It’s hard to believe that a week ago today I was roaming the beautiful beaches and taking the amazing sites of the gorgeous island of St. Martin. My boyfriend and I made the big escape from New York and ventured down to the Caribbean for a little R&R.

To say that I was overdue for a vacation is a massive understatement. I had no idea how burnt out and tired I was until we finally got down there. Instead of having to hop subway trains and endure the honking of street traffic, all I had to do was sit in the sand and marvel at the turquoise waves that surrounded the island.

©Jaimee Todd 2013

A little background: St. Martin is island shared by two countries; France and the Netherlands. We stayed on the Dutch side, which is more affordable but we often ventured to the French side by car. Even though the island is only 36 miles or so, you definitely need to get a car to get around because it’s ridiculously hilly. Thanks to our little Hyundai, we were able to power through the steep hills and get around town quite seamlessly (big thanks to the GPS gods).

©Jaimee Todd 2013

The Dutch side is a little touristy feeling and probably caters to more American tastes while the French side feels less so. AJ commented on how much the island reminded him of Nigeria and even though I’ve never been to Africa,  it did feel like in a French-African nation

The other good thing about traveling ot the French side is that you got to see how people really lived. I’m not impressed by sterile resorts that are pristine and perfect and seeing how the native folk lived also shed light on the gross income disparity between the wealthy and not-so-wealthy. It provides a sobering reality and lends to a more wholesome experience.

While St. Martin is pretty diverse, the French side seemed overwhelmingly Afro-Caribbean. We heard French sailing through the air as we walked through Marigot and watched people fishing on the docks or saw them hanging out in tiny restaurants serving fresh seafood and Creole.

©Jaimee Todd 2013

Of course, one of my favorite parts of the island was the Butterfly Farm, a.k.a, “Photographer’s Heaven”, which houses one an impressive butterfly collection all in a modest, but pleasant, setting. I damn near lost my mind running around trying to photograph these beauties, some of which were as large as my hand. In addition to learning about butterflies, people also have the opportunity to feed them and on rare occasions, have them land on them (AJ and I were not terribly fond of this idea when it came to those big butterflies).

©Jaimee Todd 2013

I already miss St. Martin and can’t wait to go back to explore. In the meantime, I‘ll look back on the shots that I took with fond memories.

Starting with this “4sale” sign that I spotted outside of Banana Republic in Midtown Manhattan.

After splicing and duplicating the letters and symmetry of the sign, I blended the image so that it became this:

©Jaimee Todd 2013

And then this:

©Jaimee Todd 2013

I couldn’t seem to stop myself and pretty soon, I went on to stack these images together to create a unified piece:

©Jaimee Todd 2013

Here are a few more before/after shots:

Before (a picture of a sculpture at Rockefellar Center):

 After:

©Jaimeee Todd 2013

Before (subway sign)After:

©Jaimee Todd 2013

©Jaimeee Todd 2013

Before (Shoefiti found in Queens)

And then this. This one is actually my favorite:

©Jaimeee Todd 2013

Doing these is soooo much fun and highly addicting. Additionally it probably makes people wonder what the hell i’m photographing random stuff for. I like to think of it as an exercise in learning how to see the beauty in the simple things.

Finally, after weeks, I have found the time to compose a new blog post. You would laugh if you know how many times I’ve tried to write this one post with an update. As previously mentioned, the day job is keeping me on a constant work grind with little time for anything else.

And finally, I get to travel.

A few weeks ago I booked a trip to the Caribbean that I will be going on in April and I can’t wait. It’s embarrassing to think about how long it’s been since I’ve hopped a plane to go to another country given all the travel deals out there and the gaps of time I had, but I always seem to have a convenient excuse as to why I couldn’t go; I wanted to save money,

I wanted to go when the time was right, I didn’t feel like planning.

But then I realized that life was for living. There’s probably never really perfect time to go traveling and i didn’t have to spend and arm and a leg to go abroad. More importantly, I believe that traveling is just damn good for the soul. It’s a chance to get a change of scenery, a change of routine and see how people live differently from you. I desperately need a change from the everyday of the city. I’m hoping that all of these experiences will rekindle the creative fires.  (and I totally can’t wait to photograph the beautiful sights on my trip).

Pictures will certainly be forthcoming of this trip so be on the lookout in April. I can’t wait to share them with you.

©Jaimee Todd 2013

That’s what my life feels like these days as I devote six days of my week to the day job. The work itself keeps me busy and time flies but unfortunately, it doesn’t leave me much time for anything else. My apartment often looks like a hurricane came through and I barely have time to cook decent meals and pursue my other interests. I’m trying to squeeze in the photography where I can. In this case, this is a window view from where I work. The other shot is a lobby shot reflection.

