mpcurtis, Author at Mel Curtis

Quietly Ride off into the Sunset

Yes, setting up printers can be a pain, thou I don’t recall having much trouble with mine. But that that was 10 years ago and perhaps I have suppressed the painful memories. Every now and then my computer forgets the paper profiles in my system, and I have dink around and fix that, but otherwise no major printing problems. But…

March 4, 2025Musings

They Just Present Themselves

I enjoy making my little iPhone pics. They are not grand themes or anything. They are just little moments in my travels, mostly from my walks. What’s interesting is that I can look at them and know almost exactly when and where I took them. I can almost remember the moment too. Because they are all immediate responses to something…

February 19, 2025Landscapes, Musings, Seattle

Uncategorized

Time to be Done

My career is perhaps easier to explain. When I left grad school, my goal was to teach, work with galleries with my personal work and do commercial assignments. It took me awhile to figure out you can’t do all 3 or at least all 3 well. Within 6 weeks of arriving in Seattle, I had a gallery, apart time teaching…

January 29, 2025Uncategorized

architecture Seattle

Weird But True

Handheld photography is very liberating. Being unencumbered with gear is great feeling. Responding to a moment is satisfying too. I had to use a tripod in much of my assignment work over the years and I always found it to be tedious and labor intensive. I am not steady of hand either, so I need to pick a fast shutter…

January 8, 2025architecture, Seattle

France Musings Paris Travels

See Paris One More Time

My year end assessments were pretty boring. An article popped up in the local newspaper asking readers to tell them how you’re feeling. I wanted to respond, thinking I might be an interesting demographic. I pondered it a lot on my walks. But I kept stumbling on their question, what’s on your mind? Your hopes, your plans, your goals, your…

January 8, 2025France, Musings, Paris, Travels

Celebrations Musings Travels

My Own Personal Belle Epoch

My archive does look organized, and to a certain extent it is. The film in the binders is more organized than the prints in the drawers and boxes. Open those up and there is an explosion of a visual cacophony. When I pull out binders to look at old contact sheets, it can be dangerous. What might start out as…

December 17, 2024Celebrations, Musings, Travels

Landscapes Musings Selfies

The Big Dark

It is that time of year when the beauty of the autumn gives way to what we call here the big dark. The time changes and the darkness descends early giving us a stark reminder that winter is on the way. The holidays provide a bit of a distraction but when the festivities end and the decorations all put away,…

December 3, 2024Landscapes, Musings, Selfies

Landscapes Musings

Turbulent skies

Not sure why this image showed up in my Facebook memories from 10 years ago. But I can't help but think it is a metaphor for our country right now. A vast distance from the fence on the right to the fence on the left. And turbulent skies in between. A colorless, barren landscape.

November 8, 2024Landscapes, Musings

Odds and Ends Seattle

Tinted Windows

Hey John, I feel like communicating with someone as silence hangs over our house. Maybe just expressing a few thoughts with a like minded friend. I went for a walk this morning and as I crossed the boulevard a bearded guy in a black truck passed with a big ole trump flag on his back bumper. I could have sworn…

November 6, 2024Odds and Ends, Seattle

Musings Seattle

Thank You for the Nudge

Hey Martin, I was rummaging around in my archives, trying to downsize or at very least, make sense of the vast amount of photo stuff in storage there. I stumbled across this article about you from the Seattle Times, circa 2002. I assume you have this in your archives but can send you a copy if you don’t. There are…

October 14, 2024Musings, Seattle