Artistic Ramblings

2007-10-27T18:05:00.000-07:00

These were taken at Laurel Hill Cemetary in Philly. I've never really seen a circular pattern like this on a gravestone before. It struck me as a pattern for a quilt or something, but I'm not sure how to use it yet...

2007-08-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

Annie being cute...

And photos of the Roxy that I need to send in with the video to WYBE for Philly Stories... The music is done, and we just have a little tweaking to do. It only took four years to make a 3 minute experimental documentary. Hehe. I'll post it once it's done.

Oh, and I forgot to add, these may very well be the last pictures my camera ever takes. It was spazzing out while we were at the Roxy, and taking wonderful photos like this....

It's not doing that any more at least, but I dont' know how much more life it has in it...=( I guess it's mad at me for replacing it with a video camera.

2007-05-01T05:08:00.000-07:00

I was playing around with iPhoto and came up with some interesting variations on some of my photos. Here are a few of my favorites compared with the originals.

My camera does not pick up purple, red, and orange very well for some reason, so this original picture is pretty, but a little flat looking. I think the color modification makes the iris pop from the background more.

Original Iris Photo

Color Modified Iris Photo

I like both versions of this tulip photo. My favorite part of the photo is the center of the flower where the sun really lights up the petals which contrast with the dark stamens. Changing the photo to black and white really accentuates that.

Original Tulip Photo

Modified Tulip Photo

Again, I like both versions of this photo. The original has soft pretty colors, but the black and white looks more dramatic and highlights the cracked paint more.

Original Train Rust Photo

Modified Train Rust Photo

2007-04-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

These were taken at Arroyo Burro Beach which is near my sister's house in Santa Barbara.

2007-04-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

These photos are from what we thought was Coal Oil Point at the time, but I think we were actually south of Coal Oil Point. Tidepooling in Santa Barbara was much fun. We saw lots of starfish and anemones...

...and even this cute little nudibranch. We found out later that this kind of nudibranch is called a Sea Lemon. It was very exciting to see him inching around in the sand.

We also found mysterious Santa Barbara Beach goo.

Which I stupidly stuck my finger in, thinking it was hardened rather than gooey.

But seeing as that was almost three months ago, and I haven't contracted any strange diseases from it, I think I'll be okay.

2007-04-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

I haven't been very good about updating this, but now that I'm done school, I want to start up again. I just set up an account on imagekind, so that's my inspiration for keeping my blog going and hopefully getting out and taking more photos.

Here's the link:
http://KathrynMorrison.imagekind.com/Kathryn

This is a collection of photos from the Santa Barbara Cemetery during my trip to visit my sister in January.

2006-10-14T13:36:00.000-07:00

Flowers are the theme for the day. Not appropriate, I know, since fall is here, but I don't have any good fall themed pictures. I'll have to work on that...

2006-10-11T15:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some more photos from my trip to Massachusetts over the summer.

This is my Make Way for Ducklings shot. The Public Garden was so nice. It's cool to think I could possibly be going to school right across the street from this...

This guy was in the rock wall I put up a picture of earlier. He was hiding in a geode.

This was on Cape Cod by a lighthouse. I don't remember what it was called...

This was also on Cape Cod. It was a rusty blade on a boat that was sitting on a dock.

2006-10-09T19:19:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from my trip to Ithaca at the end of August...

This is Ludlow falls. A storm that came through before we arrived had knocked down some trees and sent them over the edge of the waterfall. The water running over them was slowly wearing away the bark. It would be neat to go back now and see if they're still there, and how much the water has changed them.

This is a picture of a Touch-Me-Not that was outside my Uncle's house. They have a neat seed pods the springs open when you touch it hence the name.

These are some bed springs that were leaning up against the barn that is by my Uncle's apartments. I thought this might make a neat quiliting design, but I'm not exactly sure how to translate it into a quilt. I just really like the almost concentric circles and x's. I could see it in really bright bold colors. Or maybe even a white background with brightly colored thread used to quilt it. Hmmm...the possiblities.

This is Don at Ithaca Falls. He looked so little next to the huge waterfall, and he was mostly in shadow since the waterfall was pretty bright. I thought this was a neat picture, that sort of shows the scale of the falls.

