Uncharted Waters

The Last Hurrah of Winter Break

2011-01-09T18:00:00.009-07:00

Brian rescued me from my sad state of being depressed about the end of vacation and took me hiking near the Snake river in Southern Idaho. It was chilly but we bundled up and hiked into unknown territory. Idaho's landscape takes awhile to get used to, but has a beauty of it's own. I've been helping Brian get his dad's old 35mm camera going and he shot an entire roll with it. He was thrilled. It's amazing how resilient these old heavy metal things are.

School starts soon, and my life will be consumed by the ebb and flow of classes, students, syllabi, lectures, demos, multitasking, looking through seed catalogs, helping students develop their own film and many more adventures.

Hope you are keeping warm this winter, if not on the outside, hopefully on the inside! Much love. xoxoxox

Spring is here!

2010-03-06T15:47:00.004-07:00

Early crocus blooming

Brian is making faces at me

Winter has been here for awhile, obviously not much was posted during that time! It felt like winter to be sure. It seems almost like a dark cloud is lifting with the sun returning. My crocus's are blooming and Brian is out riding his Harley. Spring break is one week away, and I'll be starting my garden seeds indoors. Praise God for season changes.
Very exciting news in the travel department: Brian and I will be visiting in Indiana late May for a photo show I am having at St. Mary's. We hope to visit with all our family and friends. Then, I will be flying back with my niece and she will stay in Idaho for some time and fly back with my mom when she comes in June. We are looking forward to some much needed family time!
Hope you all out there are doing well. Please write and fill me in on your lives.

U2 in concert!

2009-11-28T11:06:00.006-07:00

Video from U2 concert

I am a little late in getting this posted, but here are some pics & a video from our trip to Vancouver, British Columbia. All in all, God was a gracious and it was an adventurous, fun, faith building trip! We enjoyed a great Amtrack train trip from Seattle to Vancouver, a one in a lifetime concert with U2, good food, sushi, pizza, a fun hotel atmosphere, public transport, biking, meeting internationals, seeing friends from Guatemala who were missionaries there and are now in Vancouver.
This is our second 'fall' concert we've been too, maybe it will be a tradition. It took awhile to catch up on work, now it is almost Christmas break!

Us at the concert. There a lot of internationals, Indian, Portuguese, Latino, and your typical 80's U2 fans!

Bono and the cool flying mic

The stage is called 'The Claw'. This was during the African rendition of the song
"I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight"

Capilano Suspension Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world!

Home, Idaho

2009-10-16T16:48:00.003-06:00

It was a good feeling to make it back to Idaho. This is the view from the last rest stop on our way into town. Idaho has abundance, of which we have some of in our basement: onions, potatoes, zucchini.

2009-10-16T16:36:00.005-06:00

"China Now" outdoor exhibit at the Portland Art Museum

Portland was full of art for most of us last weekend, and books. China is making waves in the art world and one of the current shows at the Portland Art Museum was called China Now that had video, design, fashion, photography, etc on display. I was impressed by the creative use of Chinese characters transformed into a new meaning in their posters. It was busy and overwhelming but very cool!

Looking down at Multnomah Falls.

Multnomah Falls, feels like Ireland and was cold!

Family in Portland

2009-10-16T15:51:00.004-06:00

Scott my cousin and I outside of Powell's in Portland

It was really neat on this recent trip to Portland to actually be able to see family! My mom's sister, my Aunt Judy had 2 boys, Scott and Brad who my brother and I idolized as kids. Scott and I have lived in the NW area for the last few years, and actually spent Thanksgiving together the year before last. We caught up on each others lives this last visit over Italian Sodas at Powell's coffee shop. Entertainment was more than what I normally see in Nampa, a group of guys dressed up in red dresses ran down the street by Powell's, along with a few overstuffed Bunny rabbits. Early Halloween celebrations?
Anyway, I was grateful for the hugs, soda and conversation, thanks Scott.

Multnomah Falls

2009-10-15T14:36:00.004-06:00

I recently drove a 10 passenger van with students in it to Portland OR. It was a great trip, and I am now tired and recovering :-) Here are some of the photos, with more to come!

Apple Festival at the Tuckers house!

