Hobby Hoedown: Author Margaret Mendel's Photography

Welcome author Margaret Mendel to the Hobby Hoedown!  Margaret shares her hobby of photography and stories about the photos she captured with her camera.  Please enjoy taking a break in your day with this delightful guest post. 

Photography As A Hobby by Margaret Mendel

Writing is my first love though photography comes in a close second.

I discovered photography after graduating high school when a friend told me I could order a Pentax camera directly from the factory in Japan.

I saved my hard earned dollars working as a power sewing machine operator, sent a money order to Japan and waited. When the camera arrived I thought it was the most exotic thing I had ever seen. It was a heavy, black 35mm film camera. There was no digital back then.

This is a photo I took of my mother many years ago with my Pentax. And here is an excerpt from a memoir I wrote some time later:

  

            “From this hiding place, my sister and I spied on Mom as she hung the wash or picked the dead leaves from her dahlias. A thin woman, Mom always looked as though she carried a load equal to her own weight in her arms, either the laundry, one of our two younger sisters, or the bushels of vegetables she dragged in from the garden for canning. She worked like an ant, always dragging, lifting or pushing something. 
            The dahlias were a different matter. To tend them she would actually tiptoe into her garden. My sister thought she did this to be quiet, but Mom said she did it to keep from packing down the soil. I saw Mom lift a blossom slowly once, cupping the giant flower in both hands, as though she was looking into a face.  She smiled, and I thought she intended to kiss the bloom. A couple of times I saw her talking to her flowers. My sister didn’t see this, and said that Mom wouldn’t talk to flowers. My sister may have been right Mom did not have time to spend talking to flowers. She hardly had time to talk to us girls.”

Some years later my Pentax was stolen. I was heart broken. There were not enough funds to replace it. Life took some interesting turns around that time with a marriage that fell apart, raising my son on my own, going back to college, and photography became a low priority.

Eventually I scrapped together enough money and got a new camera, a Minolta. Once again, I was off and running, clicking the shutter every chance I got.

Over the years I’ve upgraded my camera. Now I use a Nikon 7000, and like my laptop, it goes with me just about everywhere. Photography has taught me a great deal, but unlike writing, where a story builds scene by scene, a camera captures with one click of the shutter an image that capsulizes an emotion, a moment in time, or a dramatic scene that tells volumes without the use of words.

   

Here is a photograph of Devon, my grandson. He and I take walks exploring NYC. This is an excerpt from a blog post on my website about one of our adventures:

“It was a windy day and several blocks before reaching the bookstore we encountered a huge dragonfly. The poor thing was having a terrible time in the wind and was being banged into the window of a drugstore. Then when it tried again to fly, the wind thrust it down to the ground where its wings and tail shimmied in what must have felt like a gale-force-wind to this fragile creature. Devon reached down, offered the bedraggled insect a finger. The dragonfly climbed on board and held on for dear life. “Do they bite?” Devon asked after the dragonfly was fully attached to his finger.”

I live in NYC and there is no end to photographic opportunities in this city. I don’t have to go far, because even sitting on my terrace; either looking down at the activity on the street or gazing out onto the water towers across the way, the view presents an unlimited chance to click the shutter and grab a photograph.   

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Coming in March 2014 from MuseItUp Publishing, Fish Kicker by Margaret Mendel

Back of the book:

Against the unforgiving landscape of Alaska, Sharon Wolf struggles to reclaim her life from alcohol abuse and regain the custody of her daughter. Winter is fast approaching and Sharon has nowhere to live, and no money. To make matters worse, she’s the only witness to a murder, and the murderer knows she saw him.

Luck finally seems to be on Sharon’s side when she secures a job as a fry cook in a back country bar, aptly named The Nowhere. Sharon’s life seems to be coming together, including weekend visits with her daughter.

But Herb, the murderer, finds her. If Sharon can’t resist the bottle and turn to others for help, something she never has done, both she and her daughter are in danger. Herb has no qualms killing again.

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About Margaret:

Margaret Mendel lives in New York City and is a past board member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, NYC. She has an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence. Many of her short stories have appeared in literary journals and anthologies. For more than twenty years, she worked in the mental health field, though now she devotes herself to writing full time. She is an avid photographer and not only drags a laptop, but a Nikon D7000 camera wherever she goes. 

Read more about Margaret on her blog at Pushing Time

Take some time to peruse Margaret's photos on her Flickr site