photography – Sandy Gilreath

The Camera Museum

My GrandDaddy Youngblood was a big part of my earliest years. I was three years old when he moved away from Georgia, but I do have memories of him, visiting his photography studio, and enjoying his visits to our house. There were letters, phone calls, and visits over the years, but his presence in my life was always associated with photographs.

A photo GrandDaddy made of me on an important day in my life.

In recent years, since I’ve become interested in photography and have read about photographers like Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange who were contemporaries of my GrandDaddy I’ve been curious about what cameras he used. Well, now I’ve seen some of them!

GrandDaddy in the doorway of his studio in Ashburn, GA.

Jim and I visited the camera museum in McDonough, Ga. You’d think that with Jim’s interest in photography, we would have been regulars. Jim did know about the place and had planned to go, but the impetus that got us out the door and on the way was learning that my GrandDaddy Youngblood’s cameras were there!

This building was first a church, then used as a municipal building complete with courtroom, and now houses workspace for the Image Doctor and the Camera Museum.

Yes, there is a display with information about my grandfather and his son and their photography! When we learned that some of GrandDaddy’s cameras had been donated, Jim and I were anxious to see them! When we arrived, and told them who we were, the owners greeted us with delight and led us right to the display.

I think of this as the Youngblood Corner…we were so excited to see everything and Scott was so excited to share details of the cameras with Jim that we didn’t get a photo of the original presentation…the camera fanatics (Scott and Jim) had moved the big camera to a spot where they could examine it more closely.

There are two of GrandDaddy’s cameras on display along with photos and a brief history of his photography. Both cameras are view cameras, where sheet film (preloaded in the darkroom) (for one or maybe two exposures) is inserted into the camera in a holder, then into the back of the camera. After the film is exposed, it is removed and set aside for developing. The large camera, an 8” x 10” view camera, was patented in 1890, the smaller of the two on display is 5” x 7”.

closeup of GrandDaddy’s 8″ x 10″ camera- frontview

GrandDaddy and his son, Homer Youngblood, Jr., had a studio in Georgia in the 1940’s and ’50’s. Prior to that, GrandDaddy worked as a photographer and reporter in Seneca, SC, and later had a studio there, as well.

GrandDaddy’s 5″ x 7″ viercamera frontview

Interviews with family tell me GrandDaddy began work as a photographer sometime after 1918. That’s the year his first wife (my grandmother) died. He had served in the Army during WWI, so i wonder, if like Jim, he learned photography skills as a soldier.

portraits of my GrandDaddy and his son who worked together as photographers

My GrandDaddy as he worked in Seneca, SC as a reporter and photographer. He and I were pen pals once I learned to write and his letters to me were always typed on onionskin paper. He signed them, “Love, Grandpappy Doodlebug”.

The Camera Museum is a passion of Scott Evans. After 40 years as a photographer, Scott now works to restore old photos, convert old movies, slides, and photos to digital format (as the Image Doctor). His lab is in the same building as his museum, which houses his vast collection of cameras of all sorts and anything camera related. There are displays of spy cameras, simple box cameras, folding cameras, twin-lens reflex cameras, 35mm single lens reflex cameras, and more.

a display of Kodak Brownies and similar cameras along with figurines of photographers

Scott has a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm about all things camera. We will have to visit again and again for me to take it all in.

Displays of paparazzi and some of their famous shots are displayed in the restroom of the building. The area used as holding cells when the building was used as a municipal court space now display famous mug shots (including Johnny Cash, Elvis, and others you will recognize). Scott and his wife welcome you to come visit. Check out their website, make an appointment for a tour, or go for a night of fun on one of their scavenger hunts! You can find them at www.camera-museum.com or www.imagedoctor.com..

My GrandDaddy with all four of his children. The girl on the left is my mother, her sister on the right. The two younger ones, Homer, Jr and Myrtle are children from his marriage to “Miss Catherine” after his first wife’s death.

When I’m making the art quilts where I print an image in black and white on fabric, then add color using ink or watercolor, I think I’m channeling my DNA into art. GrandDaddy made photos in black and white and his son and daughter would sometimes add hand tinting to them.

You may recall an art quilt I made with my GrandDaddy in it: https://sandygilreath.com/four-brothers/

One more exciting tidbit: My hand touched something that touched something that was in the room when this portrait of Abraham Lincoln was taken. Matthew Brady was the photographer. Yes, that’s the profile you see on pennies every day. This is in a collection of direct prints made from the exposed negative in Brady’s camera. This will soon be protected under glass, but we were able to touch something that touched….

Inspiration in Blue

We revisited Slow Exposures this weekend. Slow Exposures is a “juried exhibition celebrating photography of the rural south” (from their website, here). I wrote about it after our first visit to the exhibit in 2018.