2009-10-05T11:11:00.003-06:00

The kitchen where the canning happens!

Shanae & Krysta with their apple butter.

It was nice and chilly fall weather for our day of canning. I made applesauce in the crock pot and apple butter on the stove and some of my students came over to help me can yesterday. We sipped on apple cider and steamed up the house with the boiling canner on the stove. It helped warm up the house since we hadn't turned on the heat yet :-) We finally did this morning when the house was 60 degrees! So, anyway, canning!!! This is so much fun and a great fall activity. I had no idea either that homemade applesauce was SO good, and easy! Peel and core the apples, put them in a crock pot, w/ some sugar and cinnamon and let them cook, mash them and they become delicious goodness! Thanks girls for coming by, let's do it again sometime, or make Christmas cookies!

Crater Lake

2009-10-04T21:20:00.007-06:00

Brian and I at our first view of Crater Lake

One of the many views of Crater Lake

Dannie, Connie & their twin boys

Brian being dramatic during our hike up Mt. Scott

This post is late in the making. We went to Crater Lake in August for the first time. It is beautiful there! We also met up with a friend of mine from Buena Vista CO that I hadn't seen in 10 years! We met each others spouses for the first time and caught up on our lives. It was a cold and windy at night where we camped, 32 degrees one night, but fun weekend! We hiked the tallest mountain in the park and had a great view of the lake. Dannie amazingly made it to the top with an extra 40 lbs of goodies! The weekend we were there just happened to be the free National Parks weekend, what a blessing! Come visit us, we'll show you around our beautiful Northwest!

Art Retreat in the Sawtooths - 2009

2009-09-25T11:45:00.007-06:00

This was our 3rd annual art retreat. We went back to Camp Perkins south of Stanley about 20 miles. It was a great weekend with lots of games, kayaking, volleyball, hiking, and laughing. Thanks to all the students who went, and the faculty that made it great! Enjoy the pics. Most of these are of the cyanotype that we made. The last 3 photos are by Cassie Carlson, thanks Cassie!

Fun in Indiana

2009-08-07T11:21:00.005-06:00

We had fun playing with Photo Booth on my computer, so here are some silly shots of us!

You could spend hours making faces at the computer for some really fun laughs! This was one of the mild ones!

New Website: www.jamietucker.net

2009-07-01T17:18:00.003-06:00

New website: www.jamietucker.net

I have a new website with current work from the photo project "Chinglish" that I shot when I was in China last year. All the work was shot with 120 medium format film, with a Holga and Diana + camera. They are all Silver Gelatin Prints which I printed myself in the darkroom. I am applying for shows and trying to land some exhibition opportunities. If you have any leads, let me know! Thanks for looking.

Berry Picking!

2009-06-30T11:59:00.004-06:00

Freshly picked blueberries & strawberries

Last week I went with some friends, Ben & Brooke to the Berry Ranch. I picked 9lbs of strawberries and 7lbs of Rocky Mtn. blueberries! I forgot my camera when we went picking, so I didn't get pictures of the fields. The ranch is north of Nampa and you could see the Boise mountains on one side and the Owyhees on the other. It was beautiful!
My grandma Hunt always made Strawberry freezer jam, so I thought to keep the tradition going, I would make some too! I made 2 batches of jam, and only lost 1 jar (so far) to Brian sleep eating :-) It's apparently as tasty as my grandmas! I made a blueberry cobbler and then froze the rest for later snacks.
Idaho has a wonderfully fertile valley here that with the help of irrigation growns tasty fruit and produce. Cherries are in season now, and soon blackberries and red rasberries. Hopefully we'll get to go peach picking in late summer!

Grilling out with friends

2009-06-30T11:07:00.006-06:00

The grill master at work, what's for dinner: curry chicken & asparagus.

We have really been enjoying out backyard, patio and grill. More often than not Brian and I eat outside at the picnic table. We've had friends over a lot for dinner lately. It's great to have the space to hang out with friends outside.
Recently our friends Tom and Erin were surprised that we have an ancient lawnmower. Tom thought it was such a novelty, he mowed half of our backyard!

Tom couldn't resist using our 'ancient' lawnmower!

