photography | anya elise

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September 20, 2011 by Anya Elise

Rock on, fellow geeks! || GeekFest Denver 2011

I had the opportunity to attend APAD’s GeekFest 2011 this past weekend. With a title like that, you know it’s going to rock, right?

A Photo a Day is a group started by two photographers who wanted to share inspiration and ideas by exchanging one photo a day with each other. It has since morphed into a huge group of over 1,300 photographers who send/receive 70-80 emails per day with photos, discussions, critiques, and overall photog camaraderie.

From APAD came GeekFest, a then-infant photo conference with about 10 people who all just wanted to put faces to names and “geek out” about photography together. (Full history here: GeekFest, a brief history of.)

Now, with well over 100 attendees coming from all over, GeekFest brings a three-day lineup of compassionate, enthusiastic photographers to give talks, share ideas, show their work, and, well, geek out some more.

I was fortunate enough to join the festivities when GeekFest came to Denver this weekend.

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September 5, 2011 by Anya Elise

Faces of Ground Zero || A Joe McNally photography project

Today we wandered up, down, across, around, and behind Manhattan. I don’t know how you go behind a city, necessarily, but I swear to you we did!

My feet are singing, as the expression goes, but our New England trip is moving right along. Tomorrow we head back north to the Massachusetts area. (Wish us luck avoiding toll roads – seriously East Coasters, how do you handle all these toll roads??)

Before I got too much further into my New England Road Trip 2011 coverage, I wanted to point out this project that I was fortunate enough to visit earlier today.

Joe McNally, an extremely talented, New York-based photographer, began this project just weeks after Sept. 11, 2011. In an effort to capture a piece of what happened that day, he set out to photograph those who were at the scene – at Ground Zero – on 9/11. He did this with a giant Polaroid camera that produced images that measured 9×4 feet, after a very long 90 seconds of processing. These images, practically life-sized, make you feel like you’ve met the person, face-to-face. Continue reading →

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August 2, 2011 by Anya Elise

bright lights || Colorado baseball

I would have taken a picture of the field at the Rockies/Phillies came from tonight.

But what was going on down on that field was nothing short of dismal.

I don’t want to talk about it.

What was fun was being in the stands, eating hot dogs with good friends and admiring the bright, shiny lights.

What? I like shiny things.

Also, the splotch of light and specks in the upper right quadrant of the frame looks a bit like a picture of a far off galaxy taken with a fancy NASA satellite camera.

Sadly, my fancy phone, while certainly fancy, is not that sophisticated. (Make an app for that, Steve Jobs, I dare you!) It’s just a result of the filter used on the fancy phone photography app.

But a girl can imagine right?

These are the things I think about late at night, after a long day, while finally unwinding at home.

And after this kind of multitasking last night…

(Two-handed, two-computer editing for the win!)

…can you really blame me for some rambling imaginations?

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July 26, 2011 by Anya Elise

the business of life–and photography || an update

Hello? Remember me? The shamefaced girl who hasn’t posted anything on here in almost a week?

I’m sorry for my absence. This business of life has proven rather needy and attention hungry as of late. That in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing. What is unfortunate is that it’s the kind of busyness that is largely behind-the-scenes and unpicturesque (you’ll notice I haven’t changed much in the intervening days; I still make up awkward sounding words). And therefore, not too exciting to relate to you all.

While that is my explanation, it’s not very explanatory (see, same girl). So here for you is a quick list of what’s been occupying my brain space. (Eew, brain space.)

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May 5, 2011 by Anya Elise

le fleur || a study in red

I’ve gone French. Although let’s be honest, chances are good le isn’t the proper word to accompany fleur in this case, and instead of going French I’ve just mangled a beautiful sentiment. Are there any French linguists in the house?

Anyway, to the point…..

Painters and artists of the drawing variety have studies. They spend time focusing on small details found in an apple, or a bowl of fruit, or flowers, the curve of a hand and expressions. In their kind of art, they have to be able to master these intricacies, especially when they’re trying to produce truly realistic representations.

I decided it would behoove me to follow their example. Take some time to look at a subject, and truly try to capture its essence through a series of photographs. Not only will this give me a chance to really spend time with a subject – even an inanimate one – but it will give me prime opportunities to push my camera equipment as far as it can go.

So first, a study in red.

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