sakura, sweet spots and secret societies

Some may have mistaken my lack of posting on the blogways for my having misplaced my camera in the move. The truth of the matter is I've been stockpiling semi-dramatic reveals, some wildly belated, to make it look like more as I've been hard at work... doing design work... I know, I know, I am a stranger to myself these days. And aside from a few photo jobs, I've been missing having my camera in hand regularly, makes me itchy. Since it has been monopolizing my time of late, and I really enjoyed working on it - I'd like to share the video I worked on at Marcolina Design for Adobe - a teaser video for their soon-to-be-released watercolor painting app for iPad, Eazel. The video just went up on Photoshop.com today (scroll down a little to see the video)!

Also on a semi-design-related note, a few of my images are included in this book now available on Amazon, which is an ode to photographic typography:




Honestly, if you do want to buy it, wait a bit, they mis-credited one of my favorite images and said that in the next printing it will run corrected, soon!


Early this year Lensbaby asked me to give their recently released Sweet 35 Optic a beta-test drive and make some images to use in their press kit and their online gallery. I had never used any of their lenses before so I was very curious to see how it felt. Since their lenses force you to relinquish a lot of control generally speaking - the pivoting ball joint in the lens allow you to change the sweet spot of focus in the midst of distortion and blur - and I am a bit of a control freak, it was definitely an intriguing and challenging experience. I actually made some images I really love with some of my favorite people.

model: sonja robson (who, in a roundabout way, introduced me to Thyme House - where we shot- and Grey Gardens via a play she starred in written by her husband back in 2006 I think?)

a few small repairs © Laura Kicey


making an entrance © Laura Kicey


passage © Laura Kicey


silver gardens © Laura Kicey

model: daniel s - long-time friend

protection © Laura Kicey


amber waves © Laura Kicey

model: katie m - my intriguing neighbor and friend who has a fascinating collection of antiquities and ancient paraphenalia

quarry © Laura Kicey


hothouse flower © Laura Kicey


novella © Laura Kicey

and the first image I made, a self-portrait



barren © Laura Kicey


I had had a fashion-shaped hole in my photographic heart for many months, and I had been longing to do a lookbook... and what should happen upon me but one of my favorite creative co-conspirators, Sarah Beaver, with a plot: she had decided to design a line a jewelry and she wished for me to photograph a lookbook and product shots for her etsy shop and blogs.

She describes the line:

The initial collection of jewelry is inspired by secret societies: The Free Masons, Shriner's, and Odd Fellows. As well as sculptors of both marble and wood: Constantin Brancusi, Mark Lindquist, and Isamu Noguchi. All of the components in these pieces are recycled, dead-stock parts combined with small-scale artisan-crafted new materials.

Sarah also did the wardrobe styling for the shoot, along with model Sarah MM and makeup and hair by April Al-Zahrani. Visit the shop we never sleep


Eye of Providence Necklace © Laura Kicey


Shriners Fez Necklace © Laura Kicey


Shriners Fez Necklace © Laura Kicey


Odd Fellowship Necklace © Laura Kicey


Jewel of the Order Necklace © Laura Kicey


Odd Fellowship Necklace © Laura Kicey


Jewel of the Order Earrings © Laura Kicey


Supreme Forest Necklace © Laura Kicey


Eye of Providence Necklace © Laura Kicey

This last weekend saw the much anticipated arrival of actual concrete Spring weather (followed immediately by very SUMMER weather today) and coincidentally the annual Sakura Festival which goes down in the Japanese Garden of Fairmount Park West, which I had never been to at any time of year prior. I would like to return (today would have been ideal!) to see the park in fullest bloom and sans people. I arrived a bit later in the afternoon, in time to miss the awkward cosplay and harajuku fashion shows, I also skipped the food and vendors. Really the number one reason to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival after you are done admiring the cherry blossoms themselves would be to see the Tamagawa Taiko Drum & Dance group perform. They were amazing and clearly having a really great time putting on a beautiful show. I'll leave you with some images of their performance:


Tamagawa Taiko Drum & Dance @ Subaru Sakura Festival © Laura Kicey



Tamagawa Taiko Drum & Dance @ Subaru Sakura Festival © Laura Kicey


Tamagawa Taiko Drum & Dance @ Subaru Sakura Festival © Laura Kicey


Tamagawa Taiko Drum & Dance @ Subaru Sakura Festival © Laura Kicey


Tamagawa Taiko Drum & Dance @ Subaru Sakura Festival © Laura Kicey

unearthing

Since the beginning of October I've been up to my eyeballs in work, split between three jobs mostly working 6 days a week, stockpiling for what I expect will not be an easy winter, thus I've only come up for air with relative infrequency. As things have finally started winding down with all the jobs, I am finally starting to be able to relax here and there, thus giving the blog a much needed fussing-over.

Several exciting plots have been hatched and there have also been some titillating news items stockpiling in the seemingly quiet months. At one of the three jobs, I have been helping with work on an eBook for iPad, entitled The World Withouth Photoshop - wherein 12 digital artists (myself included!) and photographers showcase their work and discuss how Photoshop has changed and affected their work. And lo and behold my face is on the cover in all of its unretouched glory. It was recently released (it is FREE!) and made an appearance on Photoshop.com's Blog. Yay!



In case you don't own an iPad (which I don't) you can watch this video preview here:

The World Without Photoshop.... NOW AVAILABLE IN iTUNES! from dan marcolina on Vimeo.

Designed by Marcolina Slate
Other artists include:
Maggie Taylor
John Paul Caponigro
Olivia Parker
Adhemas Batista
Peter Barrett
Julieanne Kost
Bert Monroy
Olli-Pekka Jauhianen
Russell Brown
Gordon Studer
Koen Demuynck
with a foreword by Jerry Uelsmann

I received my pre-release copy of Cookie A's Knit. Sock. Love. a little while back - it has since been getting stellar reviews throughout the knitting community. They have been eating the photography right up - someone even compared my photography to Anthropologie's which you know made me fluttery. The book is now available for sale via amazon!

Also of note - I worked on a non-traditional fashion editorial with my travel photos combined with fashion illustrations by Stacey Appel for Boho Magazine's Autumn Issue - on newsstands NOW!







And now for a quick, light on words rundown of my adventures over the past few months...

brunch-housewarming at the lovely ms. fedida's abode







mountains of mums at ott's in schwenksville



decaying harrisburg





the eastern shore of maryland



a hot halloween self=portrait



autumn in scranton
















a rittenhouse inspired construct



a fall walk in valley forge





my favorite tree (and its neighbor friend and later, me)











coal country - minersville & ashland









revisiting princeton in autumn pink, with keren











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an afternoon at home with sarah, full of fashion, food and styling, you know, the good stuff























(all interiors styled by sarah beaver, all clothes modeled and styled by sarah beaver, all food made and styled by sarah beaver)
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lastly, from this last weekend coney island