A treasure trove of fine art & art objects in Brooklyn,NY

10Nov09

I am so very excited about a NEW gallery in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

Barking Lizards

Today is the unofficial opening (soft opening) and I’ll be heading out soon to help. The gallery will be carrying a number of my fine art photography prints as well as representing Jene’s works.

This is the place to fine some very unique gifts for the holidays or pick up a wonderful piece or 2 for your personal collection. But whatever you do, please stop in to browse and say hello.

See the link for more details. This place is a real find…. so pass the word on to your friends and maybe there will be a little something for you this holiday season.

This is worth the short trip out to Brooklyn ((near Peter Luger’s) . Just over the Williamsburg Bridge make the first right onto Broadway then make the right onto Bedford Avenue – 231 Bedford Ave, (corner of N 4th St).

or take the L train to the Bedford Ave. Station and walk 3 blocks south to Barking Lizards.

Buzzer entry system so ring the bell and we will open the doors into this wonderful little gallery that Wanda & Richard have created in this fabulous location.

Filed under: Jene Youtt, Mary Durante Wehrhahn, NY Metro art galleries, fine art collectables, photography, sales and service   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: NY Metro Art World, photography, emerging artists, Art Gallery, gallery exhibition, Jene Youtt Photographer, art objects, gifts, holiday shopping, new place in Brooklyn, museum quality gifts, jewelry, masks, sculptures, pottery, paintings

timeline at the Crow’s Nest

09Nov09

Since reconnecting with Maggie Magro – lead female vocal for the band <timeline>, I was hoping to hear the group and photograph them. This was spurred on by some really great performance images of flamengo dancers at N-33 in NYC that Jene captured a while ago.

But as life happens it took the second booking at the Crow’s Nest in Hasbrouk Hts, NJ for us to get our chance to hear Maggie belt out some Blondie favorites. (Hopefully some readers are old enough to remember Deborah Harry). Maggie and the guys sounded great, harmonizing to a number of 80’s tunes. I wanted to shoot some promo shots for them that showed the energy that they exude. The dance floor was packed with a mix of ages but good music bridges the generation gap and everyone was up and gyrating to the beat.

The lights on the band were turned down and 4 rotating color spots flashed across the dance floor, which really made capturing them a challenge… Our Canon 50mm lenses are pretty fast – 1.8 so that’s was the lens of choice for both Jene & me. The stage area was so dim that the automatic focus was all but useless at times. Colored lights sped across the floor flooding the stage for a nano second before going dark again. At venues like the Crow’s Nest, people don’t go to see the band, they go to listen to the music and dance the night away.

Band members: Anthony Paduano (bass / keyboard), John Hanlon (guitar), Johnny Valenti (percussion), Phil Mazzola (guitar), Maggie Magro (vocal). So join as a facebook fan of the band and if you get a chance to see them, you won’t be disappointed.

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Tags: '80 songs, 1 day event, Jene Youtt Photographer, lighting, music, photography workshop

Emmanuel Fremin Gallery – Thomas Barbey opening

08Nov09

If you missed this opening, you missed being in the midst of all the buzz. Jene & I arrived late but  Emmanuel’s new space was still packed.  Greeted warmly by the lovely Mary Nguyen we worked our way over to Emmanuel who pointed out the featured artist.  Thomas Barbey was entwined in people and conversation so we milled about looking at his photography prints up close.  Flawless work which I hadn’t realized was photo-composed and not digitally manipulated… (A technique used extensively in advertising before computers,  a sub- industry for photographers and retouchers).  His large prints filled the gallery.  Jene noticed  that his prints were on the same metallic paper that we both experimented with after we were introduced to it at last year’s PDN’ PhotoPlus Expo.  (Kodak’s Metallic Endura) You can’t beat the richness of the blacks.  Most colors pop and are so vivid but there are some hues that seem to get muddy so adjustments need to be made.   The paper does not work on inkjet printers so we have Adorama Labs print for us.

Emmanuel introduced Jene & I to Thomas stating that we were the ones who had blogged about the upcoming event.  Thomas was very gracious and we spent time talking shop and how lucky he feels to be an artist whose work seems to sell.  While being recognized is the luck part, talent plays a major role also.  His work is surrealistic and truly done well.  He is humbled by his own success and understands how difficult it is as an artist to emerge.

The exhibit runs thru November 26th so if you missed the opening, you can still peruse Barbey’s “Unleased” series at the Emmanuel Fremin Gallery.

Filed under: Jene Youtt, Kodak Metallic Endura, Mary Durante Wehrhahn, NY Metro art galleries, PDN's PhotoPlus Expo, Thomas Barbey, photography, post editing   |  3 Comments
Tags: Art Gallery, emerging artists, emerging photographers, Emmanuel Fremin, gallery exhibition, Jene Youtt Photographer, NY Metro Art World

Artists in the Kitchen – Hell’s Kitchen, NYC that is!