Thanks for reading, come on over for dinner, you're always invited!

Shoshone Falls

2009-06-26T17:00:00.009-06:00

Shoshone Falls

Recently Brian and I got to experience the famous "Niagra of the West", Shoshone Falls. The spring rains and snow melt off were not disappointing! Matter of fact on the drive down we experienced some rain and hail! It was so bad, I pulled the car over and we waited it out. While we were waiting, a motorcycle pulled up and we got to share our car with the couple so they could have some relief from the pelting hail.

What's happening out here....?

Brian wanted to experience the rain first hand, or test out his rain jacket to make sure it's water proof, I'm not really sure, but he was hamming it up for the camera anyway :-)

The falls are natural, though a dam was made there in the 1900s, so that is were a lot of our electricity comes from. Interestingly there was an influx of Chinese who came to work in the Twin Falls area in the gold mines and Idaho had the highest number of Chinese immigrants, but that has since dropped.

The view south of the falls

This summer we are hoping to explore more of the Idaho that we haven't yet seen, and this was on the list. Of course all the photos were taken with my new camera, which I love! It's compact, yet still has the manual functions that are classic to the SLR. Hopefully it will see more use on some trips this summer when my buddy Paula comes to visit!

Gotta love digital, first try just guessing if we were in the viewfinder!

Hopefully Waiting

2009-06-13T17:10:00.003-06:00

Tomatoes blooming! Looking healthy and strong.

That goat manure is paying off. The garden is thriving! I've got 15 tomato plants, 8 zuchhini, 5 cucumber, lettuce, carrots, green onions, 2 poblano peppers and lots of different herbs. We have had some nice 70 degree weather, rain and clouds to help them get established, so hopefully they will survive the July heat. I am getting addicted to this gardening thing, I go out to water in the evening and am out to check on them each morning!

Ran out of room in the raised bed, so the zuchhini is in the yard!

Hammock = summer!

We are getting all the use we can of our awesome shaded back yard and patio. Thanks to the English's we have 2 hammocks to hang up! One from Guatemala and the other has been in my car since Cornerstone! Do you remember that dde?

Brian and I celebrated our 2nd year anniversary, thank you all that sent cards, it was nice of you to remember. I took these pictures with my new Canon Powershot G10!

Gardening is hard work!

2009-05-13T08:58:00.008-06:00

Goat manure in the Subaru!

My first 2 days off of school, I have spent doing manual labor! It sure has been enjoyable though having the time to work on my hobby :-) I got advice from a friend and looked on the internet and built a raised garden bed on Monday and then filled it with dirt yesterday! Most of you know though, that we don't have a truck, but a Subaru Outback, and I didn't want the hassle of borrowing a truck, so I thought, hey, it's an older car, and it's an Outback! So, I put a tarp down and Sammie and I went to get some 'free' goat manure that I saw listed on Craig's list. Well, it was about a 40 min. drive to get the stuff, and when we got there, it smelled so bad! There were tons of little goats that were so cute. Sammie was a good sport, and we both shoveled manure until we couldn't stand it anymore. Three of the goats were loose and kept wanting to get into the car! They are evidently used to riding in their own Subaru :-) So, the adventure wasn't bad so far, until the drive home, we had to ride with the poo 40 min. back to Nampa! Even with the windows down we were carrying the farm smell with us! For me, I enjoyed it, I felt like I'd been back home to Indiana for a little while. Sammie on the other hand, well, maybe she won't wear flip-flops next time we shovel manure!

Wow, I need to clean out the car

So, the manure is great compost, but I still didn't have enough dirt to fill my 4x8 foot long raised bed. Went to Zamzow's yesterday morning and found out they sell top soil in bulk. So, again, no truck, I loaded up 1/2 cubic yard of topsoil onto some cardboard in the back of the Subaru! I shoveled until my back was on fire, but I got it all in there! Then went to Lowe's in search of a wheel-barrel. After squeezing that into the front passenger side, I finally made it home to unload my treasure of dirt.

Slowly but surely

What seemed like a LOT of dirt, quickly dissapeared into the resesses of my raised bed. I mixed the soil with that great smelling goat manure, and shoveled and filled the bed. I was a little short and had to dig up some dirt areas along the fence line to fill it. I also had some well rotted horse manure from a friend of Brian's at work that I was able to mix in. We should have some really great soil to grow all our plants in!

