On iTunes, Lately...

Lovehammers released their latest single today on iTunes - it's the first single off their upcoming CD, Heavy Crown. It's been so long since we've had new Lovehammers' music, I'm very very happy to have something new from them!

And Ryan Star released his long awaited EP, Last Train Home, earlier this month - you can hear a snippet of one of my favorite of his songs, Right Now, during commercials for the new NBC show, The Philanthropist. The full EP is only $3.99 on iTunes and features four songs and two videos.

And finally, I'm linking to Tamar Kaprelian's A New Day, just because it's been my favorite song this summer and she deserves more exposure, so pass it on!



PS: Happy birthday and happy traveling to my brother Michael today!

America's Forgotten Sweetheart

I received an email yesterday from one of the authors of a new book on Ruth Etting, coming out this fall. Ruth Etting: America's Forgotten Sweetheart, by Kenneth Irwin and Charles O. Lloyd will be published by Scarecrow Press and is the first full-length biography of her life.

As excited as I am about the book, I'm maybe even more excited about the photo on the cover! It's an image I've never seen before, and it features the pearls-around-her-upper-arm-look that I love - and in fact, the dress has strings of pearls hanging down her back, and off one hip. Ruth Etting wore pearls like no one else! Check out these images for further proof! 1, 2, and 3

More on the book...

"In Ruth Etting: America's Forgotten Sweetheart, authors Kenneth Irwin and Charles Lloyd provide the first full-length biography of this ground-breaking artist. This book recounts Etting's early hears as a pioneering radio performer who quickly attained national celebrity, her recording career as "Sweetheart of Columbia Records," and her innovative work in early short subjects. The authors detail Etting's unhappy marriage to her husband-manager, Martin (Moe "The Gimp") Snyder, her second marriage to pianist arranger Myrl Alderman, and her Colorado Springs retirement. They also examine Etting's place in the history of American entertainment, specifically her trend-setting vocal style and her innovative work in phonograph recordings and radio performance--as well as her enormous popularity throughout the 1930s and beyond."

For more on the book and more on the authors, check out their website!
And for more on Ruth Etting, check out RuthEtting.com!

"Say goodbye, say goodbye to the way I was before. Say hello, say hello to a new way..."

Am I Idyll? Or am I Wild? How about neither! My stay in the mountains lasted longer than I originally intended - Idyllwild's a beautiful place, who can resist it's charm? But as of this week I'm officially back to civilization, and loving it! Up in the mountains I had no cell phone reception, I got snowed in for days on end, and I was two-and-a-half hours outside of LA. On the upside I saw more deer than I could count and I made friends with at least one squirrel - we'd chatter back and forth at each other, and he told me stories. I may not have understood the details, but I understood the underlying emotion. Really! Get the right squirrel, and you'll get an earful!

So onto the new!

First, I shot a new/redux band last week in LA - one of my favorite things to do! I think they'll be debuting the images soon in a couple of different ways.

Second, I got an email this week from a fan who noticed some of my images on The Alexus Records site at http://alexusrecords.com. Some of the images have been enlarged and/or stretched, so it's not the best place to see my work, but even so, I always love seeing my images show up in new places! If you want to see the original images, go to http://www.cherylspelts.com/blog/2008/08/la-guns-live-at-key-club-in-hollywood.html or http://www.rockbandlounge.com/news/2008-08-la-guns/ for the slideshow.

Third, I'm getting ready to debut my new web site AND a new site dedicated just to high school senior portraits. I'm really looking forward to working with seniors soon!

And finally, I wanted to mention Michael Jackson, and how sad I am that he's gone, and that I never got to see him perform live. I always meant to...

