sarafriedmanartphotography.com)

My Great-Grandmother used to have a lot of rules for her house. One of the most important was, "Never let the sun go down on an argument". No one was allowed to go to sleep until all arguments were settled. That way, if anything went wrong, at least you had made your peace with each other. Even as a little child this made sense to me. When I was little I thought most people died in their sleep... so this was REALLY important. Now that I am older, I realize just how wise she really was. It was all about not letting time pass by.

I have been lucky to be with the people I love at some key times in my life. I have lucky to have been at some key places at times in my life for my photography too. We, as humans, are not captured in time, like a photograph. We have to take our moments as they happen or make them happen.

The great philosopher Marcus Aurelius said that, "Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current... no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away."

So, take your photographs of family and events as they happen. They will never come back again to photograph the same way. Especially your children, parents and pets. Actually... whatever you want to remember just the way they are right now.

Get our your camera right now and shoot. Don't wait for it to be perfect. Just take the shot and smile. It's your memory.

The Walk of Life

To sum up my Life...

Halloween is creeping up. I have flu. I also have a house full of teenage girls sleeping over for the holiday, compliments of my fifteen-year-old daughter who thought this would be the BEST time to have a Halloween Party. The CharityWorks GreenHouse ended today where my work has been on display in the lovely Virtual golf room. Deer are taking over my yard. My friend, Lynni Megginson, who has been working in the Virtual golf Room for the past 3 weeks (almost every day tirelessly), now has a sick child, probably from me. (See www.facebook.com/pages/Virtual-Golf-Girl) And I have learnt the Art of the ReTweet.

Now I know this sounds a little sad. But I have been stuck in bed.... constantly taking my temperature, and *coughing* everywhere. And, "yes", I did miss my flu shots this year -- surprise, surprise!! But I have had very little to amuse me but an iPhone and a Computer. So, I am NOT getting much photography done at all!!! And I am very frustrated with this part of my life, but I am getting to check out everyone else's photography online and to Twitter.

For instance. I have a friend on Facebook, Kate Benjamin, who took a fabulous photo to start off my Halloween celebration. See http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2901300&id=693003799 to get a glimpse of it. It reminded me of #legstuesday on Twitter where all the Twitter people take photos with their phones of legs and upload them to Twitter for a wonderful worthy cause to raise awareness of RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy) or otherwise known as CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome). This often difficult to understand syndrome can lead to limbs that just don't move. Just ask my friend @Carus925 on Twitter who deals with having to educate people on this each day of her life because she personally suffers from RSD.

So as I look around me this Halloween, and I think about all the (loud) sound coming from my basement, I can't really complain. I see lots of funny legs. And I really want to photograph them. Maybe I will this year. Maybe I will start an album of just legs for #legstuesday on Twitter.

Many professionals have much to say on the subject of being "role models". Many have more to say on how they should be "responsible" to society. But if we aren't, who is? I mean, who is supposed to be the ones to watch out for the next generation? I read the news (or watch it) most days and I don't like a lot of what I see. But then I keep on doing what I do and never change my path. I don't get out of my seat and write a letter to my Congressman which I KNOW will make a huge difference in that one vote. I don't volunteer in that particular charity I KNOW needs extra help this time of year. I don't give as much money as I should to charities in my area. I don't even keep my house as "green" as I would like.

But I am an Art Photographer. And I can take (great) photos.

So.... for this time around, I am going to try and help my friend on Twitter.

I know many of you don't have Twitter, so I will post my photos up on Facebook for you to see and try to give updates as much as I can.

I will take photographs of legs. All types of legs. And I welcome suggestions from everyone. And if you are on Twitter, join me @fototwit , and on #legstuesday, upload a shot of your legs and mark it with #legstuesday on the post and #RSD and #CRPS . That way the awareness will spread and you can help me spread the word. If you aren't on Twitter, just talk to people about RSD and read about it. Carus Culver (@Carus925) needs everyones help. I want to help her, and if your limbs move and you can see or hear the people around you moving this season, remember we all have a responsibility to each other in some small way.

