Below are the 16 most recent journal entries recorded in PamelaDuffy's LiveJournal:

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
12:42 pm	Award and book arrives I was invited by Fresh M.I.L.K to enter a $125,000 online competition that challenged photographers to capture spontaneous and emotive moments shared between friends, families and lovers around the world. After receiving nearly 35,000 entries from photographers in 112 countries, a judging panel, including the eminent Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt, selected 150 general prize-winners. I am one of the 150 winners. The 150 winning images are to be published in a new book entitled Friendship, Family, Love & Laughter in November 2009, and on selected licensed products for ten years. Five hundred dollars and royalties for the book and other products are prizes to the winners. I received my copy 2 days ago and it is beautiful. The story behind the photo- I am photographing Hana, the bride, in her hotel room. Suddenly, her best friend opens the door to Hana’s family and the southwest light streams in. I zoom wide and trigger the shutter as father, mother, brother, and ring bearer dog, Akasha, see Hana ready and waiting.
Thursday, October 11th, 2007
11:56 am	Just back from Zurich & Hamburg I spent 12 days in Europe photographing for a Swiss client and long time friend. Arriving in Zurich Sept.10 during most beautiful weather and light was a relief after such a long and difficult time at security both in Phoenix and more so in London during my stop over. Extremely tough security allowed only one carry on which meant all my equipment had only one place to ride-- my camera hard case on wheels. I am accustomed to a two bag distribution of my lenses, cameras, flashes and gadgets. The camera hard case took half a day to reconfigure and was now too heavy for me to lift into the overhead baggage compartment but thanks to nearby passengers we heaved it up a total of 9 times on the trip. Only allowed one carry on I was forced to stuff the rest of my personal items in zipper pockets in "my carry on coat" if you know what I mean. It held more things than my purse would have had the check-in agent not made me pack it into my checked baggage. The only equipment I checked was my over-sized tripod case. Oh, the dread of having equipment not hop off the baggage belt... my tripod, monopod and yoga mat had gone missing in that case. Happy I had paid for American Express baggage insurance but disappointed and concerned about my missing tripod I sat in front of a clerk who with total Swiss clock accuracy filed delayed baggage forms with me. He assured me it would arrive on a later flight. Apparently, it is very common to have delayed baggage in Europe especially if you have a connecting flight in London's Heathrow Airport which is exactly where I hung out for three hours. I walked out of the Zurich airport happy to breathe fresh air after 17 hours of sharing other people's air on board British Airways. I was greeted by my dear Swiss friend. Her home which had been the British Consulate's was lovely at sunset. I would get the kinks out with some yoga (without my "delayed" yoga mat) on the floor, put aside all the struggles of travel with all its heavy cases (one of which would be traveling on its own all night through the European continent) and standing in security lines in my socks while every camera and lens was inspected. With a good night's sleep, tomorrow would be a new day. I would wake up in Switzerland, have some muesli, find my tripod delivered, visit the stained glass windows of Chagall, find my tripod delivered, spend the late afternoon at at cafe watching life go by, find my tripod delivered... yes, finally at 11pm it arrived. In two days I would fly to Hamburg on Air Berlin for the photography I came to Europe to do. To be continued...
Sunday, February 4th, 2007
11:14 pm	Environmental portraits I think it is difficult on people to have them stand on white seamless with strobes pointed at them for a portrait. White seamless backdrop is very stark. Avedon liked to do this--maybe the first to do full figure portraits this way. People seem to feel and look awkward standing on a gigantic roll of paper...they appear like cut outs to me and I've always wondered why anyone would want to isolate a person so much in order to photograph them. I love to let people "be" in there environment or at the most put them in a beautiful natural place in order to make a portrait of them. But, it's a much more difficult approach since photos are 2-D. We live in 3-D and the act of photographing converts everything to 2-D. The background compresses up against the person being photographed in the environmental portrait. While I make a portrait I simultaneously am selecting angles that allow everything in the environment behind them to flatten up against them in an embrace rather than a pointy attack on their head or figure. Sometimes, everything moves so quickly and perfectly. I get into a perfect flow with the light, the background and the person. When it gets tough I understand why the big-old-roll of white seamless to eliminate the whole issue of background and the total control of studio lighting is preferred by some photographers. But, being totally "out of control" is so much fun and natural. It is my nature to want it this way.
Monday, July 31st, 2006
7:55 pm	Light Light is everything. Everything is light.
Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006
10:51 pm	the first 10,000 photos Now there's this idea that if you have a megapixel, megabucks digital camera you can make great photos. But having taught photography and seen what people do during their first 10,000 images you know any camera is just an inanimate object. It takes a colossal human effort to breathe life into it.
