Busy week, but not without some good link finds.

• I've thoroughly enjoyed reading seminar notes from the PDN Photo Plus Expo on the PDNPulse Blog.  Of special interest to me were Website Dos and Don'ts and Boosting Your Site's Search Engine Rankings.  Definitely some good technical stuff in there for me to try out this weekend.
• I'm sick and tired of talking, hearing, and seeing electoral politics.  November 4th, you can't come too soon!  However, I was really impressed by photojournalist Callie Shell's images of Barack Obama on the campaign trail -- then and now.
• My husband -- a software engineer by trade -- has been looking at many, many strange visualizations online this week.  Tonight he sent me Shape of Song, visualizations of popular songs by computer scientist and new media artist Martin Wattenberg.  Here is Mozart's Jupiter Symphony:

A rough draft of a piece of creative non-fiction inspired by the Urbanite's "invention" theme:

My eye caught on a specific pile of dust on the floor. Through some bizarre pattern of foot traffic or air currents the threshold to the upstairs bathroom serves as a catch-all for lint, dust, and tumbleweeds of cat hair. I ran for my camera.

With my belly on the oak floorboards I spun the aperture dial to let in plenty of light, narrowing depth of field and intensifying the pure, white sunlight making fuzzy highlights on every stray hair.

Of course for a time I troubled my mind over the validity of photographing the intimate details of my house. I expected most photographers proved their worth by way of innovative subjects, new places to shoot, seeking and finding. In the end I couldn't deny my captivation with domesticity. I stole many sunny mornings before work to document the quality of light across the floorboards, the particular arrangement of a stack of library books on the table, crumbs, a dish out of place, a warm halo around my bedroom lamp exposing a deep, blood-red wall.

As I fumbled around on the floor to frame my shot I was briefly concerned about getting my sweater dirty. Had this much dust really accumulated in a week? With each smooth motion of the shutter I reinvented my space. I saw my home anew. At once I wove an elaborate story and documented my surroundings simple as they were.

I continued on my way eventually, replaced the lens cap and vanished into another household project. Those images I created stayed frozen in the camera, waiting to be pulled out and pressed and polished, made into something altogether unique and not at all the mundane bits of dust settled on the floor.

Lots of links this week.  Here's what I've been seeing:

• A coworker recently signed up for Google Reader and what came with the default "photography" folder but A Walk Through Durham Township, Pennsylvania.  I wondered why the next township over from where I grew up in Bucks County warranted such attention, but I learned as soon as I visited the site.  These are stereotypically beautiful images capturing the quintessential vision of America.  Right now the current picture is Silver Maple Leaves Falling into the Delaware River at Dawn, and it makes me a bit homesick.
• A friend of mine works as a runner for the Dr. Phil spinoff The Doctors, which makes for an interesting iPhone-powered Posterous photoblog.  When he posted "Me and a pile of lard" it gave me pause, but imagine my surprise when I see the next post is "I am driving human fat around Beverly Hills."  Now I'm wondering, what kinds of weird jobs do people get themselves into when they move to LA?
• A blip on the PDN Pulse blog (brought to you by the editors of Photo District News) that I'll be sure to mark with a star and save for later: making a good impression when you're marketing your work to gallery owners, photo editors, etc.  The article really stresses being able to speak articulately about your work: know what it is you are doing and have good words to express that to the folks you want to impress.  Duly noted.  I'm glad I carry around a notebook so I can jot down any thoughts I have about my work during the day.  There are some good "business of art" pearls of wisdom in there.
• Ordered my Moo MiniCards this week (see previous entry) and had a lot of fun cropping my images into tiny rectangles.  Hopefully they turn out as unique and beautiful as the free samples I got in the mail on Monday.
  

Today I prepared a little something about thinking and writing about my work on a regular basis, and how that process is essential to having materials at ready for exhibition opportunities. Then I came home from work and discovered my free mini-card samples in the mailbox.

I recently took advantage of the 10 free cards Moo offers to new Flickr Pro users. Moo interfaces with your Flickr account, making it super easy to order business cards, mini cards (half-size, trendy business cards), stickers, postcards, and more.

Tempted though I was to order a full 100 cards right away, I wanted to take advantage of the free sample offer in case I got them and they were low-res, flimsy, or had some other shortcoming I'd regret spending $20 to discover.

What arrived in the mail today proved to me the massive value in giving away free samples. Just like the man at the farmer's market who enticed me into his tent with spicy ginger tea, these cards gave me a little taste and left me feeling like I could not go another day without buying more. They are printed on sturdy card stock with a depth and quality of color that really does the images justice. The proportions are a little odd, so giving someone a card is like giving them a little free sample of your work – hopefully they are intrigued enough to want more.

The back of the card is a blank slate, completely flexible. In addition to my vital contact information, I chose a Creative Commons license and the exposure time of the photo shown on the front of the card (automatically pulled from the image data on Flickr with no added effort anywhere on my part).

I will definitely be ordering a set of 100 of these cards this week. Self-promotion is so important, and at this level it needs to be done in a way that I find fun and comfortable. My husband remarked that these cards are “too pretty to give away.” Hopefully they make that much of an impression on everyone, because I've been searching for the business cards that are “just right” for my personal taste and style and these just may be it.