Even if it is to just upload a cellphone photo to Twitter.

My name is Sara Friedman. I believe that I can make a difference in this world. You can too.

How to handle the Monet.

I just spent the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia with my husband. One of the highlights of our trip was, of course, visiting the beautiful Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house that he designed and decorated himself. Jefferson, as a man of the period of the Enlightenment kept himself unusually busy and had diverse interests and was well educated. Everything he found that he had trouble understanding, he tried to educate himself in, or spend the time to have someone around him educated in that particular field.

One thing that really caught my notice was his notebooks. They had these preserved at the museum rooms just down from the (magnificent) house. This was a man who had a large slave population to carry out his commands at Monticello, but he took a huge amount of time with all the details. He chose ever piece of furniture, every bit of wallpaper, designed the house, sent back measurements for every beam, delivered detailed floorplans and outer sketches of the house, and had NO ARCHITECTURAL TRAINING. And, by the way, he did this while he was largely the Ambassador to France and was abroad.

The notebooks and all their scribbled notes, sketches, measurements and details... are just incredible.

This set me to thinking.

Since I am in the middle of reorganization of my Studio (again) and have just finished my business paperwork this week for my art photography.... When did Jefferson sleep? I know he had all those slaves. Not that I condone slavery in any way ! But he chose to do a lot of it himself. How? When?

And then I thought about artists from years ago. How would a Michaelangelo do today in business as an artist, or Monet, or any of the more famous artists? Would they be able to keep up with government papers, Studio space, taxes, websites, blogging, Facebook, Twitter, social networking, keeping in touch with fans... while still producing their work? Would they get their filing done each night? Would they agonize over their business card stock? Or would some of the better-off ones just keep efficient personal assistants to track their UPS and FEDEX accounts and keep things straight in accounting on the computer?

You just have to wonder.

The first "image" artist I can think of was Andy Warhol. He was a great. He would do well today, I'm sure. But the more hermit-like artists... wow... how the world has changed! Marketing used to be a dirty word when I was a kid. Now it is the everyday. Not that I really have an "image" (lol)! THAT would be WAY too much work!!! I am no Andy Warhol!!! But still, everywhere I go, I not only carry cameras, but my iPhone. The cellphone takes so many pictures (as many of my Twitter fans know) when I travel, and at other times too. And everything goes up to Twitter ever day. Not the best way to take photos, but instant... and sometimes with maps! (yes, I have that app too).

I apologize to fans now. For all those times that I have not had this blog up in a timely fashion. For not having recent photos on my Facebook fan site (until a few days ago). For not working out how to link Twitter to Facebook until this week. And for not personally answering all the Twitter and Facebook and Website messages straight away.

But you should really try this job.

Not that I am complaining. Well... everyone envisions the life of an Art Photographer as exotic and fun. No one sees the paperwork and the site maintenance time. No one sees your family chasing you off the Twitter at the Dinner table. Or all the rest....

But then, all the wonder and beauty you have the chance to capture. All the things you see at home and when traveling. All the people you meet.

But "They" are right.

This is a FABULOUS job. And I wouldn't do anything in place of it in the world! I have trouble thinking of this as a job. I love it.

Well... maybe... a few additional things I would take on.... lol.

So... It's only 40,000 People.

I have spent the past week pondering the twists and turns of fate or choices in life that have led me to this particular point in my life. Don't we all sometimes?

I mean... as a teenager, I originally set out to be a veterinarian. I wanted to go to University to study to be one and suddenly in my last two years of high school there was a HUGE graduation of vets from colleges and universities from around the country (I am from Australia). So I changed my mind. To biochemical engineering. Like this made any sense at all. But I was 17, and when you are 17 and people tell you that you are really good at something and praise you and tell you that you can make good money in a certain job it definitely influences your decisions.

Yeah, okay. That wasn't my greatest decision I ever made with a sane mind. But at Sydney University I met some of my best friends, and met my American boyfriend who was a (shock) History Major. He ended up becoming my husband. Two kids later, an great and useful associates degree in Marketing, a lot of self-discovery, and (hopefully) a bit more wisdom... here I am.

