"Tehachapi Loop Hoop Dance, California" (c) 2012 Stu Jenks
Y'all know how much I love the Tehachapi Loop. And I've done hoop dances all over, don't you know. About time I did a hoop dance near a very large man-made hoop.
And again, I'm attempting to make something new and old at the same time, echoing back to William Morris and the Arts & Crafts Movement yet building of the SFX of current modern aesthetics.
"Almond Orchard Star Circle, California" (c) 2012 Stu Jenks
Again, going for a cross between the British Aesthetics and the Arts & Crafts Movement of the 19th Century and the American Contemporaries of the 21st.
And I love serendipity, that Dada moment where the meteorite crosses near The North Star during shooting. Blessed accidents.
Image: "Queen Esther Baptist Church, Lancaster, Virginia" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks (Just down River Road from Victoria's house. Love that luscious red carpet. And for you nocturnals out there, it was handheld. Rare for me.)
In this time of making photos on iPhones and Macbook Pros and only looking on screens, I forget I'm a old-school guy. I make a 8 1/2 x 11 work print on archival paper of EVERY image I make. EVERY one. It's the only way, for me, to accurately check for color shift, density, composition, etc. I really like my iPad screen but it's no way to make a good print.
And I have hundreds, if not thousands, of work prints artist proofs at my studio.
If you see an image of mine on The StuBlog or on my old website or on the Fezziwig Press Store or in any of my books, there's a beautiful small print in a box somewhere, perhaps with your name on it. And since I'm organized, I can find it.
Many of you can't afford my larger prints. I understand. I don't have an extra 50 or 100 lying around either. But I do have an extra $20 for stuff I really like.
So if you see an image of mine on any of my sites or in any of my books and you want it, it's yours for $25, shipping, handling and tax included. (I believe in paying taxes, sales and otherwise.)
Just email me at my facebook page or through the StuBlog or at stujenks@gmail.com, and tell me what print you would like or just pull the jpeg and send that to me.
I was just watching the Tarhells lose today in basketball, working on images at my computer when I thought, 'I bet people don't realize I have boxes of work prints here.'
You all do now.
Love and light,
Stu
p.s. Ignore the catagories belows. The computer went wacky. Another reason why I prefer a print in the hand as opposed to an image in The Cloud.
The first draft of the novel is done!!! It came in at 149,000 words, 552 pages in my document. Yeaaaa! I can't tell you how good it feels. The ending made me cry, as I hope it does you. (Last word in the novel, which won't change in revision: Sighs.) I want to jump right back to the beginning and start revisions, but Mary Ann suggests I take more than just a couple days off. OK. I'll take off three or four days. LOL. But then it's fixing this and revising that, then off to the editors. And I have ideas for the next novel in this series, too. I have some pretty great characters, I think, and I want to see what they will do next. But first things first. Get this novel to print.
One serious note: It took about a year to write this novel, but it almost didn't get done. With Mary and Pamela dying and all, I didn't work on it for about six weeks and it was so hard to get my momentum back. But I did. But it was difficult. If you are working on a novel or a large work, I recommend you plow through, even if the field is frozen. I've been told I'm very lucky to have gotten back on track.
Speaking of track, good luck to Danica Patrick tomorrow in the Daytona 500 and in the rest of Sprint Cup and Nationwide races this season. I might just have to go up to PHX next Saturday to watch her race.
By the way, did I mention I finished the freaking first draft of the novel?
Yeaaaaaaaaa!
300 plus pages into the first draft of the novel. My main characters have just gotten off the train in Yuma. They'll be spending the night in Yuma, getting back on the Sunset Limited in the morning. God willing and the writer doesn't change his outline, they should be home in Tucson, tomorrow.
I'm guessing there's only about 70 to 100 pages untl I get to write the big climax of the novel. (I have a nice, hopefully-very-satisfying ending planned.) Then re-write and editors but that's then, not now. Now, I just want to share some more Graphic Pen images (and some straight photographic ones) that will be chapter heading images for the book. And just if you are wondering, Graphic Pen images are easier and cheaper to print lithographically and a little easier to design and upload for the IPad, Kindle and Nook. Anyway, have a happy Twenty Twelve, y'all, and don't forget to enjoy the mystery of it all.
"Chapel Of The Nativity, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, California" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks
Merry Christmas, everyone. I'll be back in the studio on the 27th. See you then.
Been working on a backlog of images that may be chapter headers for the novel I'm writing. Images from Memphis, Pacifica, San Francisco, Picacho and Barstow.
I have been on the road a lot this year, haven't I? From North Carolina, Virginia, California, and parts inbetween.
It's good to be stationary for a while, working at my desk, with cool wet night air drifting in from outside, and the smell of lavender on my hands from a living plant I purchased today.
Happy Solstice everyone.
The Sun will return.
Been a long time coming for The Transpersonal Papers (1861-2010).
Three editors, two proofreaders, two designers, four printers, and hours, days, weeks, months, years, lifetimes, (I know I'm overstating), of writing, traveling, shooting, editing, remembering, hiking, and more writing, shooting, and editing, but I'm not complaining. No, no, no.
And apologies for not having the dough right now, to print The Transpersonal Papers as a coffee-table book as I had originally planned. ($10,000, it would have cost. Maybe someday.) But you now can buy it, for $14.95, as an Ebook on the Apple IPad, and I expect it to be available within a couple days on the Nook and the Kindle as well.
I just looked at it on my new IPad. The photos, text and design look grand.
And as an extra surprise, Bozo In Love is now up on IBooks too, ($9.95), as well as the rest of my catalog: Flame Spirals, Hoop Dancing, and Dementia Blues, on IBooks, Nook and Kindle.
Just in time for Christmas.
And don't worry. All but The Transpersonal Papers can still be bought as a book book through Fezziwig Press. I have plenty. Just go to www.fezziwigpressonline.com, for the hardbounds and paperbacks, but go to ITunes, today, (and Kindle and Nook, soon) for the ebooks.
Heavy sigh from my third story apartment balcony. I look out onto the Tucson city lights in the valley below. Cold, dry air embraces me. I inhale deeply. Exhale.
A very good night in the desert.
Think I'll make a cup of coffee with egg nog and play some Angry Birds on my new IPad.
Time to celebrate.
"Holy Man, San Francisco, California" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks
I made the mistake of not writing down the address in San Francisco where I took this image. If anyone knows who this holy man is, please let me know.
And thanks to everyone who came by my studio yesterday. Was great to see y'all. I'll be there this afternoon too, from 11 to 5. 549 N. 7th is the address. Thanks again.
"The Tehachapi Loop At Night, California" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks
This negative was exposed for around three hours on a moonless night, using my old Rollei, loaded with Efke Infrared film. The infrared was just what I had in the camera at the time, but it may have made the hills in the distance glow more than they would have, if I had been shooting with my usual Ilford Delta film. The f-stop was 5.6, if you care.
I was parked, that night, atop a hill overlooking this wonderful engineering feat in the southern Sierra Nevadas. I slept during most of the exposure, awakened on occasion to the grinding of steel on steel or to the high squeeks of wheel bearings or to the low rumble of a many-tonned locomotive passing by below me. I smiled each time I awoke.
My guess is you are seeing the lights of around a dozen trains in this photograph, maybe more. And as I've said before on the StuBlog, if you are ever on California 58 east of Bakersfield, you need to stop and experience The T-Loop.
Lastly, the sepia tone was added in Photoshop, the negative was scanned at Photographic Works in Tucson, and the map below was lifted from trainweb.org.
