Watermark of Merni

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BIOGRAPHY
I was born into an artistic family. My mother was a writer, musician and chef in our large family. My father is an architect and taught Architecture. I spent my childhood going to numerous art shows and concerts. I grew up in a large city with diverse customs. A big concern I had was for the runaways and homeless people. To help them I sold newspapers and gave my meager earnings to the kids I knew on the streets. I also volunteered at the State Hospital and worked in Pediatrics where the children were waiting to be adopted or to be placed in foster care.

My husband has a Masters Degree in Art Education. He is an excellent artist, musician, cook, teacher and photographer. I spent several years in Europe behind him toting his tripod and backup camera. The downside he had to listen to my questions. "Do you have to shoot in color and black and white? Why do you have to have a tripod and 2 cameras"? To this day he has only taken a few digital photographs, he prefers film.

Our son is presently a college student. He is also an artist, musician, d.j and photographer. He does Graphic Design work for musicians in his college town. He has used a few of my photographs on some of the bands'posters.

I taught Preschool until I started my own family. I have done temp. work for Southern Living magazine, geriatric work, and child care. In school, I loved and enjoyed all my classes relating to children, but I found I did really well in my Art Appreciation class. My professor would stop me on campus while I was taking photos and ask difficult photography questions. While I would be shooting away and trying to answer what I did not know. Photography is now a hobby; I prefer digital. I hope to one day study photography so I can answer that professor's questions.

Music has been and still is an interest of mine. I play the flute but not professionally. I was raised on Classical, Blues, and Jazz. Since then I have seen many different musicians. I am happy that I got to see Stevie Ray Vaughn and George Harrison before they died. My hobby has had so many twist and turns. Several bands I photographed have my pictures posted on their web sites. My sister painted an acrylic painting from one of my photos, and it sold at her recent art show. The best yet is the ongoing education I receive from all the friends I have met on photonet.

A photographer that has influenced me and was the first who sparked my passion for photography is Carter Tomassi.

You can see his photographs at www. messyoptics.com

Watermark of Merni

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