Yeah, a filled garden bed!

It's a good thing I was too tired to plant my garden yesterday, it got down to 33 degrees last night! Pretty chilly for the tomatoes! It will have to wait a few more days, I'm doing some photo demos as local high schools this week. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the adventure!

Blurb books

2009-05-01T15:22:00.004-06:00

My Digital photo class put together a photo book for our final project that is being printed.
The link is: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/665830
You can preview the first 15 pages of the book, or even order one!

Rhea Porter, Krysta Jacobson, Nikki Shipman, Allison Dietz and Shanae Galloway

International Pinhole day!

2009-04-28T14:37:00.005-06:00

Jamie Tucker, self portrait, image from handmade camera 12 pack soda box, using photo paper, 30 sec. exposure

NNU's art club sponsored an activity on International pinhole day! We made our pinhole cameras, then took pictures with them. Many others from around the world made images as well, check out www.pinholeday.org to see them. Look under group>NNU Art club to see more of ours. Thanks for looking!

Texas, SPE & Spring!!

2009-04-11T12:16:00.008-06:00

Christy at the Botanical Gardens

Not a lot happened in February, but March and April have picked up speed like they do every year. I'll fill you in and post some pictures. We had spring break a few weeks ago and I was able to go to the Society for Photographic Education Conference in Dallas, TX. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of TX, but a great friend of mine who was a Jman with me in Guatemala lives there, and we got to spend a few days together! What fun!!! I am reminded of how blessed I am to have such great friends, even if they live far away.

Christy & I at the Botanical Gardens

The Photo Conference was wonderful, I learned so much and had 3 portfolio reviews of my China work. I also met some new folks and traded business cards. I met 2 ISU alumni who knew Fran and Donna Dene, how cool! Christy and I ate some real TexMex, laughed about past adventures and caught up on todays. Spring was already in full force in Dallas, so we enjoyed the Botanical Gardens in Ft. Worth before heading to the airport to return to Boise.

Spring tulips

Spring has arrived in early form at home now! I am so excited to have a garden growing in the front window, and dreaming about planting everything outside. I'm sure I will kill a few things, but what joy it is to see little tomato and lettuce seeds sprout into seedlings! There is a creek/canal near our house, and with that brings lots of ducks. So, we have had ducks in our yard for awhile. I'm sure there will be little ducklings sooner rather than later :-)

Lettuce seedlings

I have a small garden plot out back and some flower beds in the front that I will use to plant tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, chives, squash, cucumber, oregano, parsley and basil. Hopefully something grows from all these options! We are all enjoying the yard, patio and garage. We grilled and ate outside at out picnic table for the first time last week!

Backyard garden

My students and I are looking toward summer as we all do this time of year! We have about 3 weeks of classes left, May 7th being the last day of finals. So far, I don't have any huge plans for summer break, except to rest and do some camping! To help with spring fever, my photo 1 class took a field trip to the Old Idaho State Penitentiary this past week. It turned out to be a great 70 degree day.

Inside the Idaho Pen

Megan, Jared, Allison & Cassia hamming it up at the Pen

On some other news, Brian and I are going to be planning a trip, though not until Oct 28th. We got concert tickets to see U2 in Vancouver British Columbia at their last concert date for this tour!!!! We can hardly believe it! We have never seen them before, and are really excited to see them in the Northwest.

Sammie is doing well, she is looking forward to her graduation May 27th. She's been helping me with cleaning and cooking. She is now a master chef or 'Little Chef' as we like to say. We have both realized the wisdom of some of my mom's recipes, Salmon Patties & Porkchops & rice, they are easy, fast and taste great! Thanks Mamita!
Love you all, thanks for reading, the sun has come out and has turned this rainy day into one that is calling my outside! Until next time, hope this finds you all well. Let me know you've been here and how you are. xoxo

Prayer Tablets

2009-01-25T15:45:00.004-07:00

I had some exciting news a week or so ago. There is a juried photography exhibition called "Krappy Kamera" that I entered back in December. This is an annual show in it's 11th year. The photographs have to have been taken with a camera that has a plastic lens, or is a pinhole camera with no lens. I shot all of my black and white China images with the Diana + camera which classifies as a 'krappy kamera'. I submitted 6 images, and this one, Prayer Tablets, was selected. So on Friday I worked in the darkroom all day and printed, matted and framed it to send to the Soho Photo Gallery in New York. It felt great to be working in the lab making art!