2006-10-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

These are some neat bricks on the U Penn campus that were all fractured. I'm not sure how they got that way, be they look really neat. Quilt idea? Hmmm....
Anyway, I was on the U Penn campus because we were trying to use Rittenhouse Square as a filming location and that fell through. Thanks for being so helpful Fairmount Park Commision (said with sarcasm). Anyway, we going to try to shoot on the U Penn campus, because hopefully they'll be more student friendly and the campus has a city park feel at least. I'm sure it will work out wherever we end up shooting, but seeing as we only have a week from today until we shoot, it's slightly stressful. Seems this is the way all filmmaking is....Murphy's law.

2006-09-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

So it's official. I've been really bad about updating. But at least a picture now and then is better than no picture at all. And my excuse is, I've been hard at work directing and producing a short film which I'm shooting in two weeks, so hopefully that will make it up here someday.
Anyway, here's a photo. It's from my trip to Massachusetts over the summer. In Province Town there is a house that has a stone wall around it and geodes imbedded in it as well. It also had some very interesting sculptures on the lawn, but it was hard to get a good photo of them. It was a really neat house though.

2006-07-24T21:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in a while, but since I took some photos on my trip to Massachusetts, I'll try to get back in the habit of posting regularly again. This was taken in Wellfleet at a dock area. I'm not really sure what it was really...some sort of net or something made out of large metal links.

2006-04-05T09:05:00.000-07:00

It was snowing this morning. It doesn't usually snow in April in New Jersey. This picture isn't from this morning...it didn't snow that hard, but I was surprized. Anyway, this is the St. Francis of Assisi statue that's in our backyard when it snowed a while ago.

2006-03-30T19:50:00.000-08:00

G is for Graveyard
Cemetaries are always interesting places to take photos. I guess it sounds morbid, but cemeteries always intrigue me because there are so many people's stories buried there. I just wonder what secrets people take with them when they die...

2006-03-22T20:20:00.000-08:00

2006-03-18T13:58:00.000-08:00

2006-03-15T06:56:00.000-08:00

F is for Fireworks
I like this picture because it looks like there is a person with crazy hair in the middle.

2006-03-14T08:26:00.000-08:00

Three Landscapes

2006-03-11T17:31:00.000-08:00

Here's some of the cast in costume on the location from today.
And here are two photos of our cute puppy actor who was very well-behaved today and did exactly what we needed him to do.

2006-03-10T18:27:00.000-08:00

These pictures aren't that great unfortunately, but here are a few photos of what's been keeping me so busy the last couple months. We shoot this weekend...6:30 crew call tomorrow. Sigh. But it will be fun and I'm proud of the set. This one was taken by Tim. This is Joe my film professor sitting in for light readings and camera checks.
This is a wider shot of the set and the studio.
Here's a different angle of the window and light setup. Not bad for a $200 art budget...

2006-03-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

A wider shot of the seed pods I posted a while ago.

2006-03-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

2006-03-06T17:03:00.000-08:00

E is for Egret

This is an egret that was in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. He was very used to being around people and we were only a few feet away from him.
And here's another photo of Annie with a tulip.

2006-03-04T17:37:00.000-08:00

I've missed a couple days of posts because I've been busy working on the set for my advanced film shoot next weekend. I've had a lot of fun though, and it's really coming together. I'll be sure to post pictures later once everything's finished.
Now that's it's March, it's time to start Project Spectrum, which I signed up for a while ago. I signed up for this project because I love anything to do with colors. I wasn't sure what I was going to work on when I signed up, but after hearing a speaker on stash aquisition at the quilt guild meeting, I've made up my mind. She mentioned that most quilters have a lot of fabrics with medium values in their stash, but relatively few lights and darks. I realized, I'm definately one of those people, so I'm going to work on filling out some of my stash for project spectrum. I'm not just going to choose random fabrics, though. I started a quilt in a tumbling block pattern for my boyfriend Tim. I have five different colorways: green, blue, red/yellow/orange, purple, and pink, so my goal is to buy or find light, medium, and dark fabrics in these colors. To make things more interesting, I'm making it a charm quilt, meaning I won't use a fabric more than once. So I should end up with a quilt with 390 different fabrics in it when I'm done, and hopefully a more diverse fabric stash for future projects. I've also decided to hand piece all of the blocks as well as hand quilt them when the time comes. This is my first go at hand work and I'm really liking it so far. I have about 15 blocks finished, which I will photograph and post eventually. Each month, I'll try to make more blocks in the assigned color, and hopefully I'll be much closer to finished by the time project spectrum is over.
So with that said, here are three photos to make up for the last three days I've missed.

Appropriately PINK chrysanthamums...

A RED crab...

And last but not least, a RED hibiscus.

2006-03-01T19:54:00.000-08:00

This is a window at the Winchester Mystery House in San Hose, CA.

