Month: April 2009

Photography Website Update

I am absolutely ecstatic about my latest photography website update! Due to a submission deadline, I spent the entire day today organizing fresh, new photos, along with a few longer-standing favorites, and preparing the files for this update. While I have gotten a lot of attention for my children’s photography, I am particularly proud of the photos I shot of grown-ups for this web update. Those can be viewed under the “portraits” section of my site. Of course, I still think the kids are cute, too. I would love to get some feedback on the new site, so please feel free to leave your comments!

www.sarahsloboda.com

Here’s a sneak preview of a series I did with actor Libby Winters (hair and make-up by the delightful Eric Carter):

Continue reading “Photography Website Update”

Urban Garden, Part 2 – The Sill and the Escape

Last summer, I purchased a thriving, flowering plant every time I rented a car to leave the city on a photo shoot or on a trip. I created a little garden on my fire escape, framed perfectly by the window when viewed from the inside. This year, I planted various seeds both for the fire escape and the kitchen windowsill.

What I am learning, is that I don’t really know much of anything about gardening. I love plants – I am completely soothed by their energy – their un-perceivable yet incessant growth. It is a magical mystery to me how it is that they exist. I say I “plant seeds,” as if I have done something other than put pellets into dirt and add water. And then life springs forth without me having to do anything else!

Some of the seedlings get a fungus (or so my online research tells me), and wilt over and die. Some of them thrive. The bulbous seed of my grandfather’s garlic grows into long stems, and spreads like a wispy patch of grass. A plant I trimmed back from last fall begins new, green growth.

Continue reading “Urban Garden, Part 2 – The Sill and the Escape”

Optimist and Realist

The Barnes and Noble Classics edition of Essays and Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson, has an introduction of the same title, “Optimist and Realist,” and it resonates with me greatly. Emerson’s work is something that has inspired me over the past year, ever since I first took interest in a class offered at the Open Center, in New York. Emerson believed in the virtues of human nature, in the amazing power of unique expression of an individual, and in a morality that reflects the unstoppable human spirit.

Continue reading “Optimist and Realist”

Photography and Optimism

Through recent years, photography’s technical developments have made leaps and bounds in ways that shocked and surprised photographers of old. Perhaps the digital age has amplified the technical elements of photography, or perhaps it simply is an art form that is more technical in nature than say, painting.

Continue reading “Photography and Optimism”