Sunday, November 24, 2013

Genetically Modified Foods Survey Results

I did a survey through SurveyMonkey for a research paper that I am writing about the need for stricter labeling of Genetically Modified Organisms, GMOs. I want to thank those who participated in this survey.

Here are the results of the survey.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) Used as Ingredients in the American Food Supply

Q1
Are you aware that Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are used in the American Food Supply?
·        Answered: 100 
·        Skipped: 0

Answer Choices
Responses
A) Yes
92%
92
B) No
8%
8
Total Respondents: 100

Q2
How long ago did you first become aware of the use of GMO food ingredients in the American food supply?
·        Answered: 100 
·        Skipped: 0

Answer Choices
Responses
A) Less than 6 months
15%
15
B) Less than 1 year
20%
20
C) Less than 5 years
39%
39
D) More than 5 years
26%
26
Total
100




Q3
Do you feel that Genetically Modified Organisms in food pose health concerns to consumers?
·        Answered: 100 
·        Skipped: 0

Answer Choices
Responses
A) Yes
90%
90
B) No
10%
10
Total
100
Q4
Do you believe that GMO food ingredients should be clearly indicated on food labels?
·        Answered: 100 
·        Skipped: 0

Answer Choices
Responses
A) Yes
94%
94
B) No
6%
6
Total
100
Q5
Concerning Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), do you feel that the FDA has put the interests of large food corporations before any possible health risks to the general public?
·        Answered: 100 
·        Skipped: 0

Answer Choices
Responses
A) Yes
91%
91
B) No
9%
9
Total
100

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Music from a Distant Memory


A few days ago a package arrived in the mail containing a vintage Philco Ford clock radio made in 1966.  I had been looking for this particular model of clock radio on and off for the best part of the last decade.  The search was sparked by my memories.  Memories from my childhood and early adults years which, truth be told, was over 30 years ago.  The search was made all the more difficult as all I had to go on were these distant memories.  I didn’t know the brand name.  I couldn’t have described the radio to another person except for a vague idea that it was white, rectangular, and it had a circular clock face with a second hand that went all the way across it.  These recollections drifted in the back of my mind as I indulged my quest for mid-century modern items for my current bedroom and home office space.

The tanker desk and orange desk chair were the first items of my buying spree.  These were followed by a credenza located on Craigslist, and matching highboy dresser that I splurged on and had shipped in from Dallas, Texas.  A vintage orange lamp soon graced one corner of the desk.  Then two orange side chairs arrived in a box from Grand Rapids; the Fed Ex delivery man felt he had to give me a schooling on how the chairs should have been packed better.  Next, I started looking for a vintage radio that could sit on my sturdy tanker desk.  One evening while browsing through the online auctions of mid-century clock radios, one caught my eye, and like the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle slipping into place, the picture of this clock radio caused my distant childhood memories to come racing to the fore of my brain.  I had found face of the clock that had been ticking away in the corners of my memories. 

These memories had become lodged in my brain during the summer that I turned 13.  My younger brother, my first cousin from Baltimore, and I were spending our summer vacations with my grandmother on her farm in the Appalachian mountains outside of Martinsburg, WV.  That was the summer that I spent listening to music on my late grandfather’s clock radio.  Before he passed away from black lung, the radio had sat on a table by his chair in the living room.  After he passed away, the clock radio found a home on the kitchen table.  I used to love listening to it in the mornings and at night it would sit on a window sill so that we could hear the music while we sat on the porch and watched the fireflies in the yard and the rolling meadow beyond.  With my grandmother’s permission, and her indulgence, that clock radio moved with me from room to room filling my first teenage summer with music.  I especially remember the muggy afternoons lying on my bed listening to the rain coming down and the thunder following the lightening as it provided accompaniment to the songs on the radio.  As summer drew to a close and it was time for my brother and I to return home, I asked my grandmother if I could take that clock radio home with me.  Again indulging her eldest grandson, she let me have the radio as a birthday present.

While growing up, on that radio I listened to the local news, lunch reports, snow day announcements, Doctor Demento, late night radio mysteries, and so very, very much music.  However, just like my first teenage summer came to a close, so did my high school years and as I was preparing to go off to college, I tucked that clock radio safely away on the top shelf of my bedroom closet.  After an unsuccessful freshman year and then another year living on my own, my parents asked me to come home and patch up our strained relations.  I agreed and after packing two cardboard boxes, I caught a Greyhound bus in Allentown and headed home.  While getting settled back into my old room, I thought again of the clock radio and decided to get it out and put it on the desk were it had sat before.  Much to my dismay, the clock radio, along with a few other vintage radios that I had collected, was gone.  After some investigation, I found that my younger brother and a friend of his decided that it would be fun to melt down those, to them, useless old radios and play with the molten solder. Just envisioning the burning plastic and Bakelite still makes me sick to my stomach.  With a total disregard, my brother stole a reminder of my grandparents and of my childhood summers and sent it up in flames and oily black smoke.
 