2006-02-28T18:05:00.000-08:00

2006-02-27T18:54:00.000-08:00

These are pink poppies from my grandma's garden a few years ago.

2006-02-27T05:23:00.000-08:00

Here's one more of these. I think it's the last one...

2006-02-26T09:26:00.000-08:00

I think I'll probably include at least one of these in the photos I display. I'm just not sure which one. I've posted all except for one of them now I think. I might try to put three of them in a frame together.

2006-02-25T09:45:00.000-08:00

A rock on a beach in California...

2006-02-24T20:52:00.000-08:00

So I have official dates now when I will be displaying photos at Eleven East Cafe - April 15-30. Now, I have to get busy framing...

2006-02-23T05:10:00.000-08:00

Another from the Japanese Tea Garden. I would love to go back there sometime.

2006-02-22T07:18:00.000-08:00

This is from the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. I went there with Tim on our trip a few years ago.

2006-02-21T16:12:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure this is a calendula. I like the tiny curled petal in the middle of this flower.

2006-02-20T06:55:00.000-08:00

2006-02-19T06:44:00.000-08:00

2006-02-18T18:10:00.000-08:00

D is for Daffodils...
Daffodils are my favorite flowers. I'm not sure why. I think it's because they're simple, but very pretty. I absolutely love the scene from Big Fish where Ewan McGreggor's character is standing in a field of daffodils outside the window of the girl he loves. I'd love to have my backyard look like that whenever I have a backyard of my own.

2006-02-17T05:58:00.000-08:00

A picture of a tulip before it took the plunge...

2006-02-16T05:11:00.000-08:00

A photo disaster and the little orange culprit.
I was taking pictures of tulips and Annie rolled over and knocked the vase off the table. Luckily I saw it coming and grabbed the vase, but it was too late for the tulips. I did get some decent pictures though so it was worth it. The tulips are pretty droopy now though.

These are blurry but cute pictures of Annie looking at the mess she made.

2006-02-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

2006-02-14T04:56:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

2006-02-13T06:07:00.000-08:00

This is a palm tree from California. I think it was right outside the Winchester Mystery House in San Hose.

2006-02-12T06:55:00.000-08:00

Another pink cosmo. I like this one because it looks like it's floating above all the ones in the background.

2006-02-11T06:49:00.000-08:00

Another one of my peeling paint and rust pictures from the old trains.

2006-02-10T06:09:00.000-08:00

I took this photo at the National Museum of the Native American. On the ceilings in one of the exhibits they had a bunch of little white lights to make it look like the sky at night. So of course a dark place with bright lights just calls for a slow shutter speed. I think besides flowers, these are my second favorite kind of picture to take.

2006-02-09T04:40:00.000-08:00

2006-02-08T18:35:00.000-08:00

This is a cosmo, which was in Tim's Great Aunt Bernie's yard.
I am on my way to displaying my photos at a local cafe near my college. I talked to them today and they say they take amateur and professional artwork so I'm excited. I went out and bought a frame and a matting to try out on one of my photos. If I like the way it looks, I buy some more. Unfortunately they don't have any opening until April or May and I have to wait until they put up a new sign up sheet. There's no rush though. I'll need a little while to get everything together. I'm excited to do this though. It's always neat to be able to show what you've done.

2006-02-07T18:02:00.000-08:00

When I was going through my photos, I passed over this one at first because it was out of focus, but then I realized I like the colors and it doesn't look like what it is. I just like the pinks and greens together so I decided to post it anyway.

2006-02-06T06:17:00.000-08:00

I took this photo while I was visiting my sister in California. I don't remember the name of the beach. It was a really neat beach though with a lot of neat rocks and anemones like this one. I'd like to go back to that beach sometime. I'd also like to go to the glass beach that Jean has told me about and has pictures of on her site.

2006-02-05T10:23:00.000-08:00

I found some more daffodil pictures on that I put on Tim's computer and forgot about, so I have a bunch more to post.

2006-02-04T15:07:00.000-08:00

This was taken at Rowan a couple years ago I think. A nice reminder of spring, even though it feels like spring already since it's been so warm.

2006-02-03T14:05:00.000-08:00

This picture is what my semester is going to be like. Busy and fast. I am so excited! I'm found out today that I'm doing art direction for my advanced film project. We are adapting a Saki story "The Open Window" which takes place about 1900. I get to research costumes, furnishings for a house, and outside the house. It's going to be a lot of work, but I think I may have found something I really like doing. =)

2006-02-02T04:11:00.000-08:00

These cone flowers were in my grandma's yard a few years ago. I like taking pictures of dying flowers as well as live ones.