As is always the case when we spend the day with these photographs, we feel inspired.

The display of photos entered in the photo contest at Slow Exposures.

Sometimes it’s the techniques used in processing the photos, sometimes it’s the way the photos are displayed, sometimes it’s the subject matter. This year, I was entranced by blue.

Two pairs of artists in the PopUp venues were working with cyanotypes. A cyanotype uses paper (or fabric or wood) that’s been treated with chemicals which are light sensitive. Laying an image on the paper, then exposing it to sunlight produces an image. Having done some of this myself with fabric, I’m intrigued by the new spin on things when other people do it.

Jim captured this image of Ashley and Danea’s cyanotypes under glass. Displayed in a coffee shop, the scene was impressive.

Ashely Jones and Danea Males shared their work in the popup Some Kind of Blue. Their work included cyanotype images on paper and on wood.

You can see more of their work at https://www.daneamales.com and http://www.ashleymjones.com

Some of the jewelry made by Ashley Jones and Danea Males. I had already bought one of their pendants when I snapped this photo.

In the Out of Town popup, Elizabeth Limbaugh and Tara Stallworth Lee had collaborated to share their interpretations of Alabama images. They had photographic diptychs, collages, and cyanotype prints.

Elizabeth is the one of the pair who works with the cyanotypes and she and I shared our love of the process and techniques we’ve used.

Elizabeth is on instagram @ewlfotografee

Vintage photos in wax by Dale Niles (at dalenilesphotography.com)

I loved learning about the encaustic process used with photos on our initial visit to Slow Exposures. This year another artist was exploring that process with vintage photos. I was intrigued since I love collecting old photos of known and unknown people to populate my stories in cloth.

So now I’m at home contemplating new ways to make and include cyanotypes and photographs in my textiles.

A few weeks ago, I pulled out some of my old images I had printed and assembled them into a quilt top. Another larger project is under the quilting needle now, but this is in the queue.

My earlier post about Slow Exposures is here.

Quilts I’ve made using cyanotypes are in these posts:

Fern Fronds and Fibonacci

GBI Blues

Annie Mae’s Lace is an older post with fewer photos, but here I describe the sun printing (cyanotype) processes I have used in detail.

And in Annie Mae’s Lace in the Garden, there are more photos of the same quilt.

Annie Mae’s Lace in the Garden

I love Queen Anne’s Lace. Every year I get excited to see it emerging in our yard. I’m always intrigued to see where it decides to show up.

I scatter some seeds and sometimes they actually germinate and I have blooms where I intended. But there are many more along the edges of the flower beds, in the cracks in the driveway and between brick pavers.

This year, there are more clumps than ever, and several of those are growing along the picket fence in the back.

I decided to pose the quilt Annie Mae’s Lace with this year’s blooms. It was a dreary day yesterday, but I snapped a few photos anyway.

I wrote about Annie Mae’s Lace back in 2016. I was only posting one photo per blogpost back then, but the details of the making of the quilt are fully explained. Click here to read that post.

I’ve written about Queen Anne’s Lace before – a story about it during quarantine is here.

Another quilt with a sunprinted image of Queen Anne’s Lace is GBI Blues. That quilt and its story is here.

More sunprinted images (including some Queen Anne’s Lace) are assembled on my design wall right now. And, there are more in a box waiting to become something…

Fired Works

I love pottery. To think that people dig clay out of the ground, manipulate it and decorate it, and make something functional and beautiful just boggles the mind.

We went to a local exhibit of pottery this week. An annual exhibit and sale, Fired Works features the work of 150 artists and is always a treat.

We don’t need any pottery; our collection is certainly adequate…but we love to go to this event every year, so off we went. And, yes, we did buy some.

Most of our collection is of the Southern folk art genre, but the whimsical pieces delight me, too.

As we examined the beautiful pots on display in this beautiful facility, I was constantly seeing images that related to quilt making. The captions on each photo explain some of my thinking.

The design element of repetition is prominent in quilting. On each artist’s table you could see the power of repetition in color, shape, and texture.

Another display showing the power of repetition…and the neutral of black, white, gray with a pop of red and green.

This simple folk art rabbit looks like he could be a trapunto design with matchstick quilting!

These wavy lines with crackle texture and neutral color combination really impressed me!

You know how I love focus blocks of appliqué in my quilts….I think you can see a tulip block in my future.

This brown pitcher reminds me of batik fabrics. And a mix of dots and stripes is always good.

And this punch of green with browns – oh, my!

Oh, I visited this table again and again. The whimsical houses remind me of Pam Holland’s quilts.

The color combination of seafood green along with turquoise is not one that would have come to my mind until I saw this….and the pop of orange? Genius!

Improvisationally pieced squares in black and white?