Tuesday, April 25th, 2006
10:43 pm	The king of the king of blogs, Metafilter blogs Top Knots and links straight to Pink and Blue and the new school of wedding photography. Have a look and add your thoughts: http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/51164
Saturday, April 22nd, 2006
7:44 am	Earth Day Today, Earth Day, means a lot to me living in a "Location" year round. The opening photograph on my website was shot on Earth Day. It lures many people in love to Sedona, Arizona. Today the sky is big, cloudless, deep blue. The earth is dry and red here in Sedona. The air is clean and thin in the high desert. The cottonwood trees have small, spring green young leaves today. Take a look: www.pameladuffyphoto.com
Sunday, April 9th, 2006
7:00 pm	Award Winning Photo in PDN In 1997 PDN (Photo District News) ran a story about my photo documentary work called "Nanny" which had just been published in DoubleTake magazine. It was quite exciting to get that call to be interviewed for the PDN story. In February, after years of subscribing to PDN and following all the PDN competitions, I decided to enter some of my photos in the Top Knots: New School of Wedding Photography competition. The call came that my photo "Pink and Blue" would be published in the April issue of the magazine. It made my day. But, two days ago when the April issue arrived in my mail box I was elated to find that my photo was "Best of Category" and therefore ran large, alone and full page. Yes! Best of Category meant a list of prizes: (The Gods Must Be Happy) Nikon Digital Camera, Metz Digital Flash, Gitzo Tripod and Head, lots of Fujifilm, (my film of choice) and more. I am a Nikon user and was planning to acquire new equipment. Gitzo is my favorite brand and all three of my Gitzos look like they've gone through a war... so I am thrilled. About the photo, "Pink and Blue": It was made while photographing a wedding in Berkeley/Alameda Ca. I flew to the Bay Area for a Saturday, June wedding. I have known the bride, Amanda, since she was born. Her mother and I have been friends for a million years. I was photographing in Amanda's childhood home as she began to get ready with her bridesmaids who wore pink. I was shooting film with a BW camera and a color camera. I usually shoot BW while documenting the flux of moments and fun that a bride has getting ready with her female friends and relatives. It's such an advantage being a woman photographer. Her bridesmaid, Kelly, offered to help her with makeup but wanted a mirror. So I followed them to the bathroom and flipped out when I saw what I saw. I ditched my BW camera for color and in two frames it was done. The bride's pink oxford shirt and Kelly's red hair and pink dress lined up and reflected in a mirror against pink bathroom tiles trimmed with thin blue tiles. Amanda's hair had blue clips the exact color of the tiles. The whole thing looked like a photo stylist had worked on it for three days to get it right. Kelly was laughing with the bride about something. My hearing had left me momentarily because my vision had taken over in this wonderful, color moment of girl stuff in the mirror. There was a perfect split second when I was so "in the flow," and they were so perfectly perfect in time and space that that picture and I caught a glimpse of my and their euphoria.
Thursday, January 6th, 2005
8:26 am	2005 Monterey Light 2005 in Monterey Light. Between the rain the Central Coast was such a light show during the last hour of the day. Rainbow arched over Highway 1. Coastal light so watery and soft such that I do not see in the high desert of Sedona.
Monday, September 27th, 2004
1:42 pm	Last evening at 6:15pm I saw the 29th day of the moon rise between the spires of Cathedral Rock. Tomorrow night, the Harvest moon will be full and I will be there again to photograph. During all those 21 years in New York I missed all moons, stars, sunrises, sunsets...
Thursday, March 25th, 2004
9:18 pm	The Subject Tonight is Light Breath and light are the same to me. Absolutely taken for granted. Never really noticed unless of course, you can't breathe or the lights go out. But, there are those who study the breath and practice breathing everyday- meditators and yogis. With daily breathing techniques that eventually control the life energy and literally go breathless. And, there are those who study light. Photographers could be called meditators or yogis of light. They practice lighting everyday. They read light. They watch light. They catch light. But most of all they react to light. Unlike, most people that just notice if the sun is out, a good photographer knows the color of light at sunrise and sunset. They go breathless during the last seconds of luscious, late afternoon light. They are aware of all the dimensions, illusions, saturations, highs and lows of light. And they know light's corollary; they know shadows. Shadows and light. That is another discussion all together. I am turning off the light now. Good night.
Saturday, September 13th, 2003
2:43 pm	Cover Photo on The Perfect Wedding Guide My photo of a couple crossing Oak Creek at sunset with Cathedral Rock backdrop will appear on the cover of the Fall issue of The Perfect Wedding Guide. The bride--wearing tennis shoes-- is in complete Sedona style for her ceremony on the red rocks. The free guide is paperback size and features everything you wanted to know about Sedona weddings but were afraid to ask.