Just one link today, and it's for my fellow Baltimoreans this time.  This weekend, I'm going to set aside some time to enter the Baker Artist Awards.  If you live in the greater Baltimore region maybe you should, too:

In honor of Blog Action Day, I'm going to revisit my “day job:” a topic I haven't written about in months.

As I neared graduation with my bachelor's in fine arts, I realized I didn't want to support myself with my craft. In art school the mantra seems to be: work toward losing the day job, that is how you define absolute success.

Is it? What career options exist for the visual artist who wants other work; who cares deeply about social change but does not want to turn her art into political commentary? Certainly, my school's career center offered no viable options when I asked that question a couple years ago.

Luckily, I found AmeriCorps and enlisted as a VISTA (that is, Volunteers in Service to America). VISTA is the national service program dedicated to eradicating poverty in the U.S. -- a lofty goal, but one we've been striving for since 1964. The commitment is full-time for one year and comes with a modest living stipend and basic health benefits. A $4725 education award is payable upon successful completion of a term of service.

See, the idea of military service has always appealed to me, but it's just not possible given my personality type. Little did I know, folks like me have fantastic opportunities to serve our nation and make an enormous contribution to society.

I promised myself a short post this evening, but before I go I will say this: both Barack Obama and John McCain have said AmeriCorps needs to be expanded.  Obama actually promises to increase the ranks from 75,000 to 250,000. McCain rightly points out that anyone interested in “small government” should be advocating for such an expansion.

For once, the Republican Party is right, in theory if not in practice: government can't solve everyone's problems. What it can do is find programs in the non-profit sector that work and give them the funding they need to apply their solutions on a larger scale. It can draw upon the ingenuity and passion of the American people and give them the opportunity to go to work for our nation.

Polls are looking good for Barack these days, so I hope he follows through on his promise – and soon. Two out of three people haven't even heard of AmeriCorps, so I encourage you to check out what AmeriCorps has to offer for you, and if you're not called to serve, consider contacting your representatives and letting them know this solution should be the keystone to the war on poverty.

We just arrived home after a three-day weekend with family in Pennsylvania. While it feels great to be back in my house at last, being “home” in October was absolutely intoxicating.

Climbing around on the red rocks of the Tohickon Valley with my husband and sister, I couldn't get enough pictures. Water, orange and yellow leaves, gravel roads, shale cliffs. While I lived there I hardly took pictures of my surroundings, most likely because as a teenager I took it for granted. Really. Here is the driveway I traveled up and down every time I went to school, work, Doylestown, boyfriend's house. Alongside it, a road nearby:

This weekend was full of small details: weathered wood, leaves crunching, the algae-on-wet-rocks smell of the creek. I delighted in each picture I took, and even got my 10-year-old sister to bring a camera out as well.

In the end, though, the treasures on my SD card at the moment are the brief video clips. These capture the essence of walking, driving, even sitting on a protruding rock in the middle of small rapids in the Tohickon. I hope short clips like this will preserve as well the unique smell and feel of my original home. Overall, we had a delightful trip. It will be hard to return to work tomorrow, letting it all drift out of our minds to be stored in these pictures, both moving and still.

I'm going to test out a new idea here: another weekly post with some finds I've made throughout the week.

• Influential photojournalist James Nachtwey is using the $100,000 TED Prize to spread awareness about extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB).  The pictures are an intense in terms of the abject human suffering displayed, but with that word of warning are worth a serious look: http://xdrtb.org/photographs.php
  
• The Artists Review Artists Project connects artists via the internet for peer reviews.  Participating artists exchange one JPG image of their work and write a 100-500 word review.  Upon receiving your review, you have the option of responding with no more than 100 words and providing an additional image.  To participate, check it out here.
• Some of my nighttime photos are on the JPG Magazine website for consideration for future issues.  They take the form of a little photo essay.  Check it out and cast your vote!
  

While I didn't enjoy taking a sick day on Friday, I had a several unexpected hours alone in the house under daytime lighting conditions. And though my entire body ached, I managed to take some very fast photographs.

Generally, I tend to be careful and calculated with my compositions. Straightforward images draw attention and thought to the subject matter and make for a more intellectual experience.

Lately, though, I've happily explored my boundaries in terms of speed and spontaneity. Whereas I have premeditated my domestic photos up to this point, during my time home sick I moved the camera quickly and took advantage of several different subjects as I meandered around the house.

These “faster” images also take longer to reveal themselves and sometimes leave some loose ends, like in this shadow photo:

Even more obvious subjects such as the sewing machine and window propped open could perhaps be interpreted differently by different people.

I feel like these images add a newer layer of depth to the work I've been doing. Continuing to break larger scenes down into small details, they may even provide a more “genuine” representation of my existence in my space. After all, I find small details clinging to my mind's eye, not the overwhelming generalities of an entire room. These two breeds of images will create a rich conversation hanging on a wall together – hopefully a not-so-distant next step in their lives.