I was making the final trip from Idyllwild to Riverside on Thursday, my car packed with my computer, cameras, and my cat - the three big "C's" in my life - and I texted a Tweet that read: "Say goodbye, say goodbye to the way I was before. Say hello, say hello to a new way..." Just some lyrics to a song I blogged about earlier this month, referring to my move, and my very happy, fresh-start mood at that moment. Then a few minutes later the DJ on the radio blurted out that TMZ was reporting that Michael Jackson was dead, but that it hadn't been confirmed by any other source at that point. So I pulled over, and went directly to Twitter on my iPhone. Later it occurred to me that two years ago this week I would have raced home to jump on the computer to learn more - since the iPhone didn't debut until the very end of June 2007 - and I would have gone straight to a news source. And a year ago, I would have been able to pull over, and check right then, but I would have still gone to a news site to look it up. But this week? This week Twitter was the choice, and it didn't even require any thought. I just knew that if something was happening, then Twitter was the place to be, and it was the right choice. I got immediate confirmation, along with disbelief, great grief, and straight from the heart sadness. When bad things happen, as humans we want to connect, and the immediacy of Twitter was the perfect vehicle. At first I felt guilty that my last Tweet had been so happy and frivolous - I hadn't known when I tweeted - but still, it just felt wrong. But then I noticed that people assumed it referred to Michael, and I realized that while I hadn't meant it that way, but that it could indeed refer to him too.

So Michael this is for you! "Say goodbye, say goodbye to the way I was before. Say hello, say hello to a new way..."

Site Update

So why am I posting screen shots of my current web site? Well the word current might be a clue...

I love my site as is - it was designed with my fine art background in mind. If you ever spent hours cutting mats for prints, bright white mats, four-ply, with sharp perfect corners, and never exactly square, always fuller at the bottom - then you get all the white in my current site. And if you ever signed your mounted prints with pencil, then you really get it. Even the little square images that repeat throughout the site are an homage to the square images on a medium format contact sheet.

But things change! And artists evolve. And it was time for an update. So that's coming, soon. But today I just want to post a few screenshots, as an archive, because I like looking back! And soon, what you see below, will be the past.

What I've been listening to...

I seem to have a thing for female voices lately - and these two songs are the two that I keep looping, over and over. I do that when I really love a song, listen to it again and again...

A New Day
Tamar Kaprelian
2008
the lyrics...



Let Go
Frou Frou
2004
the lyrics...

Memorial Day Weekend

I am so proud of my Mom! She's always appreciated my talent and the images I produce, but she never really got into photography herself - until today.

My Aunt and Grandma and Mom were all in the same place at the same time - it is Memorial Day Weekend, and Idyllwild is perfect this time of year, so of course I was going to do some spontaneous portraits! And then it happened, she asked if I wanted her to shoot a couple of me. Now my Mom has always been one who rations shots - whether it was film or digital. Growing up she'd shoot exactly one frame of each event - maybe two frames if you got lucky. And she's always astonished at the number of images I take. And when I said yes, and handed her my camera, she was a little surprised at how heavy it was, and how hard it was to hold up and press the shutter at the same time. I had an 85mm 1.2 lens on it, so she wasn't wrong, it was heavy, so I expected her to shoot maybe four or five frames, just to be nice, and then be done. But I was wrong! She ended up shooting 40 frames! She started a little slow, but before long she was telling me to tilt my chin, look up, and smile like I had a secret. I was laughing so hard, and loving it so much, I had a hard time following her directions. But she was patient with me, and kept at it, determined to get the perfect shot - and she did! She actually got a shot of me that I really love. And to be honest, most of what she got is good. I really do like the majority of the stuff she shot.

So my Mom is now a photographer! Amazing things happen every day...


My Aunt Vicki and my Mom, the new photographer!


Me and and my beautiful Grandma


And the three of them in front of the cabin. Doesn't the yard look magnificent? It's amazing when you think about how all that was under three feet of snow not that long ago.

Sneak Peak!

Last weekend I got to see a brand new band on the first night of a new tour - Tracii Guns' League of Gentlemen at the 710 Beach Club, in Pacific Beach - and it was a fun show! Some familiar music, and some unfamiliar, and some familiar music done in an unfamiliar way. If you get a chance to see them, wait until you hear one of L.A. Guns' biggest hits done in a totally new way - it's worth going, just for that one song!

I'll have more images from this show later in the week...

What am I magnetically attracted to?

One of my favorite blogs recently has been Danielle LaPorte's White Hot Truth. I'm always attracted to passion, and she dials it up to eleven every time she posts. Today I read her post about figuring out what you're magnetically attracted to - and what that says about you - and thought it was fascinating.