And, who doesn’t love a blue chicken? That base of a black white diagonal stripe reminds me of how impactful a similar binding is on a quilt.

Flowers in a Jar

I don’t visit quilt shops much anymore. I have plenty of fabric on hand and I really love using the vintage fabric more than commercially produced quilt fabric. But the new lines of fabric are sometimes irresistible and I have a new quilt to prove that.

On a visit to a local quilt shop in search of border fabric for a project, a glorious panel of fabric caught my eye. Flowers in a jar….my favorite kind of arrangement. Simple. Pure. Country Life. I bought it along with a couple of yards of coordinating fabric for the back. My thoughts were, “I’ll just baste this with batting, sit down and quilt it and have a quick lovely quilt.” Right.

I came home and looked up the fabric online (Adel in Autumn by Sandy Gervais) just to see what others had done with it. I stumbled on a blogpost by piccolo studio.com and saw her quilt. Oh, my! I had to do my version of that.

I love raw edges in my art pieces, but not so much in traditional quilts. And, I am not a fan of fusible appliqué. But that seemed the only way to go with this.

After days of laborious cutting, I was ready to attach it to my background (pieced with an inner border of the coordinating fabric), and quilt.

I did free motion machine appliqué on the flowers and vase first, to secure all layers. I planned to echo the design all the way to the edges, but filling all that negative space was going to result in nearly straight lines near the edge. So I added more stems and leaves and berries in the center to echo around, giving more bumps and curves for detail in the quilting.

I used some 30 wt threads both on the appliqué and in the added stems. Echo quilting is done with 100 wt silk thread. In this photo, you see that even with the added stems for echo quilting, I resorted to my irregular freemotion grid to complete the quilting to the edges.

When it came time to add a label, it was obvious. I had this sweet multicolored dotted fabric that looked like the contents of a canning jar. I used watercolor crayons to paint the lid and add some shading on the sides of the jar (more about painting on fabric here).

This quilt went with us on a recent outing to nearby state parks. It was quite showy in the fresh air…just like the flowers depicted on it.

The quilt is a large wall hanging, or lap quilt. It measures 48″ x 53″.

Hearts on Location

You know when we head out the door with a picnic lunch and cameras I grab some quilts, just in case a photo op appears.

Recently, we had several of those days – bright sunshine, moderate temperatures, no other obligations. Since it’s February, I brought quilts with hearts on them…and then I thought, I could bring some of my stuffed hearts, too.

Here are some images for your Valentine’s Day.

Hearts rested on the stacked stones at the base of a building.

Hearts in Bloom posed nicely on a porch railing.

A closeup of the heart bearing Princess Priscilla Wears Paisley.

This fountain at Tatnall Square Park in Macon has quotes at its base.

So these three hearts found a place to rest near *love*.

Sometimes displays in stores go along with my theme…an antique store in Woodbury, Ga.

I’ve embedded some links to details of quilts in the photo captions above, but if you want more, you can type “hearts” in the search box, or click on the “hearts” category in the sidebar.

Dancing Hearts was a fun Valentine’s Day project.

And…an update on the hearts on linen quilt….

I’m on schedule with the hearts on linen..Feb 13 had 13 hearts stitched in place.

I thought it was time to plan the rest of the layout…so here are more pinned in place for stitching.

This linen tablecloth has a story. I could cover it with a heart, but I love seeing the history in fabric. I’m thinking of featuring this inside a heart somehow.

Cypress Trees, A Covered Bridge, and some Quilts

Glorious fall days are made for exploration and photography.

One day last week we took a ride to George L. Smith State Park, loading the car with cameras, quilts, and picnic paraphernalia. The cypress trees here are gorgeous any time of year, but now their leaves are golden and red. And the tannin in the water enhances their reflections, so the beauty is doubled.

Above is an image of a cypress “knee”, a structure thought to be a buttress to the tapering trunk in soft muddy soil. Cypress trees growing outside of a swampy area do not form these knees.

I loved photographing the natural beauty and the covered bridge is a great background for a few quilts.

We photographed quilts inside and outside the bridge and perched them on other spots in the park, too.

Dots and Vines is a graphic quilt you’ve seen in other posts. It may be my most photogenic quilt – I grab it most every time I head out the door. I love its bold colors in contrast with the weathered wood.

Likewise, Heaven in a Wildflower has posed in other settings, too. Like Dots and Vines, the blocks of solid color are especially vivid in natural surroundings. Note to self: make more quilts from solids.

The quilt above is not one I made, but one I was given. My dear friend Mary Ellen is a most prolific quilter and sent this star beauty on blue to me. She’s the inspiration for all these quilts-on-location shots. She and her photographer husband Bruce live in Minnestota and they set the bar for photographing quilts in rustic locations. I’ve written about her photo journey before here.

