Summer's Last Year In Europe

When I Was A Kid...
I remember when I was in middle school hearing my English teacher talk about this quote, "Time waits for no man." Over thirty years later, I still think about what that means.Summer Jacobson - graduate, Mannheim High School - Mannheim, Germany The older I get, the more often that quote comes to my mind.

It's never been more true in my life than now. I can't believe that our daughter, Summer, will be going off to college in nine months! Where did the time go? I want to say, "Wait, wait, slow down! Let me enjoy this time and be present to everything that it has to offer!" But that quote creeps back in and reminds me that once it's gone, it's gone.

We are very proud of Summer. She's been the most wonderful child and will be an asset to world as an adult. She's smart, beautiful and extremely talented. As parents, Jean and I couldn't be more happy. We've been blessed!

What School?
She's chosen to attend my alma mater, Weber State University. I say that she's "chosen" this university loosely. It's the one we've been paying taxes to for years - so we get a break financially for tuition. However, Summer scored high enough on her tests that it looks like she's got a full ride - tuition, books, dorm, etc. for the entire four years! How wonderful is that? So the college fund we've set aside, and continue to contribute to, will now be hers to live on for the four years, allowing her to focus completely on her studies - no part time or full time job to distract her! Exactly what we wanted for her. On top of all of that, she has family there - that's very important to us, too.

Summer Jacobson What is she going to study?
Right now, she's planning on doing a bachelor of integrated studies degree (B.I.S.). This allows her to pick three majors to study - she's selected: English (Writing), Photography, and Psychology. I think these are excellent choices. She's a wonderful writer, a creative photographer and has infinite curiosity about human behavior and the twisted human mind. She'll do well in all of these areas.

These nine months will go by fast. I'll do my best to remember to enjoy every moment - remember, time waits for no man!

We love you Summer!!! Also, when we "Tweet" you, remember to reply as quickly as possible, we worry!

Whole Plate Collodion Negatives

Whole Plate Wet Collodion Negative - August 2009, Viernheim, Germany
Whole Plate Wet Collodion Negative - August 2009, Viernheim, Germany - (the streak is from "lens flare")
Wet Collodion Negatives are intense and a lot of fun. They take some pratice and there's no "high-wow" factor for the public, but they are really special for personal work and for POP (Albumen prints/Salt prints) prints.

Summer Sings At Graduation 2009 & Mannheim Idol

Summer sang the German National Anthem and the American National Anthem at the 2009 Mannheim High School graduation ceremony yesterday at Congressforum in Frankenthal, Germany. She has an amazing voice and to hear the anthem is quite moving. No (Grandmas and Grandpas) Summer didn’t graduate yesterday, she graduates 2010!

It was a hectic day. She had to be in Heidelberg at 0745 to take her SAT. That went until 1230 and then we had to drive to Frankenthal (~40km) to get to the graduation ceremony on time. Summer and I were suppose to be there at 1330 – we made it. They asked me to photograph the graduation ceremony, too. It was a very nice ceremony in a very nice facility.

After that, we ended up going out for a bite to eat and in a weird series of events, Summer got picked up for the Mannheim Idol competition. It’s the post (MWR) sponsoring it, but should be fun to watch her crush the competition! I’ll be sure to shoot some video and post it.

 
Summer singing the anthem – I think it’s cool how there is a couple second delay on the big screen.

Happy Wet Plate Day - I Hope Your Hands Are Black!

It's a beautiful day today and we made the most of it. Today is Worldwide Wet Plate Collodion Day 2009! We're honored and pleased to be a part of it.

Summer and I made plates most of the day and was lucky enough to have a couple of sitters for some portraits. We had a lot of fun. Summer knocked it out of the park with her Converse shot. She'll have to tell you what it's about - consumerism and being a teenager, I think.

As a group (Collodionistas), we decided to set a day aside to honor the man who invented the process - Frederick Scott Archer. We also want to honor the process itself - however ones sees fit to do that (usually by making some photographs). Unfortunately, today is Archer's death date. He died 157 years ago! We don't know his birth date, if we find out, we may change the date we do this on.

It's easy to forget what role photography has played in our lives and in history. Frederick Scott Archer played a significant part in making photography what it is today. We tend to take it for granted - pour a few plates and that might make you think twice - that's not a bad thing, either (ether).

If we really wanted to honor Archer, we would all be making 8x10 negatives and printing Albumen - maybe next year!