What am I magnetically attracted to?

1. Black nail polish

2. Orange blossoms

3. Hot sun and hot nights

4. Skin - tanned or pale

5. Great bone structure and pretty lips and wide open eyes

6. Hair that swings and blows and shines

7. Old houses

8. Wood floors and windows and doors

9. Great shoes

10. Silver gelatin prints

11. Silver jewelry

12. BIG colorful canvases of my images or paintings by contemporary artists

13. A soft cool breeze on a hot summer night

14. Old trees

15. Sand, and surf, and the ocean

16. Expensive leather purses

17. Water, in all it’s forms

18. Convertibles

19. Portraits shot at a wide open aperture
20. People who are smarter than me
21. Men just out of the shower, who smell like soap

22. White teeth

23. Wrap-around skirts
24. People who dance well

25. Dark chocolate

26. Concerts

27. Passion in other people

What does it all say about me? Not quite sure yet, but since most of those things are in my life, on a regular basis, I definitely think I'm headed in the right direction. What is that old saying? Follow your bliss... Okay!

Officially spring in Idyllwild

Spring comes later up in the mountains. We still had snow when the wildflowers started appearing in the flatlands. And even within Idyllwild, spring came sooner in the downtown area, and later further up the mountain. The altitude change makes a difference in so many different ways... In late summer, when it's cooler up here, we'll be grateful for that difference, but for most of the last few months I've just been wishing spring would hurry up and get here!

Then this weekend, as I drove up the hill, everything seemed to be in bloom. Wild lilac that bloomed in March in Fallbrook, is at it's peak right now up here - both versions too - purple and white! And masses of yellow flowers bloom around every corner. And the yuccas? So many of them this year! It's a really beautiful drive right now between Banning and Idyllwild.

But today there was a brand new sign of spring - pollen! Yellow-green pollen from the oak trees is covering everything.

I grabbed my iPhone to take a photo of my car, when I saw how much pollen was on it - intending to just document it. But then I got into the way the light was reflecting off the shiny paint, and reflection of a rock wall, in the surface, and pretty soon I was more into the art, than in the documenting. Typical!

So yeah, that really is pollen, on the hood of my car - believe it or not. And if you don't, come up to Idyllwild and see for yourself! It really is pretty up here right now - and cool!

Sunglasses from Marty Casey's Silver Elements Collection

Marty Casey just added sunglasses to his Silver Elements Collection!

To get a pair, click here, and be sure to check out "More Views" for three more images. We shot them on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood last week, and they're totally cool and so very very LA!

L.A. Guns at House of Blues on Sunset

Some people think that a photographer just shoots what is. If there's beautiful stuff in front of you, just click the shutter, and voilà! Instant art! But it's not quite that simple. Yes, if there's beautiful stuff in front of you, you're halfway there, but the artist still has to chose where to point the camera, and what moment to capture - as well as a myriad of other more technical choices. With every shot, that artist is telling his own story and showing you his vision. And no two photographers, if presented with the same beautiful subject, will come up with the same way of presenting it. And honestly, even the same photographer on different days, will make different choices. That's art!

I shot LA Guns last week at the House of Blues on Sunset, which is a great venue, with nice light - my favorite kind of place. And they sounded great and looked great - it was just the best of LA Guns, in every way. So a perfect night to shoot. And lucky for me, I came to that show so wiped out and exhausted I could hardly see straight. Lucky? Yeah lucky. Because shooting a concert is like crack to me - so of course I'm going to rise to the occasion. And of course how I'm feeling is going to shape what I see, and how I shoot - and that's a good thing!

Earthy, sensual, and wild are how I'd describe my images from that night. I usually go for the extreme, but that night I was attracted to the moments in between - the moments when you take a breath. Not necessarily the moments when the musicians take a breath, but more the moments where you, the viewer take a breath. So go ahead, just breathe... and enjoy!





To see the slideshow from that night, go to:
http://www.rockbandlounge.com/news/2009-04-la-guns/

And remember to maximize your browser window - the images are large, and deserve to be seen that way!

There's a discussion thread at RBL, too!
http://www.rockbandlounge.com/forum/topic.asp?topic_id=11229