Tree Rats

2009-01-25T15:15:00.002-07:00

So, I was thinking it would be great to have a bird feeder since we have a nice big window in the living room. We've had the feeder out now for about 2 weeks, and I have only seen one living creature eat from it...a squirrel. Yep, no birds, not even a sparrow, but this very agile squirrel that can hang from his back legs, tilt the feeder and eat away! He usually eats breakfast, second breakfast, and perhaps lunch as well :-) Our neighbor at our old place, Ze, can't stand squirrels, and calls them "Tree Rats", so here's our cute tree rat.

Inside the green house

2009-01-25T14:53:00.005-07:00

We have unpacked most of our boxes, but, sadly, as you can see, no art hanging on the walls yet! Thanks to our friend Karen, the wooden floor in the living room has a nice big rug. We are still getting used to all the quirks of an old house, drafty and strange noises.

The stove is ancient and takes some getting used to, but at least it works! Friday we had our first dinner guests for Quick Curried Chicken and it was a fun evening! We are enjoying the luxury of having a washer and dryer as well. Samantha has come to live with us and finish out her last semester at Nampa High. She really likes the large basement space!

Moving in a blizzard

2009-01-05T23:02:00.006-07:00

Our casita

Needless to say, this past week has been a white and cold one in Nampa Idaho. Of course this is when we decided to move! Thanks to our great friends, Brent, Nic and Alejandra and our new friend, Carol, we were able to make the switch without too many problems.
We have now been in our new place for a whole week. It is a cute craftsman house with more space and quirky character. It even has a yard and a picnic table out back. We will make good use of that in the summer. We are still renting, and are glad that it's not totally ours. We aren't ready for that level of adulthood :-)
Today, Jan 5, it snowed for most of the day and this is what our place looks like in the snow!

Brent helping us move from the apartment

2009-01-05T22:53:00.002-07:00

Mamita and I, Christmas 08

We have had so much going on lately, it's been a whirlwind. Mom was here for a short 'n sweet visit right after finals, before Christmas. This was her first trip to Idaho, it was nice of her to brave the cold instead of heading to Florida! It was a cozy stay for her as we were still in our apartment. I did get to show her our new place before she left. We took her around town, went to the Bistro, shopping, Winco, church, and the Rec center for step aerobics! We played many hands of Nerts and made Snickerdoodles. It was great to see you mamita! Come back when it's warmer! Love you.

Wild Hogs

2009-01-05T22:34:00.005-07:00

Christmas morning

As much as I dreaded this day, it was a pretty cool one. Brian was indeed giddy with delight that he was finally able to buy his Harley on Dec. 6th. It's a Sportster Nightster, and I now know way too much about Harley Davidson motorcycles. We got a screamin deal on the bike, from a great lady who later gave us her 10 yr old washer/dryer for free! So dedicated and excited, Brian even went riding yesterday in 28 degree weather before all the snow hit. Crazy. He is wearing his helmet for all those who are just as worried as I am. Pray for him, and me :-)

Thanksgiving in Seattle

2008-12-09T18:42:00.009-07:00

Pike's Market

It has been awhile since my last post. The task of writing seems daunting if I let too much time elapse. We had been anticipating our trip to Seattle over Thanksgiving for some time. Thursday morning we headed of on an unknown journey from Nampa to Seattle. We had lunch at a diner in the middle of nowhere and arrived in the rain & dark at about 6pm. We stayed with a friend on Queen Anne's Hill very close to SPU and downtown Seattle. The weather was a balmy 50 with lots of moisture and greenery, something that is lacking this time of year in Idaho :-)
Downtown Seattle had many fun things to see, we walked along the bay, saw the sculpture park, ate salmon chowder at Pike's Market, and went to the Seattle Art Museum. We also had some great Mango curry at a Thai restaurant in the China town district that was amazing!

