Taylor Kingsley Photo Project – March 2014

HandsMarch2014

 

For our monthly photo project, the topic was “Hands”. I had a bunch of ideas (including confronting my dislike of my own hands through a little self-portrait therapy). As time began to run out, I realized I had two eager helpers whose hands are always up to something. This photo perfectly captures my kids happy hands, dirt under their nails, adventures around every corner.

Monthly Photo Project Outtakes Part 2

Record RecordPlayerMO RecordsMO

Outtakes from Music Photo Project

Acoustic Guitar AcousticGMO AcousticGReflectionMO

Taylor Kingsley Photo Project – February 2014 MUSIC

FebruaryMusic

The photo project continues with Paul Kingsley – February’s word being Music. Music is very important in our house. My husband has a vinyl record collection anyone would be envious of and has encouraged my love of old swing and gypsy jazz by adding to his collection with musicians I love. Our sons have various musical instruments in their room including bongo drums and tambourines and like to sit on their daddy’s lap helping him strum a guitar. Each morning on the way to school, we let one of them choose the music based on sound of the notes and voices alone and their preferences are already becoming apparent.

For this month’s photo I toyed with a few different ideas and took a bunch of photos settling on this one for its lovely simplicity. I used my husband’s Fender Stratocaster and laid it on the beautiful original wood floors of our 1930’s California bungalow with the afternoon sun pouring in.

Stay tuned for next months photo and keep an eye on Paul’s blog for his interpretation of this month’s topic music.

Monthly Photo Project – January 2014 ARCHIVE

My dear friend Paul Kingsley and I decided to resurrect our monthly photo project and the word for January is “Archive”. I’ve chosen one of the photos I took in Mexico on a bus from Mexico City to Oaxaca, along a winding road with nothing but thinly barbed fences protecting land from traveled road. After spending a short time in Mexico City, we boarded the bus for a 6 ½ hour ride to Oaxaca. While there was reading, writing in my travel journal, and trying to decipher the movie “Holes” in Spanish, most of my time was spent staring out the window. It was meditative letting my mind wander, passing through both small towns and along stretches of land with nothing in sight. I can taste the tamales we bought from a vendor on the side of the road, her small red and white cooler holding the best meal I had the entire trip. Have spent so many years in the city, traveling primarily underground, it was refreshing to spend the time looking out the window at the passing landscape.

Stay tuned for our February project and make sure to check out Paul’s other blogs:

Doctors Without Wall – Santa Barbara Street Medicine

Ventured Away

Kingsley Travels about exploring Santa Barbara

NY/LA Photo Project: March 2012 Icon

For February’s theme, I chose the word Icon. The Andy Monument in Union Square seemed fitting not only because it represents a NYC icon in Andy Warhol but also because it’s a striking piece of art. It stands out, like Warhol did and like the city itself does. Beautiful, interesting, unusual, and memorable.

Read below for more information on the artist Rob Pruitt

Inspired by Warhol’s art and life, Rob Pruitt (b. 1964, Washington DC) created The Andy Monument as a tribute to the late artist. It stands on the street corner, just as Warhol did when he signed and gave away copies of Interview magazine. Pruitt’s sculpture adapts and transforms the familiar tradition of classical statuary. The figure is based on a combination of digital scanning of a live model and hand sculpting, its surface finished in chrome, mounted on a concrete pedestal. It depicts Warhol as a ghostly, silver presence: a potent cultural force as both artist and self-created myth. As Rob Pruitt observes, “Like so many other artists and performers and people who don’t fit in because they’re gay or otherwise different, Andy moved here to become who he was, to fulfill his dreams and make it big. He still represents that courage and that possibility. That’s why I came to New York, and that’s what my Andy Monument is about.”

NY/LA Photo Project: February 2012 Beauty

For this month’s word “Beauty” I had originally intended to shoot St Patrick’s Cathedral. In my 10+ years in NY I had never stepped foot inside and part of what I love about this project is being exposed to things I might not otherwise be in the city I live in. I took the day off, a much needed break from the whirlwind my life has been these days, and after some coffee and reading, set out for my planned location. Despite the dreary cold weather I decided to get off a subway stop early and take a longer walk to the cathedral. It was on my way there that I spotted St. Thomas Church on the corner of 5th Avenue and 53rd Street. I used to work in the area so I had passed by this church more than once and was ashamed that I’d never taken the time to really look at it. I shot a few pics from the outside, hesitantly walked up the stairs and peeked my head indoors, making sure I wasn’t disturbing a service. The place was completely empty and I was overwhelmed by what I saw, a wall at the far end of the church that glowed, intricate carving, quiet, cool, and infinitely beautiful. I sat in the church for 20-30 minutes, soaking up the silence which is a rarity in my life these days, and just took it all in. Had I not decided to get off a stop early, I wouldn’t have discovered this beautiful church so I’m grateful for happy accidents. I did end up going to St Patrick’s Cathedral afterwards and honestly, for all of it’s grandeur, it paled in comparison to St Thomas.

(the view when I first walked in)

St Thomas Chuch

Designed by the distinguished architectural firm of Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson and completed in 1913, Saint Thomas Church is built in the French High Gothic style, with stone ornamentation of the later Flamboyant period in the windows, small arches of the triforium, and stonework surrounding the statuary in the reredos. The flat wall behind the altar is characteristic of English cathedrals, and the magnificent reredos, one of the largest in the world, is strongly suggestive of the single, massive windows that terminate the naves of many English churches designed in the Perpendicular style.

Except for its length, Saint Thomas is of cathedral proportions, with the nave vault rising 95 feet above the floor. The church is built completely of stone, according to medieval construction principles, using load-bearing rib vaulting without the space-spanning benefits of steel. The size, spacing, and number of columns and arches are precisely what is necessary to support the structure – and give it the unique acoustical properties associated with churches built of the same materials and in the same way during the Middle Ages. Because much of the music presented in concert at Saint Thomas was composed for use in these churches – not in the concert hall – Saint Thomas Church provides an authentic space in which this music can be heard today.

NY/LA Photo Project: January 2012 Action

I’m not sure why I had such a difficult time with “Action” but I did. It’s so wide open and specific at the same time. I try to make these photos truly New York City centric so in the end I chose the Green Market in Union Square. This place is always hopping, people buying, wandering, shooting photos, meeting friends. I’ve never seen it not busy when the booths are up. There are people everywhere looking and sampling, chatting and weaving, doing that typical NYC dance in a crowd.

Asparagus and Prime Rib

I’m a little behind on posting photos but wanted to finally get these up. Just to clarify, I’m not eating prime rib every day. These photos are from the Christmas Eve dinner prepared by my sister in law Dawn and yes, it was as delicious as it looks.

NY/LA Photo Project: Photographer’s Choice (December 2011)

December is obviously a busy month so Paul and I decided to take it easy with our pick and go with “photographer’s choice”. This photo was taken with my phone which I know many will frown upon. I’ve had an idea on my mind for a while now, capturing the view of entering Manhattan from Queens on my morning subway ride. In this case, I had my phone available and quickly snapped the shot. I know this isn’t the best photograph between the glare of the train glass and tweaks with iPhone photo apps but it is sentimental because I get to see this each time I enter the city. Pretty amazing view first thing in the morning in my opinion!

Happy 2012!