And in Professional Art Photography.

Which somehow I feel like I always knew I was meant to be in. I came from a very artistic family (on my Mother's side). She is presently writing a novel and sketches and does oils. Everyone did something. They painted (oil, watercolor, and acrylics), carved, clayworked, worked on porcelain, crocheted fine lace, sketched... and much more. It was just assumed that if you were family, you were creative.

But I was into science. So, my Mother gave me a Brownie Box and began to teach me about balance and light and stuff. It was an old camera that had been around the house for a while and one that a small child could "play with". And I began to photograph. I started with my geranium pot plants. I loved my plants when I was little and over-watered them every day. Perhaps that is why they didn't do so well.

And after I started school there was a new camera. That one went everywhere in my pocket on trips with me. I took photos of everyone and everything I found interesting.

And then another camera... always bigger or more convenient ones.

And so the love story continues.

So the day I told my Mother that I was going to be a Professional Art Photographer, after years of her critiquing my work, it came as no surprise to her. It was only one to me. It was a long journey to find the artist I had always been (and kept hidden), within me.

Really, it started with my Doorways photos. The one I marked as my favorite was taken in SoHo years ago. I love that photo. That photo was the first picture I took that made me think that I could become more than just a casual photographer. And I still photograph interesting doorways to this day.

Now, I have a huge opportunity ahead of me. I have my photos on display in the CharityWorks GreenHouse which opens October 10th to the public. They are expecting about 40,000 people to pass through their doors. It is just a LITTLE scary! I have my golf shots and the woodland shot framed beautifully in the virtual golf room. You really have to see this room to believe it. It is just like playing a REAL round of golf! I kid you not!!!

And I must admit... I am scared, but so excited. The sale of my photos I'm donating back to the charity, anyway. Its a great charity to work with. And the publicity (hopefully) will be good for my work.

John Lennon wrote "Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans". (I think I have it right). But he was right.

And Life and Art, presently, couldn't be better.

My new Blogspot... and Looking at golf balls.

Summer is quickly passing in this part of the world. My two kids are back in school. I am eternally behind in updating the lovely webpage I have. My Mother has flown back home to Australia after spending some time with us in the USA. My husband is educating undergrads at the University of Maryland in the ways of sociology.

And I am looking at golf balls.

And you are probably wondering by now... after a Summer of great travel through Midwest visiting landmark cities and finding scenic old drive-in theaters, and then going half way around the world with 25 members of my family on a tour to photograph fabulous wildlife in South Africa.... Why golf balls?

And it all comes back to old friends. I met Lynni Megginson for the first time, three houses ago when I was looking for a sofa. I didn't know one sofa from another (and still don't) and couldn't fit furniture into any room I ever had. I had moved into a great house and wanted to redecorate and got stuck with one room, my living room, and how to decorate the troublesome spot. And I didn't much care for other colors in the house either. A neighbor of mine sent me to her shop (at the time) and I met Lynni, a very energetic and upbeat woman (and Ellen too), whom I immediately took a liking to. She took care of me like a sister and found my sofa (which I still have) and decorated my living room the way I wanted it, but better. And we found colors for the drab house.... and so it began.

Several, several years later (and two more houses which she has decorated for me), we are still friends. Her company, L&M Design, has grown to be a reknowned company not just in this area, but nationally. And now Lynni is working on a project of a lifetime... the Charity Works Green House. (www.charityworksgreenhouse.com).

All my readers MUST look up this project. It is a basic idea of building a "green" house in McLean, Virginia, using several noted decorators and designers that is a serious touch of luxury. I mean... If you can prove that a bigger house than the usual-sized green houses can work and look great and be (Did they say 80% more efficient than the average house per sq footage?), then this would draw some BIG attention.

And golf balls?

Oh? Lynni decided to ask me to provide some photos for the fun "virtual golf" room (you have to read about this!). These will be four small themed shots and a larger shot to go in the room.

And me... my friend, Lynni, I am having a ball!