Here's some of what we did today:

 

"Jürgen, der Klempner" - Whole Plate Alumitype - by Quinn 
 

"Schweinehaxen" - Whole Plate Alumitype - by Quinn 
 

"Schweinehaxen" - burnished & cropped - Whole Plate Black Glass Ambrotype - by Quinn (I love the texture of the glass showing through)  
 

"Converse From Berlin" - 5x4 Alumitype - by Summer 
 

"Blithe Spirit" April 24, 25, & 26, 2009 Mannheim High School

This weekend has been consumed with Summer's play. It's called, "Blithe Spirit", by Noel Coward. The cast performed very well. It's a play that is "dialogue heavy" and lasts almost three hours! Summer was the hit of the show - she got a lot of laughs and her performance was brilliant! She played Madame Arcati.

Blithe Spirit is a comic play written by Noel Coward which takes its title from Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark" ("Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird thou never wert"). The play concerns socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who is haunted by the ghost of his first wife, Elvira, following a séance held by the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati. Elvira makes continuous attempts to disrupt Charles' marriage to his second wife, Ruth.


The play was first seen on the West End in London in 1941 and set a new long-run record for non-musical British plays of 1,997 performances. It also did well on Broadway later that year, running for 657 performances. Coward adapted the play for film in 1945, starring Rex Harrison, and directed a musical adaptation, High Spirits, on Broadway in 1964. It was also adapted for television in the 1950s and 1960s and for radio. The play enjoyed several West End and Broadway revivals in the 1970s and 1980s and was revived again in London in 2004. It returned to Broadway in February 2009. (copied from Wikipedia).

Summer as Madame Arcati - eccentric and funny!
Summer and her best friend, Jacqueline (playing Ruth).
Madame Arcati basking in a moment of her own greatness.
Madame Arcati discovers the maid (played by Nads) can rid the house of the ghost wives.
Madame Arcati giving Ruth the lowdown on how to get rid of Elvira.
A photo from the original play - from left to right: Arcati, Ruth and Elvira.  

Wet Plate Collodion Positives & Negative From April 11, 2009

I'm suppose to be editing video for my DVD today. I'm not in the mood. After I get done with this post, I'm going to go make another espresso and sit on the porch and watch the day pass.

It's gorgeous today. It's sunny and almost 26C (~80F) degrees. That's my maximum comfortable temperature. If it gets past 26C I don't like it.

Summer and I had a good time yesterday making photographs. She's got it down. She helped me with the negative work and made several positive images on her own. I'll go out on a limb here and say that she's probably the youngest Collodionista in the world! I'm sure I'll get some email if she's not. I'm trying to encourage her to teach the process when she starts college next year. It would be a great part time gig for an undergraduate student, not to mention what doors it may open for her.

Here are a few plates from yesterday's effort (as always, click to enlarge):

 

"Summer's Fan" - Whole Plate Alumitype
"The Three Summers" - Whole Plate Alumitype 
"Westmalle Trappist Beer" - 5"x7" Negative Toned/POP
Sometimes, we run out of room on our mantle for glass and metal!

Summer Jacobson's Poetry

We are very proud of Summer. She's smart and beautiful. It always warms our hearts to see her perform (singing/guitar), or to listen to one of her poems. We like to hear her political and social thoughts, too. She's more in touch with the important things in life at 16 years-old than I was at 26 years-old.

She brought home the "Showcase" catalog yesterday. It features work from high school students all over Europe. This was just published in the last few weeks, but it was from work submitted last year (when she was a sophomore). They selected one of her poems for it. Can you guess who the poem is about?

We love you Summer! You make us very, very proud! And, yes, we rocked the vote this time!

Summer Jacobson's poem

Summer Sings National Anthems

Summer was asked to sing at the Mannheim High School graduation ceremony Saturday (June 7, 2008).

She did a wonderful job! She sang both the German National Anthem (without the "Deutschland Uber Alles" part) and the American National Anthem.

Here's a video (not such a great video, it was shot from my still camera - but you get the point) - a big crowd and Summer was on the GIANT screen - great job Sweetie! We love you!!!

Arsenic & Old Lace

Last night was the first performance of Arsenic & Old Lace and Summer was outstanding in it! She made the play. She plays Abby Brewster.

Tonight, she'll do another performance and hopefully I will get some video tape, if I do, I'll post it!

Summer in Arsenic & Old Lace
Summer as Abby Brewster doing charity work for Brooklyn.

 
The three main characters at the end of the show.