06Nov09

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Emmanuel Fremin Gallery showcases Thomas Barbey

30Oct09

Mark your calendars for next week’s NY events.  Friday Nov 6th, is the opening reception at Emmanuel Fremin Gallery’s new Soho location. 546 Broadway PH 5B.   I am probably just as excited for Emmanuel as he is.  Thomas Barbey’s ” Unleashed” is an amazing collection of photography and vivid surrealism draws the viewer into his imaginary world.

Jene and I will be there even though he is preparing for the Artist in the Kitchen Open Studio Tour that runs the weekend – Saturday & Sunday throughout Hell’s Kitchen.  It should be interesting and I think I want to peruse the area.  Not just the galleries but the heart of the matter… the studios where the creative minds are sparked and the juices start to flow.  I think this is the first studio tour and Jene is a tad skeptical about the turn out because nothing has been posted in the neighborhood  yet and i know that he has had conversations with the organizer.  I’m sure it is not an easy task and takes a lot of organizing.  So click on the link above starting Nov 4th for a map of the artist’s locations who are participating in this event.

Saturday night I want to head back across the river to listen to a friend Maggie Magro belt out a few tunes at Hasbrouk Ht’s Crow’s Nest.  Maggie sings with Timeline and I am looking forward to hearing them.  It’s an 80’s rock group.  I’m hoping to shoot some promo shots for them along with Jene, if he can make it.

In the meantime,  Happy Halloween.

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Tags: 1 day event, Art Gallery, Crow's Nest - Hasbrouk Hts, emerging artists, emerging photographers, Emmanuel Fremin, gallery exhibition, Jene Youtt Photographer, Manhattan, NJ live music, NY Metro Art World, portrait artist, Thomas Barbey, Timeline

Things to do this week in NY/NJ Metro area

28Oct09

I missed the talk given by Fred Stein’s son at Soho Photo Gallery but Jene Youtt managed to get down there. He thought it is was interesting and may write about it on his Fuzzypictures wordpress blog.

Tomorrow we will be going to the Agora gallery to meet Australian photographer Sharon Hickey

Meeting artists and seeing their work inspires me to get out there a shoot, shoot, shoot. Marketing and submitting works seems to take up a lot of my time and I find that I do not create as much as I think I should be doing. “SHOULD” – now there’s a negative judgemental word if I ever heard one. I will rephrase that to as I would like to be doing.

Life tends to get in between what you’d like to do and what needs to be taken care of. But I try to strike a balance since it is crucial to one’s well being and sometimes so difficult to obtain. I must admit it seems to get a little easier with age. I find what seemed so important to me when I was younger doesn’t always matter now.

Boy can I digress,

If you are pregnant and live in the city or surrounding Hoboken area, get over to Ciao Belly’s in Hoboken and enter the bump and birth random drawing that will be held on Oct. 31st. The winner will receive a free bump and birth photo session with Labor Of Love Pix. (see store for details).

Along with the free photo sessions you will receive a CD and print of your choice from both the bump (pregnancy) and birth (newborn to 1 month old infant). We will shoot you in either of our midtown Manhattan or Fair Lawn, NJ studio or can make arrangements to shoot you in the comfort of your home within the surrounding areas.

And if you are just looking for family photos, pick up a coupon at Ciao Belly for 25% off your photo pkgs. Our pkgs take your budget into consideration.

Filed under: Jene Youtt, Mary Durante Wehrhahn, NY Metro art galleries, children and family photography, labor of love, newborn, photography, pregnancy photography   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: 1 day event, Art Gallery, emerging artists, emerging photographers, gallery exhibition, Jene Youtt Photographer, portrait artist, Soho Photo Gallery

PDN PhotoPlus Expo – widdling down to nothing?

27Oct09

One of the things I found since I started going to PDN’s PhotoPlus Expo is that each year, there are less vendors and very little free givaways other then their advertising POP sales packets. Very few paper companies are giving out samples. Which was a good way for a photographer to test one brand’s matte against another. Of course you can buy sample packets which include papers I would probably not use (like gloss or pearl). The vendors (Museo) who did have samples on Thursday were out towards the end of Friday. Traditionally Thursday and Friday’s are days that the professional photographers etc go. Saturday is field trip day for some local schools and they get to be razzled, dazzled by all the new & improved that’s out there. These are the kids that read up on what’s coming and understand all the workings of the programs before they hit the stores. Jene also can be counted among this knowledgable group but was still caught off guard when his Canon Mark II, 5 D video capacity was so quickly outmoded when the 7D came out. Jene did speak to a Canon rep because he heard rumbles that they were updating the in-camera software so that the video would be on par with the new 7D (which cost about $1000 less than the 5D) I’m sure Jene will blog about that http://fuzzypictures.wordpress.com/ in the next few days. It is amazing how quickly your equipment or programs become obsolete. I don’t run with the crowd of beta-testers nor does Canon ever give me a camera to test and report on. But I’m not a fashion photographer and my work is not splashed all over magazines so how would they ever know I exist.

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Tags: Canon, Moab, Museo, wedding albums.

PDN’s PhotoPlus Expo

23Oct09

Day 1 – exhausted beyond belief, walked the aisles, stood watching one too many post-editing presentations that turned the worst photo into a masterpiece. All you need is this program and viola! – the sky is blue, the clouds are contrasty and puffy, the greens are vibrant, all that and no noise!

