After I received my BFA in Photography from SCAD in 1997, I moved out to San Francisco with two of my friends from art school. We were full of ambition and lured by the excitement of such a progressive city full of artists and free thinkers and West coast attitudes.

My first job out of school was working in a digital photography studio for Tulip Graphics. They were mostly a pre-production and press house at that time and had just invested in an $80,000 digital camera. Or rather, it was a Leaf digital back on a 4×5 Sinar P2 camera, for those that care about the specs. This digital back was the cream of the crop at the time and you had to take three shots- one with the red , blue and then green filter- and then the software compiled them into one whopping 12 megabyte file. We could not photograph anything that moved, due to the fact the camera took three passes for each shot, and we also had to wait an hour for the camera to warm up each morning. Those were the good old days, I suppose.

I think back to that time often as it was both the beginning of my career and the beginning of digital photography. I was hired to do most of the Photoshop work and learned how to use this whopper of a camera as we went along.

This photo is one of the first shots I took with this fancy schmancy camera. At the time, I was insecure about the photo, which is why I probably turned it blue and added text over it. I find that a lot of new photographers do that, they make their photos funny colors to make them more arty when really it’s a mask to cover up inadequacies in the photos. Though, I will note, what I just wrote is quite a sweeping statement due to the fact that over-processing images is a pet peeve of mine. I think that applying filters or actions to a few select images is really classy and can be quite effective. But when someone’s entire portfolio is tinged in pink or muted, I cringe. I also hate fads, so perhaps that’s my problem.

Regardless, this is one of the first digital images I took on a digital camera 13 years ago. It is of a mannequin hand holding a glass slide of a photograph of Lauterbrunnen in Swiss alps. I had just visited there the summer before and took what I had written in my journal and superimposed it on the photo. Then I printed it on an Iris printer, a precursor to our beloved Epsons of today. Gosh, I feel old suddenly.

Recent photos from Stems… I could look at these all day. They are so peaceful to me. Enjoy!

Well this year’s Valentine’s weekend got started with a bang! It began with a great Friday that was spent with old friends and new friends (hi Jen, Matt and Sally and Anne and Dave!) Then, Bryan surprised me with a  a pizza and a DVD at the studio and we put the new projector that I have in there to use and had a movie night on the big screen.

To really get our Valentine’s Day started off right, we took lessons from Anne at Stems and made our own bouquets of flowers to give to each other. That was awesome, such a fun class and a totally new way to celebrate Valentine’s day. The art and theory of flower design was easy to understand, but the actual hands-on, working with flowers and making them do what you want them to do is a totally different story. It gave me a whole new respect for Stems‘ work. If you’re interested in taking a class, Stems is offering a Flower Arranging class in March. I totally recommend it!

Then just as you wouldn’t think the day could get even better, we were lucky to experience a rare event in Charleston, SNOW!! Though it was predicted, it was still highly unlikely that it would actually 1) snow and 2) stick to anything. To everyone’s great surprise, we got an official 3.3 inches, making it the 4th largest snowfall in Charleston’s recorded history. This was also the first “significant” snowfall in 12 years, so it was huge for us!

I couldn’t resist taking photos to document the rare event. I may never see this scene again:

This is the pumpkin that doesn’t age, next to my succulents and cacti. None are really meant for the snow.

Home Sweet Home

The next morning, we went out for a few more photos. By the afternoon, all the snow was gone and it was but a dream.

Stainless Steel Kitchen Shelving – $225 w/out casters, $300 with castersStainless steel kitchen shelving with 5 shelves.
60 inches long, 72 inches tall
I bought it from Berlin’s Kitchen Supply less than a year ago and have hardly used it.  It is in excellent condition.
It retails new at Berlin’s for $350 + $100 for the casters.

Shelves with out casters- $225
Shelving with the 4 casters (wheel)- $300

Kitchen Stainless Steel Equipment Stand – $260

Equipment Stand with adjustable undershelf, 30″ x 72″, 24″ high, stainless steel top, galvanized legs and undershelf
I bought it from Berlin’s Kitchen Supply less than a year ago and have hardly used it. It is in excellent condition.
It retails new at Berlin’s for $340 + $100 for the casters. (http://www.berlins.com/Product.aspx?productID=238294)

Table with out casters- $260
Table with the 4 casters (wheel)- $340

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Call or email me if you are interested in either! I am selling them because my studio moved from a big industrial space at 10 Storehouse Row to a smaller boutique spot at 41 Cannon Street and Ijust don’t have room for them. Thanks!!

843-697-0376

Leigh@LeighWebber.com