Poster for Poets

New Poster Design:

 "100 Thousand Poets for Change"
With Poet Richard Denner and Friends

Full Moonrise, Pagosa Springs, Colorado

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected in water

The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken

Although its light is wide and great

The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide

The whole moon and the entire sky

Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

~Dogen

Photography and New Blogs

Epiphyte (air plant)

I enjoy working with like-minded people when doing photography and 

graphic design. Recently have been making posts for my friend Virginia on Permaculture.
 She creates beautiful and wholesome environments in the Todos Santos Oasis (BCS)
following natural methods that nourish the earth and soul.

More to come, but for a 'sneak peak' of some photographs, class schedules
and ideas check out: http://pcfsbaja.blogspot.mx

Rose Geranium - Drying Leaves to be used for Tea or Bath Water

Drying (curing) Braided Onions for storage

Art and Poetry

What lies behind us

and what lies before us

Are tiny matters

compared to what lies

within us.

Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Love Overcomes Fear...

Love Overcomes Fear

and 

Presence Overcomes Death

A moment to last

A moment to last a lifetime ....


baylaurelphotography.com

Calligraphy Book Project - update

Back from Seattle and a week of photographing for a photography illustration book project. It rained almost every day, but Seattle is quite nice. I was staying on the east side near a lake and wooded area. We worked hard and got a lot done, it will be interesting to see how it evolves into a book. Part introduction to the art, part inspiration, that perhaps may encourage people to take up the form as meditative art. An art more rare in our modern age certainly, I enjoy learning more about it.

Mother and Child

I specialized in fine portraits of Mother and Child in my studio when my own children were very young. These selenium toned images are more essential and timeless in black and white, to my mind. I now use a unique formula for black and white conversions with digital images. It closely resembles the final effect of many hours of darkroom processing I used to do that using a special elon/acetone film developer with selenium toner at the end. That combined with Agfa Portriga paper made for creamy rich skin tones and a warm tint on the photographic emulsion. A very labor intensive process however and the exposure to chemicals is certainly not healthy. Now I print this image, for example, onto archival watercolor paper with archival inks (called a Giclée) to have a lasting fine art print that is not quite the same, but has a quality far beyond the normal lab print.  Digital technology allows one to shoot more, and in a photojournalistic style without film costs, but the processing time can be very long at the computer. Digital photography also requires expensive cameras with powerful computers and software which need to be constantly upgraded every few years. I miss my old medium format 6x7 camera, it was such a great workhorse that never needed upgrading. Still, I enjoy the advantages of the new technology and keep finding new ways to use it!