CAP Artist Registry

scl8@cornell.edu
http://www.SusanCLarkin.com

Both of my parents were artists - one a photographer and the other a painter. They spent long hours at their crafts and Christmas cards were a joint project - painted, printed, and mailed from home.

I couldn't paint, and only took an occasional photograph with my Brownie camera, but the tradition of homemade cards persisted throughout my life. Eventually the Christmas cards led to birthday cards - photos and personal stories put together with the help of our home computer. But the programs I used were inadequate, and Photoshop was hard to learn - until I retired and found classes at Tompkins Cortland Community College. Five years and many challenges later, I have moved from cards, to family montages, to a book about our neighborhood, and currently to close-ups of flowers.

I have begun to look at the world differently - to stop and really look. Look at the shape, the design, the color. Look at it! Potential photographs are everywhere. With the help of a program called Helicon Focus, I can increase the depth of field to include the whole flower, fruit, seed, or tendril. Many attempts don't succeed, but when I construct an image that draws my eye from one section to another, and back again, I start to communicate.

Photography has given me the joy of discovery that my parents felt when they were hard at work on their crafts - so many years ago.