Ten Favorite Photos of 2015

My New Year's resolution is to improve my photography in 2016.
Past favorites from 2015 top to bottom:
1.  My neighborhood, November
2.  Photographing blur, September
3.  The Golden Gate Bridge during my first photography workshop, August
4.  A composite of shots taken in my backyard during the eclipse of the moon, September
5.  Portrait of Wilson Taylor in Seattle, December
6.  Portrait of Cole Taylor in Seattle, December
7. Inverness at dusk, during my 2nd photography workshop, September
8.  A neighborhood tree, November
9.  A neighborhood oak tree with dry hills, November
10. South Beach, newly edited RAW file now that I have Photoshop CC, April

Multiple Exposure

With 1965 photo, cold wax painting and photographs of 2015 Christmas cactus apples and Pyracantha berries

Memories - Of The Way We Used To Be

Winter gives one plenty of time to reflect on the past.  I used to wish I could lay down in a field and have everyone I was ever friends with walk by and say hello.  Since that wasn't possible, in 2009 I made a "It's a Party" video to digitally gather folks together, including those already passed, to the extent I had photos of them.  The photos from that video make a great background collage!  This year I celebrated my 40th wedding anniversary, thanks to the fact Sam and I have been living separately for nearly half of the 40 years we've been married.  Going through my father's old negatives today, I came across this old 1976 photo of a much younger Sam and me.  It looked like it was just waiting for a background of memories.

I Think I Look A Lot Like My Mother

Based on this portrait of me (top) by 6-yr-old Wilson Taylor, painted this December, as compared to the portrait he did of my mother (bottom) done on Thanksgiving last year.

Holiday Snaps

Rather than put up a Christmas tree, I spent the day taking photos of some of my vintage ornaments.
Top to bottom:
1.  My replica Tucker car, given out in 1988, on release of the Lucas/Coppola movie "Tucker: The Man and His Dream."  Great movie, great Joe Jackson soundtrack album.  I shot this holiday vignette on top of my dusty piano.
2.  Antique, chipping off paint, ornaments, I probably bought at a garage sale.  The backdrop is an unfinished painting.
3.  Nearly every year of my career at Lucasfilm, I was gifted unique ornaments at Christmas.  This wooden angel is one of them.  For some reason, he is carrying a watering can.
4.  I've been a major Mad Magazine fan since I could first read and have always loved this Alfred E. Newman ornament.  It wasn't until after I took the photo, I remembered Alfred somehow lost one of his hands a few years ago.  If you look closely, the ornament looks strangely like ex President Reagan.
5.  More antique ornaments against a fabric backdrop.  The piles of fabric I have oozing out of every corner of the house are crying out to be made into something.

Star Wars - I Feel Lucky

Sadly, I'm going to miss my invitational screening tonight to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens due to a bad cold.  But I feel lucky I was around when the original Star Wars movie was released in May, 1977, and even luckier that I got to work on it.  In fact, I feel really lucky to have been born when I was in a period of time in history which experienced an explosion of heightened creativity in cinema, music, and the arts in general.  I'm glad the little movie I typed the script for has continued to impact generation after generation in a good way.  That impact has certainly been more profound than that of any of the scientific papers I typed for an old boss at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, a job I had before joining Lucasfilm in 1974.  I actually wish scientific papers did have some of the same importance as movies and social media personalities do today.  We would be a better nation for it. I admired George Lucas for being able to take serious topics and distill them in a way that made them understandable.  So, watching a George Lucas Star Wars movie meant you weren't just being entertained, you were actually learning something, even if you were unaware of it.  That made working in the Star Wars universe constantly interesting for me over the course of my 35 1/2 year career at Lucasfilm.  Knowing that I was doing something that wasn't just entertainment, or money making, but was actually educational was a plus.  I'm not too sad I'm missing the new movie, since I can't help but feel how really lucky I was to have been there at the beginning!

Funky Shoe Font Put to Good Use!

Recently, Zsuzsi Mcdonald, an elementary teacher in Livonia, Michigan who works at a Leader in Me school with students who do community service projects, contacted me to see if her students could use my Funky Shoe Font (posted on my blog last year http://autreyart.blogspot.com/2014/12/new-funky-shoes-font-alphabets.html#links)  for one of their projects.  Of course, I said yes.  I love it when my art is used for educational purposes. 

Here are the details of Zsuzsi's request:  "A group of 30 students collected gently used shoes during the months of October and November. The shoes were sent to Funds2Orgs, they ship the shoes to developing countries, where they repair and sell the shoes.  Monies from Funds2Orgs are donated to the local Kiwanis of Livonia, who will donate 50% of what they raise to Child Life Services at four Michigan children’s hospitals and 50% to the Eliminate Project, a joint project between Kiwanis International and UNICEF to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus worldwide."

Once I sent my font to her, Zsuzsi sent me the above photo showing a picture of the students with one load of shoes ready to go.  She said their leaders will be using my font for their title for their Youth Making A Difference board.  I'm thrilled!