We weren’t the only ones enjoying this serene spot on this glorious day; I caught this flash of color out the window of the bridge.

And it was picture day for a some four-year-olds from a nearby preschool. Here they wait in line to head to the playground.

This has been a busy week. I took more quilts on this trip so there will be more posts to follow sharing those. And, my guild had our Little Girls Challenge this week – so that’s coming, too.

More details on the Dots and Vines quilt can be found here.

More details about Heaven in A Wildflower are here.

And, we’ve visited other covered bridges with quilts here and here.

The Orange Season

This is the time of year for orange. It’s not always my favorite color, but it complements the hue that is at the top of my list.

The quilt behind this pumpkin is one made by my dear friend, Mary Ellen. It’s wonderful all times of the year, but it is perfect with this orange pumpkin!

This quilt is Heaven in a Wildflower, a challenge quilt.. A post about it is here.

I have quilts about with orange in them that come out to play this time of year. And I can’t resist buying a few pumpkins.

On a recent trip to Butterflies in Bloom at the Briar Patch, orange was the color of the day. Some of these shots look like they want to play on a quilt.

And you might not be surprised to learn that I have some orange fabrics scattered about in my playroom, oops…I mean my sewing room these days. It just seems right.

This is a block from the Bird Dance quilt by Sue Spargo…no, I haven’t written about this one yet. I will.

As I thought about gathering these orange images, I looked around and saw that I’ve sewn on orange a lot..and not just pumpkins.

Withered and Brown

Ya’ll know I love brown. My grandmother’s tea leaf pattern china with its brown and white scheme, all kinds of treenware (usually a shade of brown), and vintage linens (often with a bit of brown stain somewhere) bring brown into view everyday. Oh, and my brown cows stroll around in the breakfast room.

I like brown plants, too. I see beauty in the fading stage of a flower’s life as well as in the emerging beauty seen in spring. So this time of year brings even more brown into my camera lens.

Some recent photos celebrate the fading stage. Enjoy some brown!

This hummingbird doesn’t mind that its perch is drooping and brown. He can still rest quite comfortably here.

This withering zinnia is the same color combination as Granny’s china and my creamer cows.

A Pearl Crescent finds something to like on this even more withered zinnia.

This praying mantis caught a ride on the “trash can to the street journey” one day and I brought him home to the porch.

Pink is never my favorite color, but the withering pink here captured my attention.

This red zinnia is aging (aren’t we all?) but look at the color scheme revealed! I see French General red fabrics with their companion browns and grays.

My sewing basket has a brown collection in it, too. A long-term project at hand right now is one with brown irregular hexagons. I’m hand piecing them with a modified English Paper Piecing process…I remove the paper before stitching them together.

Some plants in my yard are confused. As I write this and share the glories of withering plants, I have three fresh-from-the-earth Queen Anne’s Lace plants scattered in the garden. One is blooming delightfully now; others are ready to bloom. It’s like they are reminding me that “green is beautiful, too.” Yes, it is!

I’ve written about the beauty of brown before. Type “brown” in the search box in the sidebar and you’ll find more.

Dirt Roads

On our most recent ride about, we found ourselves in Pitts, Ga with cameras in hand to photograph sunflowers and old buildings. We did that…and bought goodies from Oliver Farm, too. Sunflower oil, okra flour, brown rice grits were among our purchases.

The sunflowers didn’t disappoint…and the old buildings served as great backdrops for the quilts that went for the ride.

But it was the dirt that thrilled me. I got right out in the field with the sunflowers. The blooms were as high as my head and about the size of my head, too. But the dirt …oh, the dirt! We were in a county neighboring the one where I grew up. And the dirt in the coastal plain region is very different from that of the piedmont where we now live. This is the dirt that I used to make mud pies and gopher houses and embed in my skinned knees.

I didn’t have to take off my shoes to know exactly how that dirt would feel between my toes. Those little rocks of limonite mixed with the sand speak home to me. Hopscotch, skidding bicycle tires, carving a trail with a stick…all those memories are tied to this dirt.

We succeeded in photographing sunflowers and old buildings, but found other treasures, too.

In a cypress habitat, we found some other interesting vegetation to shoot, but it was the road that entranced me. That dirt again…oh, and the beehives!

Jim has always said he can feel his blood pressure drop when we visit Turner County. Well, there’s that; life is slower. But these dirt roads just feel like Sunday afternoon drives and going to visit relatives.

My Daddy farmed before I came along…so he walked behind a mule in dirt like this. Barefooted. Yes. He plowed without shoes. I can understand why. I wanted to take my shoes off and walk out in a field. I didn’t. But maybe next time….

Oliver Farm has self guided tours where you can read about the old buildings in Pitts, Ga, and find your way to fields of sunflowers in all stages, a cypress habitat, and lots of fresh air.

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