One of our babies in now a book cover

I shot this a little while back, just some fun happenings in my house of three crazy cats and puppy. As most cats have a curious streak, I just like following her around with my camera and spending time in her world.

Pregnant friends...

Many of my friends are starting families. That doesn't leave a lot of time for their single friend who works and lives at night. I'm happy for them. I wish I could share more of it with them, but our schedules are in total conflict. So I am constantly making new friends...other single, un-obligated people. But most of them are younger and will probably be starting their own families soon. Repeat. Hopefully my network of friends will be family enough and I won't end up cold and lonely. Hopefully I'm a good enough friend to prevent that.

She decided she never liked him from the start.

Vietnam After Dark

I miss wandering around in the city streets of Vietnam at night.  There are so many nameless small alleyways to explore with its various nuances and character.  This one lead to an amazing restaurant that served one of the best Vietnamese Crepes I ever had, the mixture of sweet, spicy, sour and crunchy tenderness was made to perfection.  Doing the nightbeat is a bit like treasure hunting, and this was definitely a hidden gem.

55PN Polaroids

I have to say that I'm still deeply in LOVE with shooting film. I don't think that I'll ever be able to give it up. You can say it's my only true vice in life. I love the soft creamy look of film, the unpredictability, the not knowing whether you got the shoot, but when you do, it's magic! I still feel like I have so much more to explore with film and so much to learn. Don't get me wrong, I also love the immediacy of digital, the safe feeling of knowing I got the shot, but I don't think this girl will EVER get over the LOVE of film. It speaks to me and I will continue to shoot film till I can no longer...you can say, I dream in film...

Nostalgic for Film

It's been a long time since I've been able to shoot film. I really miss it and I'm super rusty at using my square format camera. I was able to take it out along with some slightly outdated film (oops!) this summer. I don't have the best scanner, but it works for just looking at proofs. In the future, I would like to use my digital camera a little less and pick up the film cameras a little bit more. A few pics from my journeys with my film camera. More of my extended fam and friends.

A day at the track.

The past few years of my life have been miserably chaotic...crisis mode and depression for much of it. It took me away from photography, my passion and my balance. I am not the type of artist whose work thrives on suffering. I create when I am happy. I have learned I need a muse. I haven't had one for a while. I'm back now, strong and happy...still lacking a significant muse, but sifting through the images I did manage to shoot during this time. I am currently trying to edit about 300 images down to a photo essay of a day in the life at the track. My brother-in-law is a horse trainer & driver of standardbred race horses: trotters & pacers, with the "jockey" being a driver in a sulky (race bike) behind the horse. He runs a stable at Pompano Park Racetrack in Pompano Beach, Florida, near Ft. Lauderdale. These are some photos of a typical day.

The day starts early, around 7am. The horses are enthusiastic about the activity. Racehorses are not typically as friendly and docile as riding horses. Many are young, ungelded males (stallions), and are quite feisty. Mostly they just want to play, and are not so much aggressive, as they play pretty rough. They are curious about me and my camera, so I had to use a wide angle to get close shots like these. Otherwise they would have slammed my camera into my face. I'm just out of reach.

Groomed, harnessed and ready to go for a training session on the track. He looks miserable, but they really do love what they do, and they have a good life.

On the move...

Training on the track. The grandstand and clubhouse in the background.

My brother-in-law, Peter, returning to the stable after training.

Bath time after a little cool down. My personal favorite to watch and photograph.

Horses are very expressive with their upper lip.

They are also very messy eaters.

More playtime with the lips. I guess that's really my favorite. So predictable too.

So there's a peek into my family life and loves.

Indian Wedding

This past November my family and I got to travel to India to attend the wedding of my sister-and-brother-in- law. His family is from Nasik which is about four hours north of Bombay. We were there for barely a week and it was a whirlwind of traveling, ceremonies, meeting new family, learning new customs, delicious food, upset stomachs and fun fun times. There were about 20 of us that traveled from the US to attend the wedding, and we all donned traditional Indian clothes for the three days of ceremonies. Wrapping a sari is an art in itself, and I had to have help getting dressed several days in a row. There's nothing like nine yards of fabric to make you feel completely intimidated, but also nothing like a bunch of graceful ladies fussing over you to make you feel special.

She is making SURE we knew about the tradition of stealing the groom's shoes and holding them for ransom.

He actually never paid up and had to go shoeless until the next outfit change.

clowns

clowns are recurrent in my photo life, hereis a serie I am working on with a make up artist...more coming!
Maquillage de Amelie BL

Art Photography versus Commercial photography

My first subject for this gossip magazine was a 88 Yrs old
actress Monique Mercure.Of course they didnt choose these
shots because I like them...
Amazing lady!!





The never ending question for certain photographers right? Right...So I recently took up a new client , a french canadian of really questionnable esthetic gossip magazine... Did you know that when you shoot for certain of these publications you actually have to bring your subject through a whole array of emotions , happy faces, sad faces, angry etc...because of course you give them a ton of image options and all the rights for ever and ever but in case something happens next year, that celebrity gets sick or what not, well there!! They already have a shot for the cover so they can be ready!Interesting concept....
So there, I started to shoot for them, they are a weekly publication so lots of work but I Can't help wondering how far we are supposed to go into Photography prostitution just to be able to create art ones...

Another test lost at sea...

Shooting fashion test or creatives gets a bit complicated sometimes...Booking a make up artist, stylist, finding a model just before she makes it big , all of these schedules are so hard to get together!!! And then when you didnt really know the artists often its disapointing...like this story who is not quite good enough to get publish but that i cant let go to the garbage yet...

Newlyweds

Both my husband and I work a lot. This is mostly what we see of each other. We both love our jobs and are passionate about them-he's a chef. He works hard, plays hard and sleeps hard. Sigh...