Years ago this type of magic used to be in the hands of the “photo-retouchers” – skilled artists who would work wonders with your “so-so” photography. Now you can do it yourself.

As a single entity photographer without assistants and techno-staff to do this for me, I find that this kind of creativity takes time away from my creative photography. I spend more time on the computer then I do shooting. I have LightRoom and Aperture, Noise Ninja (that I still have not learned how to use), genuine fractals, CS4 and a host of other things that live on my hardrives.

I’m not very skilled in photoshop, oh I can clean up spots and I’ve even created tips of fingers / toes that didn’t make it in the frame. But I’d rather remember to pay attention when looking through my lens before I click the shutter then to spend time afterward, trying to make it the image I wanted to get. I can make minor overall adjustments in exposure and add some fill light but that’s about it.

I guess my problem is – I don’t have “people” nor do I have the money for all the latest bells and whistles. I’m just a fine art photographer with a simple camera, 3 hot lights and now a flash unit. No soft boxes or umbrellas, and I manage to create some really great images; they pretty much come straight out of the camera and onto paper.

Pushing out

Some day, I may learn how to use half of what is loaded onto my computer, but for now, I am happy just shooting and creating my personal projects and hopefully gain some fame and fortune along the way. Until then I will see what everyone else is spending their hard earned money on and will be back at PDN’s PhotoPlus for day 2.

Filed under: PDN's PhotoPlus Expo, art, camera equipment, lights, noise ninja, photo equipment, photography, photography vendors, post editing, sales and service   |  1 Comment
Tags: flash photography, Manhattan, photography, portrait artist, wedding photography

emerging and established artists/photographers

20Oct09

Time flies and it’s already heading towards the end of the month. This week is PDN’s Photo Expo It runs from Thursday the 22nd to Saturday the 24th at the Jacob Javits Center, NYC. This is one of the most important events in photography. Jene Youtt and I, (Mary Durante Wehrhahn) will be there on Thurs and Friday, meeting up with photographer Jack Cutler for dinner and I’m sure indepth conversations of what the industry has to offer. We’ll be looking at vendors hawking their latest in wedding photography for our Labor Of Love Pix realm of photography.

Yesterday, we spent the day, being a part of Hoboken’s Open Artist Studio tour. We hunkered down in Monroe Center for the Arts Studio E304. Popped the cork on a couple bottles of vino and chatted with droves of art lovers and artists as they roamed from studio to studio. Some looking to see what the art world has to offer, others to get out of the rain. But whatever the reason, it was a pleasure meeting some very nice people who took the time to engage us in conversation. I sold 2 small prints of Buddha facial features to a woman interested in having me shoot her.

Jene is in his element speaking about his life’s work and his passions and how they came together through his photography. He beams! I love witnessing that. So in light of just that, I consider the tour a success. We talked about how we met, how Jene’s work differs from mine. How we can shoot the same subjects with different outcome when the ink hits the paper. It was a long day, but the time did go quickly.

The week after, an Australian artist, Sharon Hickey , who contacted me through my blog will be coming stateside for an exhibiton, ‘Altered States of Reality’ at the Agora Gallery. I am looking forward to meeting her at the opening next Thursday , Oct. 29th 6 – 8pm. The exhibit runs from Oct 27th through Nov. 17 so if you are in the Chelsea area, stop by and take a look. Better yet come to the reception and meet the artist.

Agora Gallery Artist reception – 10/29 6-8pm

530 West 25th Street,

NYC

Filed under: Jene Youtt, Mary Durante Wehrhahn, art, children and family photography, labor of love, photography, pregnancy photography   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: 1 day event, Agora Gallery, Art Gallery, Australian Photographer, emerging artists, gallery exhibition, Jene Youtt Photographer, labor of love, Manhattan, NY Metro Art World, portrait artist, Sharon Hickey, studio tour

Must Go – NY Art openings in Nov.

16Oct09

A few places that are on my “Must GO to” list for November:

Emmanuel Fremin’s Gallery is reopening at a NEW Soho location. EFG will be opening with Tom Barbey’s “Unleased”. I’ve seen some of his photo collages and his work held my interest for quiet a long time.

Artist reception is Friday Nov. 6th from 6 to 8pm

Emmanuel Fremin Gallery

546 Broadway

PH – 5B

NYC

As an artist/photographer, both Jene Youtt and I love to meet other talented artists at their openings as much as we enjoy meeting art lovers and other artists at our openings and events. Art can be very singular endeavor and sharing is one of the reasons we love what we do.

I met Emmanuel in July, when I was looking for a male model for my Inner Sanctum – Cause & Effect body of work. This is an ongoing personal project of mine. I knew little about Emmanuel beforehand but we chatted through the session and I was impressed with his integral involvement in the arts. It truly was a pleasure working and becoming acquainted with him.

Filed under: European male model, Jene Youtt, Mary Durante Wehrhahn, NY Metro art galleries, art, photography   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Art Gallery, Emmanuel Fremin, flash photography, gallery exhibition, Jene Youtt Photographer, NY Metro Art World, photo collage, Tom Barbey