2006-02-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

C is for Calendulas
I love taking pictures of flowers. They're probably my favorite things to photograph because there are so many different kinds and each one is interesting and a little different. I took this photo a year or two ago I think.

2006-02-01T06:36:00.000-08:00

I went through old pictures that I had on Tim's computer and I found a bunch that I forgot I had even taken. I'm not sure where or when I took this one. It must have been a few years ago though.

2006-01-31T13:09:00.000-08:00

One more of my daffodil shots.

2006-01-30T04:05:00.000-08:00

Another daffodil...I can't wait until spring. There will be many more of these to come.

2006-01-29T06:59:00.000-08:00

2006-01-28T08:04:00.000-08:00

Here's another photo of the peeling paint on the side of a train car that we saw on the way down to Cape May.

2006-01-27T15:10:00.000-08:00

Here's another shot of snow on the lid of the compost bin in my backyard.

2006-01-26T17:37:00.000-08:00

I took this while I was going over the Ben Franklin Bridge into Philadelphia.

2006-01-25T17:46:00.000-08:00

B is for BEACH

The Jersey shore is a part of Jersey culture, if there is such a thing. Pretty much every summer for the past 5 years or so I have made a trip to the Jersey shore with my friends so the beach is a fitting choice for the letter B. Seeing the ocean never gets old for me. I love collecting sea shells and pebbles I find on the beach. The main problem is I don't know what to do with them when I take them home. This picture is from my family's trip to Cape May the week before Christmas.

2006-01-24T20:25:00.000-08:00

Another photo from the train yard...

2006-01-23T17:03:00.000-08:00

These are morning glories that haven't opened up yet. They were in my Grandmother's backyard a few years ago.

2006-01-22T07:50:00.000-08:00

This is another picture from the train yard we stopped at. The perspective is looking up from underneath the steps that lead into the train car.

2006-01-21T15:26:00.000-08:00

Here's another daffodil picture from the same time as the one I posted yesterday.

2006-01-20T19:18:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of a fish on a sewer drain in Cape May. It was part of a warning that the sewer leads to a stream so dumping is not allowed. I've seen these on other sewers too, but I haven't taken pictures of them yet.
This is a daffodil, my favorite flower. I'm not sure when I took this, but I think it was a year or two ago.

2006-01-18T19:54:00.000-08:00

Here are two more snow photos from this past weekend. They are both from my backyard. The one above is my own tracks in the snow and the one below is the grate on the compost bin. I liked the shadows and patterns in these two.

2006-01-16T18:57:00.000-08:00

It snowed two nights ago and we had a thunderstorm at the same time. I think that's the first snow thunderstorm I've ever seen. Anyway, this is a picture of the broken fence in my backyard which I have posted before, but this time covered in snow.

2006-01-15T09:15:00.000-08:00

This is a peice of broken fence in my backyard. I'm not crazy about the background of this picture, but I like the peices of fence.

2006-01-14T17:01:00.000-08:00

This is an older picture I took at the Cape May Zoo. It's a close up of the feathers of a white peacock.

Here's another train picture since I didn't post yesterday.

2006-01-12T18:16:00.000-08:00

I haven't been too good about updating everyday, but hopefully once I go back to school my schedule will be more regular again and I'll find a time to post everyday. Anyway, I'll post two pictures today to make up for the day I missed. This picture was actually taken by my boyfriend Tim. It is a picture of me while I was shooting the Incabator project I worked on last semester. It was an interdisciplinary project that included a filmmaker (me), a director, a choreographer, a writer, and a graphic designer. We all worked together to create a live stage show with all of these elements. This was from a film shoot in a cemetary near Rowan. It rained that day, but we didn't have any other time to shoot again so we had to improvise. I used the arms from the C-Stands I had with me to prop up the camera in my car so it would stay out of the rain. It wasn't the ideal way to shoot, but it got the job done.

This is a doll that we used in Incubator. It sat on the bed of one of the main characters and was supposed to be a doll she had since she was a little girl. The doll was actually borrowed from one of my group member's friend's mother. I think she collected old dolls. This doll got nicknamed Creepy because there was some kind of oil that dripped down her face that made it look like she was crying. You can't really see that in this picture though.

2006-01-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

This is another picture from the battery that we went to while we were in Cape May.

2006-01-09T08:22:00.000-08:00

I had posted some pictures of trains earlier and this is another one from the same trip.