Fresh fish at Pike's Market

The main attraction, of course, was to hear Over the Rhine play at the Triple Door (a very swanky dinner theater that was small and intimate). They are one of my favorite bands; a married couple who write their own lyrics, and hail from Ohio, the great midwest. The evening was everything I hoped it would be! The concert was like enjoying great time with friends from home as most of us sang along with Karen and Linford. They played many of their old as well as a few new songs, and even played "Don't wait for Tom" upon my request! Gracias a mi esposo por este regalo tan amable!

Karen Bergquist and Linford Detweiler of Over the Rhine

Bruneau Sand Dunes

2008-11-17T09:26:00.006-07:00

Well, we finally made it on an outdoor adventure this fall! I am usually craving to get out into the great wide open by this time of the semester. November is a great time to go south of Nampa to the Sand Dunes. It is insanely hot in the summer, so fall and spring are the best time to visit. Brian was a wild man and camped Sat. night along the Snake river, then Sunday afternoon some of our Sat. night group friends, Nic, Alejandra and I drove down to the Dunes to meet up with Brian. We all had a picnic lunch and climbed the big sand dune. It was quite a workout to make it to the top, but well worth it! The view is amazing from the top. The sun was low in the sky and cast great long shadows along the sand. I took a roll of film on my Diana camera.

On the drive back we stopped by some wilderness area and shot at some cans with Brian's 9mm handgun. Very new experience for me. I had never shot a gun in my entire life! It is apparently a common practice in Idaho, and since there is tons of wilderness land with no one for miles, pretty safe.
I cleaned all day Saturday, made Lentil soup and made handmade books late into the night. We are having an Open house for our Art Department and an art sale this Friday. Perhaps I'll sell a few books. This is the last full week before Thanksgiving! We are counting down the days until our trip to Seattle and to see Over the Rhine, woohooo!!! Thanks for reading! Love you all!

Mi Cumpleaños!

2008-11-12T17:08:00.004-07:00

Brian & I (and our new glasses)

I had a great 32 birthday celebration! Thanks to my husband, friends and students.... I felt very loved :-) Some of my favorite things were eating empanadas at 'Tangos' a restaurant in Boise, my niece and dad singing happy birthday to me on the phone, eating cake, U2 ringtones and playing crazy games at our friends house on Saturday night. Muchas Gracias! My friend Sandra from Guatemala also called me, so it was fun to talk with her.
We didn't get to go to the Sand Dunes yet, but we went to the Ski Swap and Brian got hooked up with some skis, boots and poles for $58. Can't beat that! Come on snow!
Until next time, keeping on walking!

Alejandra & I making tissue paper flowers!

Dia de los muertos

2008-11-02T18:15:00.003-07:00

Saturday was Dia de los muertos, or All Saints Day. A friend of ours Alejandra, is in a group that dances traditional Mexican folklorico dances, and we went to see them perfom Saturday night. It was very cool, good music, fun, lots of colorful dresses and great food! We had tamales, horchata and pan dulce.
November is here! The leaves are still beautiful colors here. My birthday is this friday and I'm hoping we will make it to Bruneau Sand dunes next weekend. I'll post pictures if we go! Have a great week.

Picturing Faith Photography Exhibition

2008-10-24T13:11:00.005-06:00

John Collier Jr., Grandfather Romero, NM, 1930s, FSA photograph

Last night I gave an 8 minute speech in the largest auditorium that I have ever had to stand up in. I hardly remember actually speaking, it was very surreal! After all the research and planning, it ended up being fun and exciting to learn about this part in American History and Photography. I guess I should tell you a little about it! We have a photography exhibit at our school right now called "Picturing Faith". The photos are some of the more religious in nature images that the FSA photographers took during the Depression. There are several by Dorthea Lange, including the Migrant Mother, Walker Evans, and John Collier. Colleen McDannell who wrote the book titled "Picturing Faith", organized the show and gave a lecture last night on our campus. There were 3 of us from NNU that spoke as well from our areas of study, mine was photo of course and I talked about the cameras used at the time, and that color film was just out on the market. Kodak had just introdued Kodachrome, 35mm slide film. Most of the images in the Library of Congress are black and white. There are 160,000 photographs at the Library of Congress that were taken as a part of the FSA project.
It was a great experience, but I'm glad the lecture is over, and I can get back to teaching and sleeping :-) Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy the photos. These are all availabe online and are public domain.

