"Wonder is the heaviest element on the periodic table. Even a tiny fleck of it stops time." Diane Ackerman
I am grateful down to my bones to the wonderful team and community here who have made flickr the miracle that it is. It is my home on the net and my flickr family has taught and inspired me in countless ways ~ as a photographer and as a person attempting to live a life that makes sense. I only wish there were more hours... There are so many people I'd love to follow more closely, contacts I treasure and miss from my early days, group projects I'd love to be part of...
It's amazing to think that it's coming on four years (08/04) since I found beta baby flickr with my son Kodama, his closest friend High Fidelity, (both, in fact, named Sam!) Coincidentally we all became obsessed with photography at the same time. Sharing this passion with my son has been a dream I couldn't have conceived.
I had absolutely no prior experience with a camera ( beside point and shoots on rare occasions) but my former friend/ landlady has an epic garden and asked if I would archive it for her. My first camera - Olympus Camedia 750z has a 10x opt. zoom and a "super macro mode." Given my extreme nearsightedness, I started out in macro mode myself; sticking my camera as close to those seed heads as I could! (I continue to use that camera for many of my super macros.)
I am an imperfectionist by nature, which allows me to stumble my way up the learning curve of photography without concern. I am a former therapist and my philosophy as a therapist was to start with my clients whereever they were, rather than impose a theory on the process. I think I do the same with photography. My style and subjects are eclectic. (I'll shoot just about anything!) When I process my images I consider how to bring the essence of image to light. I hope that some sense of "soulfulness" and awe come through these images that I share on flickr.
However skilled or interesting my photos are or aren't, I absolutely love the process and don't mind knowing that I will be constantly evolving in this venue.
Most of my kudos have been from my botanical images. the UBCBG Botany Dept. were so kind to honor me with a whole page about my botanical photography! I was very proud. Also, this image was on the March 2007 cover of Nature - Structural and Molecular Biology. I'll post the cover when it's out.
Recently my work was showcased in a new online magazine for the "intellectually astute female artist" (!), www.wonderzine.net/,
here. I love the concept of this new zine and am very proud to have been in their first issue.
I've started a bunch of groups which I've been lousy at maintaining, they thrive nevertheless:
Abandoned - a huge and stunning collection of places and things abandoned from all over the world.
Fleur Noir - a smaller and gorgeous group of black and white or duotone botanica.
Lynched - In honor of the director's vision of mainstream American culture.
Secret Life of Plants
A Pair or Two - I'm a Gemini, I had to do it!
Please look at my favorites (particularly nice to view with the flickr river tool above and at my set Playing Favorites; which have genre specific mosaics of my favorites with links to each photo. I am stunned by the talent I run across here every time I look.
My photo stream is getting a little hefty and I'm trying to figure a way to organize 2K + photos with some coherency. I haven't gotten it down yet but for now I've got a billion sets in a reasonable number of collections. I don't recommend my explore set since I think at least half of them are really pretty goofy. Check out my personal faves set if you want to get my range.
I'm a group fiend who is very bad at posting my own, but get my thrills checking in on the wild and weird diversity of pools out there (check out the list if you dare. I checked out yours if you're my contact!) .
And then there's the cozy flickr within flickr ~ Catherine Jamieson's brainy idea:
P.S. I use a lot of flickr toys and greasemonkey with flickr scripts. These free tools make traveling around the flickrverse so much smoother. It seems that there aren't enough people who know about them. I am extremely appreciative of all the creativity, time and energy put into these add-ons.
PPS: I've learned a lot from podcasts and posted a list you might find useful of some of the better ones here. You gotta scroll down a bit to see it.
Oh, and if you really want the dirty details:
I think I covered it, no? I only write so much because I wish I knew more about so many other people here and hope to be an inspiration to fill their profile space.
Photos of hurleygurley (4)
hurleygurley's favorite photos from other Flickr members (6,076)
Contacts (1,044)
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withwill
No real name given
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Ashu Mittal
Ashu Mittal
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Melissa Mercier...
Melissa Mercier
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guerilla_monk
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BowerCoPhoto.info
Dylan & Sarah...
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Harley.Quin
No real name given
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João Colagem
João Colagem
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dylan john western...