2006-01-07T13:26:00.000-08:00

A is for Annie
I joined the ABC Along after I saw that my sister Jean had signed up. I just started this blog a couple of weeks ago so I thought this would be a fun way to get started blogging. Most of the people involved in this are knitters from the looks of all the blogs I've visited. I wouldn't call myself a knitter yet, but my sister has taught me the basics. I've only finished one knitting project (a scarf), but I'm sure I'll get there someday. I am a quilter however, and love soft fibers which seems to be a precuser to becoming a knitter. Anyway, I chose A is for Annie because Annie is one of my two cats. I really like this photo of her because she is lying in her favorite spot in the sun out in our greenhouse. She is named Annie after Little Orphan Annie since she was a homeless kitty in Trenton before we got her and of course she's a red head.

I haven't posted pictures the last couple of days so here are some to make up for the ones I missed. The trains weren't running in Philly one night so we had to drive in to pick up my Mom from work. I took this somewhere around the Ben Franklin Bridge going into Philly. I love taking pictures like this with a slow shutter speed.

This is a garden statue of a little girl that was in my Grandma's Garden a year or two ago.

2006-01-04T08:57:00.000-08:00

These are seed pods that my mom noticed near the Belle Vita Restaurant in Cape May. There were a whole bunch of these along the road.

2006-01-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

I wish this picture was in focus, but I like it anyway. This was a cat that started following Jean around on Sunset Beach in Cape May. We think she was pregnant. Anyway, there were two cats both of which were very friendly. I love the cat's expression in this picture.

2006-01-02T11:14:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite picture of Jersey, the kitten I found on the Jersey Turnpike. Tim's friend Megan decided to keep him, but she wasn't allowed to have pets in her room at the University of Maryland, so we were babysitting him while her room was inspected. Jersey lives in Chicago now with the three other cats that Megan and her roomate own.

2006-01-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

Cape May Lighthouse

2005-12-31T08:13:00.000-08:00

This is rust on the side of the battery.

2005-12-30T09:47:00.000-08:00

While we were in Cape May we went to see the WWII battery on the beach. It used to be out in the ocean, but now it's on the shore. I'm not sure why. Anyway, this is a close up of some moss on the side of the battery.

2005-12-29T11:20:00.000-08:00

This is from my trip to Cape May last week.

2005-12-28T08:13:00.000-08:00

My sister let me try out her lens baby which is a lens attachment that basically gives you more control over the focus. It was a little tricky to get used to and I think I need some more practice. These are two of the more interesting photos I took with it. Both of these are from my backyard.

2005-12-27T17:50:00.000-08:00

Scratched

This is a link to a scratch film I made last year. Scratch films are made by scratching away the emulsion on undeveloped film. This film is about one minute long which means I drew over 1400 pictures each in a space that is about a 1/2 inch wide. I used a mechanical pencil with a metal tip to scratch the pictures and a lightbox to see the picture clearly. It took me about 3 months to complete the drawings and then I had to get the film transferred over to a DV tape. Scratched won an honorable mention at the Rutgers film festival, but I haven't submitted it anywhere else yet.

2005-12-27T06:53:00.000-08:00

This photo is from a year or two ago. My camera lens fogged up when I went outside which made for some interesting pictures of this rose.

2005-12-26T08:10:00.000-08:00

This is another close up of peeling paint on a train from the place we stopped on the way down to Cape May

2005-12-25T11:21:00.000-08:00

On the way down to Cape May we stopped at a trainyard where there were working trains as well as some ones by the side of the track that weren't in use anymore. This is a close up of peeling paint and rust on one of the trains.

2005-12-24T12:33:00.000-08:00

I am posting three images today to make up for the time I was in Cape May. These are all along the same theme of ocean waves in Cape May.

The ocean was very foamy on this day. I'm not sure why I like this picture, but I do.

I liked how the sun was reflecting off the water in this one.

I like this one because the wave crashes in from one side and the rocks balance it out on the other side. I also like the really smooth line of the ocean in contrast to the wave crashing.

2005-12-21T07:50:00.000-08:00

This is a garden path through a circle in a fence. I was trying to take pictures of the alphabet as my sister suggested, and this was my favorite picture for O.

2005-12-20T07:26:00.000-08:00

This is a holly tree in Haddonfield. It was very dark under the tree so I tried using a slow exposure and spinning the camera. The result: Spinny Tree.

2005-12-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

Mom got yellow roses so I took some photos holding the vase in my lap and a peice of pink paper in the background. Low tech, but it works.