Mark W Tiedemann

Category: Art

  • Time Capsules

    On Thanksgiving, we spent the day with my parents.  While there, they handed me a stack of prints and a pile of negatives I had completely forgotten about.  Most of them are crap.  They’re from 1971 for the most part and I was in the early stages of trying to learn photography.  I was shooting a LOT of film and about 99% was ultimately junk.  But this is the way I learn.  I dive in and do a great deal of whatever it is I’m trying to do, largely ignoring instructions and books, which I consult only when I’m so hopelessly lost that I admit to needing expert help.  It’s an absurd way to go about it, but when I do finally learn something it stays learned.

    Anyway, among the negatives I found a couple shots my dad took of me at the keyboard.  At this time I still hadn’t made up my mind what I wanted to do or be.  Music was always a possibility, a big deal, but it turned out not to be.  However, I had aspirations.  (When you’re that young, you think you can do it all.  At one time I simultaneously wanted to be an actor, a musician, a photographer, and a writer, and saw no reason why I couldn’t.  The acting has, subsequently, faded completely from my list of ambitions.)

    So, here I am being…well, I was getting my Keith Emerson on, clearly, as well as the serious composer bit.

     

    Me As Emerson, 1971, b&w

    Me As Composer, 1971, b&w

    Seems I couldn’t read my own notation…

  • Facades

    Just a placeholder for a few days.  I’m working on the novel, honest, and tend to forget that I have social media to attend.  Be nice if someone would tend it for me, but it is what it is.  So, for time being, something photographical.

     

    Facades, CWE, November 2014

  • New Work

    I finally got around to putting up a new gallery in Zenfolio.  There are, I note, some repeats in this one, which basically means I wanted a full 32 images in it and I really need to go in and clean up the site.  It ought to be more useful and representative of my work and I’m toying with upgrading it to a professional site in order to maybe make some sales.

    Something for next year, though.  Meantime, I still like sharing, so enjoy.

    Sample:

    Mantis on Post, October 2014

    Leaf on Concrete Lip, b&w, October 2014

    Route 66 Railroad Trestle, b&w, October 2014

  • Life Has Been So Much Fun Lately…

    …that I’ve decided to say nothing about it today.  I’m getting a new car tonight, already selected it.  Just need to sign the papers and take it home.  I’m getting almost no fiction written today, which is a bummer (maybe I’ll slip a paragraph or two in later), but other things are getting done.  I’ll tell you all about the year I’ve had this past week some other time.

    For now, a photograph. An old one.  Was a time I toyed with becoming a portraitist.  I was developing a style, according to some (though I couldn’t see it), but I had done some half-way decent work.  I found this the other day while looking for something else.  This is Paula, who modeled for me for a few months way back in the late Seventies.  She never wore make-up, she was just naturally beautiful and photogenic, and I would have loved to do more work with her, but time moved on and we’ve long since lost touch.

    Anyway, I still do the occasional portrait, should anyone be interested.  Enjoy.

     

    Paula, portrait, 1976

  • Old Image

    Something from the distant past.  I shot this some time in 1974 or 75.  I do not remember where, but the internegative made from the original 2 1/4 square transparency has produced a rather painterly scan.

     

    Frog In Leaves, 1974

  • Morning Green

    Grapes, Sept 2014

     

     

    Leaf with drop, Sept 2014

     

    Basil, Sept 2014

  • Cabin and the Sky

    Place holder, something from the past weekend at Wilson ‘s Creek Battlefield.

     

    Edward's Cabin, Wilson's Creek, July 2014

  • Place Holder

    I’m going to be writing a story in public tonight, at Left Bank Books.  I am cleaning house in preparation and playing a bit with Photoshop.  So till I have something to tell you about tonight’s frolics, here’s one of the results.

     

    Brick On Granite, b&w, May 2014

  • New Gallery

    This one has been a long time in coming, because this past year or so has been, well, this past year.

    That said, here is a new Zenfolio gallery of “recent” work.  A few of the images, of the flowers in particular, were done using my new close-up filter kit.  I finally broke down and bought one.  I used to use these a lot.

    Anyway, enjoy.

     

  • …and One More

    Storm Sky, May 2014