Over the intervening years, I have thought of that radio and now realize that its absence had made as much of an impact on my life as it presence did during my childhood.  While my grandfather’s radio is as gone as the smoke of the fire it burnt up in, I can still see it in my mind’s eye sitting on the shelf in the closet where I placed it awaiting future days.  And while there is no way to go back in time and retrieve it in actuality, I now see its twin setting on my desk 30 years removed from my childhood.              

Thursday, June 6, 2013

New Look for My Website

Went through my website and gave it some spiffing up.  Check it out.



Don't forget about the upcoming RAWartists event where I will be showing my work and there will be prints for sale.  Even if you can't make it to the event, please consider buying a ticket and supporting me as a patron.  Ticket sales benefit me directly.  Hope to see you there! 



Sunday, May 19, 2013

RAWartists Phoenix

I got quite a surprise on Friday evening while checking my email.  I had been contacted by the local representative for the RAWartists events in Phoenix.  She had seen my images on Flickr and thought that my work would be a good fit for the upcoming event on June 27th.  I will be showing my work at this event and hope that my local supporter can come out and have a good time with me.


Click on the picture to be taken to the event website.  Make sure when getting your tickets to indicate that I am the artist that you are supporting.  Thanks everyone!

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Light Painting with Wireless Flash

I was able to add an external flash to my Sony Alpha DSLR equipment.  I picked up a used HVL-F36AM in excellent condition through KEH Camera.  I have used external flash before with my Canon DSLR equipment so I was not expecting this flash to be much different and in essence it isn't.  Except for one thing...Built in wireless capability.  Being able to move the flash off camera without the need of additional specialized attachments is really a treat.  I have done some experimenting with the flash and see that in the near future I will want additional off camera flash units.  I see great utility of these wireless flashes for on location portraiture.

 While the wireless function worked well; Sony's system is not the best.  The camera's built in flash still emits a pulse of light to communicate with the external flash.  For close up work this does effect the subject being photographed.  However, the process worked well.  These wireless flashes are addicting!






Here is a mash up of a crystal that I photographed with the off the camera flash and some colored gels.
(click for a larger view)


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Vintage Film Camera Lives On!

I was contacted by a woman who found a "vintage" point and shoot film camera at her local thrift store.  She contacted me because she had found in a photography forum that I had myself found the same camera at my local thrift store.  She was excited about the find and ready to set out on an adventure into film photography with her newly acquired camera.  She ask me a few questions about using the camera that I was happy to answer.  I gave her some advise on film speed, ISO, and about finding photographers work that you like to use as inspiration.  I was even fortunate enough to have a copy of the camera manual that I was able to include in my reply to her.  

However, I forgot one important thing in my email reply to her.  Vintage cameras picked up at the thrift store have a way of sometimes not working.  Don't worry, I quickly sent her another email advising that she should try out the camera with just fresh batteries in it first to see if the shutter is working.  This can be done by leaving the film door open and looking into the film compartment and watching to see if the shutter is opens when the shutter release button is pressed.  If it is working, great; go ahead and load the film and shoot away.

I hope that she has a great time, and maybe I'll get to see some of her pictures.  That would be great!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Photography is Work

I made a couple of images in support of the "Artwork is Art" campaign with a slant to photography.  As a photographer, it has been my experience that people generally place a low value and importance on the photographic arts as opposed to other art forms, i.e. painting or sculpture.  Also, the availability of high quality cameras and editing software, along with the marketing message that "photography is easy", makes many believe that there are no skills needed to create photographic artworks.  This is unfortunate, because people end up with images of adequate quality for the family album, but lacking in the visual impact that a skilled photographic artist could bring.




And just for fun!






Monday, April 1, 2013

Marriage Equality

My late husband Tim and I were married in Salem, Mass on September 16, 2010.  While our marriage was not legal where we lived, it was important to us to have a legal ceremony.  Though he did not make it to see the changes that surely are ahead for Marriage Equality, I am very proud of the efforts that he and I made together to see marriage become legal for everyone.  I made this in support of Marriage Equality using a picture of a rose from Tim's memorial service.

 

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Desert Springtime

I was at a community egg hunt celebrating the coming of Spring.  Mother Nature is putting on a show here in our desert southwest.





Saturday, March 23, 2013

From Right Around My Room

I wasn't feeling up to going on a photo trek, so here are a few images from right around my room.





Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Rekindling the Torch

I have been quite lax in maintaining this blog.  I do have some good reasons.  Last year my husband was in declining health and sadly passed away in December of 2012.  I have been trying my best to put my life back on track and maybe getting this blog back up and running will help.

Recently I have switched from Canon to Sony for the majority of my digital photography.  Sony's DSLR and SLT cameras allow my to use my legacy Minolta lenses and Sony has done a great job in reproducing the mystical Minolta "color" with their new cameras and lenses.


I just got the SAL55300 lens to round out my starter kit. This is a picture that I took last evening.