dylan john western
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client1976
alexander frolov
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DK Rising
Monster Maniac
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Lussina.Zhang
Lussina Zhang
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butterjug2000
Steve Thompson
Groups (50)
- Fine Art & Gothic Botanical Portraiture 630 photos, 92 members
- Cool Data Visualization Techniques - Information Visualization 699 photos, 595 members
- InspireBit.com 78 photos, 28 members
- Fire Shots 20753 photos, 5883 members
- Fire Spinning 5009 photos, 1713 members
- Northern California Photography 21467 photos, 2416 members
- B&W Diamond Awards (Post 1, Award 5)-B&W Only - No Frames!! 69925 photos, 10642 members
- Inanimate Objects: Still Life Studies 21459 photos, 3094 members
- *Best of the B-E-S-T INVITED IMAGES ONLY (ADD 1 COMMENT 3)* 17192 photos, 4832 members
- SEASCAPE OF THE WORLD 254 photos, 30 members
- Ephemera 26243 photos, 1253 members
- TheLensSociety 17 photos, 11 members
- Marin Magazine 161 photos, 27 members
- 12 Flickr Superstars 297 photos, 860 members
- STRUCTURES (LONG BEACH, CA.) 238 photos, 48 members
- Long Beach & North O.C. (LGB-NOC) 312 photos, 28 members
- Port of Long Beach 169 photos, 14 members
- VISUAL ARTS! (Post 1,Award 2.) 50918 photos, 7405 members
- eerie landscapes (natural or urban) 2436 photos, 336 members
- Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere 13632 photos, 1076 members
- Natura BW-Monochromes 1590 photos, 313 members
- Creative Photographers Gallery 26089 photos, 6833 members
- Sepia Impressions 21202 photos, 3889 members
- Black & White Nature (Post 5 Comment 1) 1207 photos, 172 members
- Old, Rusty, & Corroded! 10789 photos, 1232 members
- May 2009 – Renew The Flickr Vows Month 143 photos, 69 members
- Urban Secret & Forgotten Places 12576 photos, 599 members
- Urban Spelunkers 4391 photos, 350 members
- Darkest Dreaming 3970 photos, 700 members
- Long Beach and Beyond photos 4198 photos, 324 members
- The District Weekly - Life in Long Beach 2634 photos, 256 members
- The Award Tree [ Invited photos only ] Post 1, Comment 1 *adult 24638 photos, 4563 members
- Photographic Expressionism (aka Digital Expressionism) 6048 photos, 515 members
- SILENT LIFE- HARMONY AND PEACE 56667 photos, 4140 members
- Leonard Cohen 1534 photos, 248 members
- THE FRAYED ENDS OF SANITY 478 photos, 32 members
- The Nutcase Society 2078 photos, 307 members
- Street Photography 136553 photos, 7071 members
- Motif'd! Challenges 7043 photos, 1802 members
- Because Loss is not just a word... 424 photos, 100 members
- Creating Sanctuary [Post up to 3- comment any one] 163 photos, 41 members
- Visions in ♪Sound♪ 845 photos, 131 members
- Fifty Something (ONLY PEOPLE) 1387 photos, 769 members
- Self-Portraits!!! 252878 photos, 25489 members
- Los Angeles B+W 2041 photos, 204 members
- Los Angeles Architecture 7612 photos, 797 members
- I Love / Hate LA 850 photos, 92 members
- Photographers And Digital Artists of Los Angeles 5698 photos, 492 members
- Los Angeles, You Stink But You're Mine! 1517 photos, 47 members
- Flickr's Red 854 photos, 732 members
Testimonials (12)
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strph says:
"Elisabeth's photos captivate me, despite the fact that many of her 'subjects' are inanimate... and honestly, I think this is because she shoots these subjects--flowers, trees, clouds, old buildings and sculpture, etc.--with such care and wonder that she actually brings them to life. Her human subjects seem to radiate as well. I am humbled by the beauty that surrounds her, and ever so glad that sometimes I get to view it through her amazing eye."
18th June, 2008
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Wyrd says:
"HG's photographs are among the very best on Flickr - simple, elegant, beautifully composed, and a shimmering meditation on the beauty of the world around us. I love them."
27th January, 2007
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klynch says:
"HG is a great flickr person. I love her pictures of flora and how they become abstract images. If she lived around 1900 Manet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat, Redon would all have courted her like crazy to be their muse but she would have rightly rejected them all - after asking them to do a little sketch for her as a souvenir - and continued her good work."
28th September, 2006
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Kenny and Steve says:
"As a "newby" to flickr, E's photos were among the first to dazzle and amaze me. As I think I have noted, she and her talented son have helped return (to me) the exictement of photography I had lost some years ago. Turns out it was simply on walkabout. My life & travel photos may be interesting and from time to time I may even be clever but will I ever bring such life to a photo that she does? Look. Think. Look again. Be impressed!"
9th August, 2006
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Auntie P says:
"I am constantly amazed at the photographs in HurleyGurley's photostream. Such richness of textures, creativity of viewpoint and sensitivity to subject. I partiucularly like the way she represents that which is decaying in such a beautiful way. A photostream to make you look, make you think and above all, make you feel."
4th February, 2006
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High Fidelity says:
"HG is a wonderful photographer and (more importantly) a wonderful human being. She was the one who got me hooked on this whole Flickr thing, and I will never forgive her. I find I am spending a bit too much time perusing my contacts pages that I should spend doing... OH NO! Flickr has me so hooked I can't even imagine a world without it!
Anyhwee... Look at all of her pictures at full size. I know I have."28th February, 2005
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Terri Lynn says:
"Would you like to see the re-incarnation of Georgia Okeefe? Then come spend time with Elisabeth's photos. Experience the sensitive intimacy she exposes between mankind and his natural world, you'll never look at nature quite the same way again!"
25th January, 2005
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lunaryuna AGAINST CENSORSHIP says:
"Gifted with a sight both visionary and precise, hurleygurley combines extraordinary artistic talent with the enriching layers of a profoundly empathic nature, a vast life experience and deep rooted love for everything that's alife, has textures and colors ;).
All of her pictures display an exqusisite sense of composition, revealing a most diverse, multilayered, dark and bewitchingly mysterious, appealing reality of her own. She tells a whole intriguing story behind the portrayed object or subject of her shot. Visiting her groups becomes an enchanted journey into the essence of life's beauty and uniqueness."17th December, 2004
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Special says:
"She has such a wonderful photography style. It just leaves me in awe. Her photos are a joy to behold."
25th November, 2004
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Vanita says:
"An amazing photographer, beloved by the garden. The plants must think of her as one of their own as the flowers don’t seem to mind her showing the world their secrets. In fact, they seem to reveal to her what they will show no other!"
28th September, 2004
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tamaki says:
"The floweres around hurleygurley, are happy.
Because the flowers has a chance that is taken the photo by hurleygurley.
I knew many new beauty of flowers from her point of view."19th September, 2004
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quas says:
"Ms. gurley takes some of the best flower macros in the business. Plus, she's really nice and likes funny-looking insects. That is a very good combination.
Hooray for hurleygurley! :D"8th September, 2004
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