happy new year!

first, please pardon some technical difficulties as i transition back from a black background to a white background. yes, that’s the first news of this new year. after giving it a good try, i felt that my black backgrounds weren’t somehow my best work. they required a moodiness i don’t naturally feel, and depended on a kind of light i found it hard to capture. there is something comfortable and graphic about a white background that seems to better fit my temperament and vision. so you all have a year of white ahead of you, which i know will please a lot of you, and disappoint a few. one challenge lately has been coming up with enough new subjects, after six years and over 2000 images generated primarily in a geographical radius 0f maybe 10 miles. on the other hand, i want to keep the rules of my blog constrained because i do feel that constraint feeds creativity. my compromise, for now, will be to experiment with occasional photos of food. as most of you know, my husband is a food writer, and we collaborate all the time, so this should open up some new avenues for me and also build some images that perhaps we both can profit from in the end. but i won’t be photographing styled food or cooked dishes. i would like to experiment (and my vision isn’t entirely clear yet) with food as nature. i think seeds, and pods, and roots, and fruits are all fascinating, and i think i can bring them in under the STILL blog umbrella without altering the overall vision by much. you and i will all be discovering exactly what this means together, as i feel my way forward. i can’t wait to continue this journey with you, and love having you along.

xxoo, Mary Jo