Smile - its cheap !

I was editing today and came across these 2 images of mine , 16 years apart. Amazing how the Mona Lisa's smile is so similar to the Catholic school girls smiles.

Making the image of the kids was an amazing day. I was outside in the streets close to that church with my 8x10 Deardorff camera over my shoulder, and the lady in the very back of the scene had asked me inside the church activity room to meet the priest and kids.

I can only imagine what they all are doing today.

    

Paris  2 0 0 6

Saugerties NY 1994

Saugerties NY 1994  8x10 contact print (document view)

Lake Luzerne

The Good Kind of Bills

Eggleston and Klein. Gotta love these two .

 

                                                          Copyright by William Klein

                                                            Copyright by William Klein

                                     Bill Eggleston

                                                                             

November Sky

Self Inflicted

The artist as subject has long fascinated me.

Lee Friedlander,Robert Frank, John Coplans,and Cindy Sherman to name a few , have pointed their cameras at themselves to document their physical changes thru the decades.

I myself until recently have never been that comfortable or all that interested in what I look like.

I'm going to be 47 in a little over a month - and its starting to show".

Not in a bad way, as I'm in excellent physical shape. I've done an Ironman Triathlon , 7 or 8 marathons and still get my daily workouts in .

What I see are the signs of life finally showing up in my face and hands. I've raised a family and did my best to create a comfortable home........its starting to show.  

Not sure where this is going , or how its going to evolve but here's a few to start with.

Be well and take a big ass bite out of the world today.

Driving Range

America's Oldest Driving Range, Route 9, Saratoga , NY  2010

All rights Reserved  Michael Lardizabal  2010

A Daughter's Eye

I'm very blessed to have a daughter that never ceases to amaze me.

She's entering university this Fall as an Engineering student, but her skills with the camera show more than just promise. These happen to be on my laptop for some reason. I hope she doesn't mind me sharing them for now.

From her trip to Rome and Switzerland 2 years ago..........

She takes pictures like she writes. Transparent, clear as lake water.

I'm so very proud to be her father.

3 0 3   Michael  Lardizabal  Copyright 2010

                                                         Untitled   Michael  Lardizabal  Copyright 2010

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

Spring Sketches

Kinderhook Creek at Stuyvesant, New York  2010

Hudson , New York  2010

Hudson , New York  2010

By mid April I find myself once again drawn to afternoon light, especially in the East coast where it glows around

3:30-4 o'clock in the afternoon.

Falling shadows can take on heroic proportions and lingering light..... loud as bells !

Hanley Road

Tender is the Day

Tonality .

For me its everything.

Just the other day I was talking on the phone with a person I've never met.

He was helping me get in touch with a fellow neighbor who used to live in the house that he now owns., I guess its a small town thing where people still freely give up information to anyone asking. " oh yeah Joe ! he moved on down to Spencertown. Let me go grab his new number " .
 
There was an amazing grace to his voice. One of genuine kindness and caring, almost tender.

I imagined him as the quintessential grandpa, someone's husband of 40 years, a good man.

One to almost emulate in the cadence of life.

The effect of that day is still fresh in my head. Its reaffirming to know that the human spirit is alive and contagious. So much so that its prompted me to put together this group of photographs of my wife and daughter.

Cape Cod 1997

The Michael Lardizabal's , 1999

Halloween , NY 1997

43 Albany Avenue, NY 1997

Upstate NY, 1997

Nestle, Chatham NY  2000

Amanda , West Stockbridge, Ma. 1999

Cape Cod  2000

Claudia , New York  1999

  Maine  1997

Florence 2006

I'm editing a group of panoramic work that most likely will be in my upcoming book amongst other new material .

One of the things I didn't plan or intend on doing while over there was to make panoramics .

After all , Florence and Venice are so densely packed that my original thought was to work the crowds as tapestry in a flat plane but I ended up wanting to take in more.By the end of the first week the marriage of the crowds and architecture were more honest to me .

The test prints so far seem to work in a 65 inch print length., maybe even bigger.

This group was all done w/ a Fuji 6x9 Pro medium format camera. Also known as the Texas Leica to its users.

I think Atget would have approved of the camera.

In my next entry I'll upload some of my studies of Bruneleschi's Duomo which I truly feel is God's house.

My wife and I have this habit where we like to leave nickels and pennies in some nook or cranny of a special place so that we can one day go back and see if they've been claimed or are still there awaiting our return.

Oddly enough...we couldn't find a spot within this area of Florence...but if you find yourself at the Boboli Gardens and Fort Belvedere we left a few there. 

The Anti-snow show

Untitled Thoughts..........

Henry Hudson's River

I first saw the mighty Hudson River in 1993. 

Back then I was still living out West in California and although I had visited New York several times-

my view of the Hudson consisted mostly from the air while flying over Albany.

That Fall I was photographing the  historic manors of the Hudson River Valley .

My first stop was Clermont.

If memory serves me right, this is where I first found myself connected and mystified by the Hudson. 

This is the mighty river that captivated  numerous explorers, the lifetime obsession of Frederic Church,subject of

countless stories and poems....

It never fails to take my breath away.

Looking South, Clermont view  2010

Livingston's Tree , upriver, Clermont view  2010

Vine Flower ,  Clermont grounds, NY  2010

Old fence, railroad tracks, Clermont  2010