postcard: family edition

my niece...

niece and nephew...photographed by andreas aguilar

niece...

sister...

me...photographed by andreas aguilar

bringin' da noise: canon g10

cash bar

cap'n cool

color strand

face to face

pieces of work

i recently purchased a canon g10 to serve as my every day, on-the-go camera. i've used it on three separate occasions so far, and i'm not loving the results. granted, i've been maxing out the zoom, and trying whenever possible not to use a flash. but there is a disappointing amount of noise and i don't know what to do...

i took the photos above at a book event at the fantastic jan larsen art studios in dumbo (hosted by gelf magazine). see what i mean? the only shot that isn't affected is one of the quilt...

sometimes i like grainy-ness in photos, but i don't want to see it in every shot.

i'm thinking about returning it. but what should i replace it with? a friend was happy with the results from the panasonic g1 he tested (while snowboarding, no less). but it looks from this review like that will present a similar problem? i should ask to see those photos.

i'm usually good about researching equipment before pulling the trigger (i loved the results from my canon A95, great saturated color, beautiful quality with a surprisingly robust zoom--and i bought it for around $250), but i was in a bit if a hurry this time as i needed a good back-up camera...thank goodness i didn't need to rely on this for my friend's wedding photos--there's no comparing the quality of the images between this and the xsi.

i'm going to take it for another run this weekend up in beacon, and then at home. maybe i just need to do a bit more fiddling around. fingers crossed.

but i remain open for suggestions...

more shots from the fun and fascinating gelf magazine series: "geeking out," here .

the wedding party

i shot my first wedding last saturday--a friend's wedding. a loving and low-key affair in upstate new york.

i'd been keyed up for weeks, a little ball of nerves.

but it was fantastic. who knew that someone else's wedding day would be one of the happiest days of my life?

i am sort of vexed by the shots i missed and could have done better. but i suppose that's just the way it goes and how i'll improve...

of the 2700+ that i shot, a few stood out to me as favorites from the moment they were taken:

i had nothing to do with this. we were contemplating a wide shot...and then into the frame comes flying the maid of honor (she's too hot to be a "matron"...) my lovely friend, teresa. completely unexpected and one hundred percent fun. just like her. and that photo inspired this one:

for obvious adorability, there is this one...

and this one...



sweet...

pretty city: june 6

broadway.

mott street.

prince street.

lafayette street.

lafayette street.

prince street.

bleecker street.

more "pretty city photos" here...

what i think about when i think about monaco...

cary grant and grace kelly. 1955. unknown photographer.

prince albert, prince rainier, princesses stephanie and caroline, and princess grace. on holiday, 1960. photographed by alain nogues. via alain nogues/sygma/corbis at corbis.com.

when i was a young teen, the royal family of monaco held court, likely against their will, over seemingly all the magazines and tabloids. they would make regular appearances in news weeklies, fashion books, lifestyle mags and the gossip rags--the ladies in my family became pretty fluent in who they were cavorting with and what they were wearing. it seems strange now that i came to know grace kelly as a mom before i saw any of her films.

maybe this is less strange, but what i knew of "european style" also evolved from photos of taken of the royal family at that time. as someone who'd spent little time thinking about clothes to that point (except in the form a "lucky leotard" or tennis togs), the younger princess' style--reflective of her interest in sports--appealed to me. she was always traipsing around the alps, or hanging out at the races, in gear that seemed pretty cool.

(i tried to rock this bandanna look for waaaay too long...)princesses stephanie and grace in gstaad, switzerland. 1980. photographed by laszlo veres. via b.d.v./corbis pro.corbis.com.

princess stephanie, 1983. photographed by laszlo veres. via b.d.v./corbis at pro.corbis.com

but everything about that continental, cosmopolitan principality and the royal family was steeped so long in sadness after princess grace's death. it was hard to look at photos and see past that.

stephanie at val d'Isere, france. january 10, 1983. photographed by stephane tavoularis. via bettmann/corbis at pro.corbis.com.

prince albert and princess stephanie. december 12, 1982. photographed by richard melloul, via richard melloul/sygma/corbis at pro.corbis.com.

but in the last few years that i've been tuning into the tennis at the monte carlo rolex open, i've loved the stunning view of and from the courts, and the tennis has been just as spectacular. it is my second favorite clay court tournament, and pretty near the top of the list of tournaments i'd like to attend. the stadium seems only as big as a high school football stadium. and then there's the sea...

but i won't lie: to see prince albert ii making appearances at matches and presiding over various ceremonies, looking older and settled and happy, gives the tournament a special allure.

monaco, a locale perhaps not ever as idyllic as the "playground for the rich" moniker would imply, does seem quite glamorous again.

rafael nadal at the 2007 monte carlo open. photographed by michael steele, april 21, 2007. via getty images, at montecarlo.masters-series.com.

andy murray, prince albert II, and rafael nadal in monte carlo, monaco. april 12, 2009. photographed by michael steele, getty images. via boston.com

street chic and hollywood glam

photo via the sartorialist, may 2007.