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2003
4:21 pm	Long, summer light Long summer days of high desert light. By 8am, the sunlight looks like high noon in Sedona. The contrast range is way off the scales and so is the temperature. The legendary Arizona monsoon, known as earth-pounding tempests, is slow to arrive though the rains usually occur from July to September. Before each outdoor shoot I pray to the God of Monsoon to manifest, at best, as a good cloud cover. Yesterday, the boon was granted. Portraits shot in Monsoon cloudiness--yes, diffused lighting at noon! (otherwise, the living worst time of day to photograph people outdoors). Very little time to photograph and direct in Spanish various guests and a latin bride and groom after their wedding in Sedona's Tlaquepaque Village. Tlaquepaque is a location with romantic ambiance-- Spanish style architecture, fountains, patios, ceramic tiles, columns, archways, and ever changing gardens. Later at 6pm the latin lovers met me at Red Rock Crossing, recognized recently as THE most beautiful place in America in USA Today's Travel Report, May 16-18 issue. The "Crossing" consists of Cathedral Rock, Sedona's most photographed butte and the flowing waters of Oak Creek. The Monsoon God came through again with intermittent clouds. This is a sunset location if there ever was one. Everything is bathed in golden light. It is the place and the hour that I photograph to highlight red in the red rocks and the warm glow of lovers.
Wednesday, February 26th, 2003
1:50 pm	A dreamy, soft white-out Merry-go-round Rock, Sedona AZ. The place to photograph on top of the world. It takes 30 minutes on a very miserable dirt road in a 4-wheel drive to reach the pull off. Then, there's a short meandering trail to the edge. If you compare photos shot there in the morning to those in the afternoon the location looks completely different. The red rocks can be back lit in late afternoon and when photographing people at the location the whole thing gets to be a dreamy, soft white-out because of shooting into the sun. Early morning gives the directional lighting needed to make the sky a saturated sky blue and set the red rocks glowing. It is one of my favorite locations and is the opening photo on my website.
Friday, January 31st, 2003
9:48 pm	Photography is a way of staring, an excuse to stare. The photograph is a way to share the stare. Photography has kept me from walking through the world with dead eyes. As a photographer I learn to be all eyes and to work at a quiet level of one-pointed concentration. In great form I can become so absorbed I forget my name and what time it is as a result of being "all there and aware". The only thing that matters is what is in front of me, right here, right now. When this rings true, photographing is an ecstatic experience. It feels as if I am playing playfully. It is a game of "catch it, catch it if you can," that state of flux, perpetual motion, the ever changing world that I want to catch on the wing of its fleetingness. Photography is a way of staring, an excuse to stare. The photograph is a way to share the stare. With time I have realized that making good photographs requires that I be more light sensitive than film and that I train myself to have camera vision. And, most importantly, to be all heart. The camera is a relentless recorder of what I point it at. But, as the brains, eyes and heart behind the camera, as the shutter master, I choose the moment to fall in love with time and places and people. A camera is just dead weight in a camera bag. But, once it is in human hands it has a heart , unless, of course, those hands are walking around the world in the somnambulant state of just looking.
Tuesday, January 7th, 2003
4:12 pm	Sedona in the viewfinder is deja vu. Light is everything. Beauty velcroed to the chamber of my heart Sedona, Arizona. Here I am. After twenty-one years of life and photography in New York City I feel as if I died and went to heaven. Sedona, Arizona is my home and my photo world now and it brings me a light, a beauty, a natural world which sends me into flights of wonder. In this high desert characterized by crimson buttes and spires of 280 million-year-old sandstone, when I look through my camera's viewfinder I sometimes have deja vu since I subconsciously know Sedona from the old John Wayne Western classics that were filmed here, that I watched as a child. Over seventy Westerns were made in Sedona. Even Elvis made a cowboy film in Sedona. For the most part those Cine-color Westerns were terrible films- their biggest flaw was their contemptuous portrayal of the Native American Indian. But, I love the mythology of the West that Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Burt Lancaster and John Wayne left to us through these films. Yes, with Henry, Glenn, Burt and John we could all ride off into the sunset against the backdrop of Sedona's undeniable beauty. The beauty of the red earth and rocks against the complementary-colored evergreens has velcroed itself to the chamber of my heart. For me, light is everything, everything is light. At almost 5000 feet elevation, here the air is light, the light is cyrstal clear. There is a sacredness to the the mountains here. They say God created the Grand Canyon but He lives in Sedona. Maybe, that's why I feel I've died and gone to heaven.