Over the years, in my professional as well as my personal and creative life I am resigned to the fact that I need to be pushed, motivated, inspired and competitive to DO THE WORK. And that’s okay. It’s also probably why I don’t live on an isolated sparsely populated island. It’s also probably why I will some day seek out that island. :)

Enter a new photography challenge for me. I have bags and shelves and a closet full of vintage film cameras and I need a reason to go through each one and shoot it and decide if it is worth keeping. I also have a freezer and refrigerator full of film. I am psyched to have the framework of shooting a different analog camera and different film every month. For January I chose one of my Holgas and Ilford HP5 b/w film. I took my camera on a walk in my neighborhood and I am happy to share the results here!

Over the last few months, the google algorithms have been working some magic for me. I’ve suddenly been getting new inquiries for photo sessions, weddings and photography classes as well, right here in Santa Barbara. My weekends have been getting booked with all these opportunities and I am so excited to be back in the game after taking an extended break after moving to California. SO. Take a peek at my Classes tab and or my People Gallery and send me a message! Right now I am teaching in-person hands-on camera and photography classes on the weekends in Santa Barbara and I have loved seeing the ‘a-ha’ moments with the people I am teaching and they are producing some great work too!

Two Postcards Project on The Kindred Art by Dena Robles and Alpana Aras

Earlier this year I started a collaboration between photo artists around the world called The Kindred Art. One project is titled "Two Postcards." The postcard on the left is submitted by one photographer and then picked up by a second photographer in order to gain inspiration and create a 2nd postcard. The idea is that our artwork has more than one audience. As a creator of the photograph a) we have a relationship with what we see in front of us, b)many times with a living subject, and c) always with a viewer. We cannot always control how our capture is perceived by our audience. This is an exercise in learning how our photograph is viewed and used as an inspiration to our viewer.

On the left is "Rickshaw in Delhi" from Alpana Aras, on the right is "Red Bicycle in Michigan" by me.