"on the street.....pixie, sodermalm stockholm."

posted may 11 at 8:00 am.

when i'm too too distracted or brain-numbed to read (or write), i troll design blogs and fashion sites for inspiration--not so much for fashion inspiration (while i do love looking at how the gals on street chic and the sartorialist combine colors, choose accessories, layer upon layer, that kind of unstudied chic or high style is not something i am apt [read: able] to mimic) but for pure, romantic, creative jolts.

the actual photos are glorious for light and color. i love that some are charmingly posed, others discreetly snapped...

it's lovely escapism.

i can imagine the kiss of an autumn breeze in paris...

the sartorialist via style.com september 30, 2008

or happily growing old in milan...

via the sartorialist, style.com, september 25, 2008.

i can witness "a moment"...

via the sartorialist at style.com, september 27, 2008.

i look at the backgrounds, the locations, and am reminded of my trip to france earlier this year and some of the things i loved: luxurious afternoons and evenings in outdoor cafes... blue-grey sky enriched by triumphant afternoon sun...mopeds and cool architecture... trees...windy strolls about the eiffel tower...crepes...

and sometimes from these blogs, i can uncover something new.

last week, i noticed the teaser for a post called "depression era beauties" that featured a famous george hurrell glamour shot of of jean harlow, and when i clicked through the accompanying slideshow, i fell in love with these photos of my favorite actresses:

myrna loy

carole lombard

i looked at the credits to note the names of the photographers, and found that more than a few were from the collection of john kobal. and i wondered, who is he?

it turns out he was a writer, film historian and the premier collector of hollywood film photography. if you read the bio on his foundation's website, you'll see he's basically a film superfan, who smartly amassed movie memorabilia, surely believing that others would share his obsession, and their preservation would be of eventual value to film historians and photographers.

there is a "made in hollywood" exhibition, featuring 90 vintage prints by some of the most important film photographers from the 1930s-60s that will open in may 2009, at the knoxville museum of art in knoxville, TN.

for a bit more context, check out this la times piece, first published in august 2008, when the exhibit opened in santa barbara.

exhibition "travel details" here.

and for a peek at photos from the accompanying book, "the glamour of the gods," visit newsweek's gallery.

claxography

natalie wood in nyc, photographed by william claxton, in 1961.

william claxton, whose stills of the west coast jazz scene in the 1950s are some of the most intimate and acclaimed, and whose portraits of chet baker chronicled and hastened the musician's ascent to stardom, died today at the age of 80.


i'm familiar with some of claxton's work (any half-decent poster or postcard shop in the city offers this image for sale in one form or another; who hasn't seen this one of sinatra? and this shot was known to me long before chet baker was) but i knew little about the man himself, or the breadth of his career.

and so today, i did some reading...

i learned from the nytimes' obit that he first became known for photographing his subjects, like sonny rollins, in "unorthodox" outdoor settings.

the la times' more anecdotal tribute (a too-amazing-to-imagine encounter with charlie parker) will pique the interest of fledgling photographers and jazz aficionados, and includes claxton's musings on the similarities between jazz and photography ("They're alike in their improvisation and their spontaneousness. They happen at the same moment that you're hearing something and you're seeing something, and you record it and it's frozen forever").

i was most surprised to find out that he was the art director at motor trend magazine for more than a decade. but after reading of his passion for sports cars, race cars, and motorcycles, which he shared with another of his oft-photographed subjects, steve mcqueen, it made perfect sense.

part of claxton's talent--and some might call this an art--was his ability to engender the trust of his subjects, by getting to know them, and letting them know him. and he promised not to portray them in a negative way. he was, in his own words, "dedicated to beauty" and he knew how to find it in his subjects.

these days, when photos can be and are so readily manipulated, and we, as a culture, delight in catching celebrities (and non-celebrities!) at their most compromised (and i can't say i'm immune to this phenomenon myself), and intimacy is often mistaken for being merely exposed, claxton's work takes on even more significance. his commitment to the expression of beauty, real intimacy, and honesty through photography is something that, hopefully, never gets lost.

for more on william claxton's fascinating life and work, and to hear "claxton on claxton," visit his site.

news!

untitled (me) by matias aguilar.

i've been inconsistent with posts, but i don't want any more time to pass before i call attention to a couple of very cool sites:

zovig's callastyle site: you can find out more about her, and her image consulting business. there's also a link to her truly fashion -"inspired" blog -- she'll have you contemplating style, and help you confidently embrace your own.

matias' photography site: humor and melancholy. evocative stillness. vintage and modern. gritty. reflective. those words come to my mind when i see his photos. take a look, take some time. see if you agree. perhaps you'll have more, better words to describe them.

in the end, i hope you'll enjoy them as much as i do.

visit his blog to see who's influencing and inspiring him.

he took these photos of me a few years ago, in what will forever be one of my favorite places--my old studio on jane street. he captured a couple of "moods," which i very much appreciate.

untitled (me). by matias aguilar.

golden!!!

photo by al tielemans/si, via si.com

photo by al tielemans/si, via si.com

photo by bob rosato/si, via si.com

complete si ladies individual all-around competition photo gallery here...

nastia, girl!

photo: vladimir rys/bongarts, via getty images and the nytimes.com

i've managed to miss a lot of the olympics--between seeing "the dark knight", hearing accordion bands, going to hip-hop birthday parties...and work...and being sick (and under dr's orders to go to to bed early)--and despite near 24/7 coverage on a zillion nbc channels.

but i am definitely carving a few hours over the next handful of days to watch nastia liukin and the other female gymnasts, for the women's team final (tonight), the individual all-around competition on thursday night, and the individual events on sunday-tuesday (aug 17-19).

i'm not going to make any predictions--and here's an obvious observation: shawn johnson seemed impervious to the pressure and nerves that affected everyone else during the qualifying--but i'm going to be rooting hard for nastia liukin. before an ankle injury in '06, that required surgery and kept her out for basically all of 2007, she was women's gymnastics. there are a lot of powerful gymnasts in the world and they all perform tricks that defy our vision of what the body can (and should?) do, but none have her exquisite lines. (photos below taken at the 2008 olympic trials, via liukin's website.)

liukin will compete in the individual all-around, and the event finals for beam, floor, and bars, so you'll have many chances to see for yourself. here's the schedule....

enjoy!