Dorthea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1938, FSA photograph

Class Demo

2008-10-07T16:13:00.008-06:00

We did Vandyke brown prints in Photo 2 last week. This was a negative I took from the double decker bus that Paula and I were on in Dublin, Ireland. This is St. Patrick's cathedral I believe. I shot this with a Holga camera. I should title this "Homage to Foy".

Saturday Market

2008-10-04T13:24:00.005-06:00

Buenas tardes! Looks like this blog is becoming a monthly blog. Well, it is the weekend, as my weeks are spent frantically getting ready for class, being in class, grading, figuring out how many ml are in a quart and vice versa. I am really enjoying this semester though. My students are great and I'm glad I spend most of my day with them!
This morning we woke to rain outside, what a great sound!! Rain is rare here, so we love it when it rains. Fall has arrived here in Idaho, and the leaves are turning yellow. I had my morning coffee and meditated on Ps 145:14 "The Lord sustains all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down." I then made my usual trek to the downtown Nampa Farmers Market. It's a nice walk on a Sat. morning, the rain had stopped and I got a coffee at the first booth. I picked up some small zucchini squash, some peaches from the Romanian guy, George, who always gives me more than what I pay for. Then got some honey so send to our friend Carol Anne who loves honey in her hot tea!
That's my excitement for the weekend. I'll have to remember my adventures in China until the next road trip! I didn't think I'd get to see the Great Wall, but when I found myself standing on it I could hardly believe it!!

Art Retreat-Sawtooth Mountains

2008-09-15T13:38:00.007-06:00

Our Art dept. just went on our 2nd annual Art Retreat. This year we went to the Sawtooth Mountains near Stanely, Idaho. It is gorgeous! I planned the retreat and we stayed at Camp Perkins near Alturas lake. We also made a Cyanotype mural using a twin sized sheet. We exposed the sensitized sheet to the UV rays of the sun with objects on them, and developed it in Redfish Lake. It was an excellent weekend, now I am ready for a vacation :-)

Se fue the weekend

2008-09-08T09:58:00.003-06:00

Well, after a short weekend, it is back to school prep. I am planning the Art Retreat for school, we are going to the Sawtooth Mountains! I'll post pics of that next week. This image is currently my desktop background. They are prayer tablets that people paid for and wrote their prayers on and then hung on little hooks. This was at the Big Goose Pagoda, the Da Yin Ta. Maybe we should start a prayer wall at church and then everyone can pray for them, and we can leave them with Jesus instead of picking them back up again like we so often do. Thanks for reading, post a comment!

At the Market

2008-09-01T15:08:00.000-06:00

This lady was trying to sell me an awesome old Great China Wall medium format camera, but wouldn't come down on the price. I finally bought some handmade books instead and made friends with her. Ironically many in the market around China speak pretty good English because of the influx of tourists in recent years. I felt a special connection with this woman, she was desperate to sell something, and was very persistent with me, yet kind, and let me take her photograph.This image was shot with a Diana + camera and printed in the darkroom.

Chinese temple

2008-09-01T15:02:00.000-06:00

This was a very small, intimate temple in comparison to many others. The smoke of the incense and flickering light of the candle give one the feeling of actually being there and experiencing the sacred quietness that surrounds it. This image was shot with a Diana + camera and processed in a traditional darkroom.

attempt at blogging

2008-09-01T14:38:00.000-06:00

Hey, thanks for reading. Since so many of my friends and family live far away from Idaho, I thought I might try blogging so that we can keep in touch better. I am also working on a new body of work and need feedback, and will be teaching a photojournalism class in the spring, so I need to practice my own writing skills.
I am enjoying working at home on class lectures, as today is labor day...though I am still laboring :-)
Some exciting news, Brian and I are planning a trip to Seattle over Thanksgiving Break to see Over the Rhine! YEAH!
Blessings and love to you all!