I’m hoping that once things do tend to normalize, I can take some time off and delve into my creative endeavors. I always feel like a part of me is missing when I can’t regularly engage something artistic. In the meantime, please excuse my sporadic posts. This too shall pass!

©Jaimee Todd 2013

After the snowstorm in Astoria, Queens.

©Jaimee Todd 2013

A little background here…I’m somewhat of a sci-fi, superhero geek. I say somewhat because I’ve yet to go to Comic Con but thanks to my sister’s evergrowing collection of comic books and watching Superman and  X-Men numerous times, I’ve got an attachment to the superhero/sci-fi realm. Who hasn’t dreamt about what it’s like to have superhero powers?

I still can’t fly (yet) but some great new photo apps and gizmos have allowed me to delve into that fantasy realm for a little bit. Check out some fun that I’ve had with these shots.

©Jaimee Todd 2013

©Jaimee Todd 2013

The last time I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge was seven years ago, when some friends of mine had a hankering for Grimaldi’s Pizza after a long day at work. You can make it across in a matter of minutes but it took us forever because I kept stopping and taking pictures with my little point and shoot Kodak.

This past weekend I decided to revisit one of my favorite bridges with my new Nikon. I was kind of bummed to find out that the bridge is undergoing restoration, so some of the more spectacular views of Manhattan and the river were blocked by these long stretch of steel panels. As it turns out, like in the picture above, those provided an interesting new perspective to my little trek and I was able to go on and take some pretty cool shots.

This week, I’m going to hike across the Queensborough Bridge (it’ll never be the Ed Koch Bridge to me, sorry) with my camera to compare views. In the meantime, check out these Brooklyn Bridge shots. As always, prints of my photographs are available in customizable sizes, so if you’d like one, email me at jaimee@jaimeetodd.com.

Throughout the evening The Diva made it clear to the rest of us that he was serious about his photography by insisting that he wasn’t going to join the group if they were going to display in places like coffee shops or banks, that he didn’t want to submit a sample of his work to the group’s portfolio unless it was going to be digital, and how much of a letdown it was that Barack Obama’s official photographer wasn’t Black. I guess all of his quips might have been perceived as legitimate but I guess it was the way he expressed him  that came across as a turn-off. While I realized that he had a lot of experience and ran in the same circles as Gordon Parks, his attitude made him come across as arrogant and condescending. A prime example of this arose when, towards the end of the night, he asked me what type of camera I shot with. Proud of my recent purchase, I told him that I had a Nikon D7000. With a smirk, the Diva looked at me and said, “You still don’t get it, do you? Nikon’s aren’t all that good….as a matter of fact, Canons are a better camera…” and then preceded to lecture me on all the virtues of Canons. I can’t really remember what he said; it wasn’t long before his voice just started to sound like that “wha-wha-wha-wha-wha” sound that all the adults voices made in those Charlie Brown cartoons.

After he finished, I smiled and evenly told him that I liked my Nikon just fine, I preferred their weight in my hands and that at the end of the day, everyone is going to have their preferences for what camera they prefer and it really didn’t matter what you shoot with, it was the eye of the photographer that mattered the most. This seem to quiet him a little, which seemed only fair given that a majority of his work on his latest project was done on a little point and shoot digital.

I tell this story for two reasons: (1) As I previously mentioned, it doesn’t matter what you shoot with. As Ken Rockwell wrote in one of his blog posts about the face-off between Nikon and Canon, “Anyone who tries to tell you that one brand or the other is significantly better
than the other in basic quality is either an idiot, or a retail salesman who’s
getting a bigger spiff from one or the other that week.” Furthermore, there are photographers that produce incredible works of art on toy cameras or camera phones. Just ask Stevie.

(2) Artists can act like real jerks some times. I know this seems awfully blunt, but it still blows me away the amount of attitude and entitlement with which some of them operate. While I can understand the diva was serious about his work, he talked to the rest of us like we weren’t. While I’m sure he had decades of experience and insight to contribute, he also understand that being a part of a group is a give and take process and that he also had things to take away from others. I’m not sure where the attitude comes from but I suspect that most of it arises from massive insecurity that is masked in smugness and condescension. Everyone can relate to the fear of failure but damn, lose the attitude! We’re not impressed.

In the end, I have to remind myself that for every diva, there is a supportive, encouraging fellow artist out there that is willing to share and learn and it will be an ongoing process to seek them out and cultivate them.

Fin!