Greetings!

Summer has begun in earnest in southeast Arizona. Prickle poppies dot the grassland, and hidden below the dry growth are Arizona Blue Eyes, hugging the ground lest they wither in the hot breezes. It's the time of year when residents of the desert begin to look southeastward for the first signs of the summer monsoons and their promise of renewal.

The dry, hot days of early June stand in stark contrast with the weather we experienced during our 3 week trip to the west-, east- and west- (again) coasts. From Death Valley, northward through the eastern side of the Sierras, to the Oregon Coast, to Massachusetts, and back the the Oregon and California coasts, we were pelted by rain, sleet (!), drizzle, fog: anything but sun for the most part. Fortunately, the weather for our two grandchildrens' graduations was dry and relatively pleasant.

Despite (or perhaps because) of the rains, we were able to photograph largely in flat lighting, with most of our subjects covered by a reflective, wet coating. The combination brought light and life to otherwise unremarkable patches of marine life, rocks and sand. We are just beginning to explore the rich trove of images from this trip, and its southern hemisphere complement: a task rendered more difficult not only by the sheer number of photographs, but the enormous contrast in lighting, subject matter and 'mood.' Watch this space for updates!

We hope that your summer is off to a good start and will provide the time and space needed for seeing and feeling the world anew.

Two of Steve's images from our trip to the Tatio Geyser Basin in the Atacama Desert last year were accepted into the All Art Arizona show at Art Intersection in Gilbert. Another of Karen's Islamic Tile images has been accepted into this show. The opening reception for the show was on June 1. The show will run through July 27 and includes not just photography, but painting, drawing, fibers, mixed media, and sculpture.

Steve's image of the Burnham mudhills, near the Bisti Badlands in northern New Mexico, is included in the Image New Mexico exhibit at the Matrix Fine Art gallery in Albuquerque, June 7 - July 13. The opening reception is on Friday, June 7, 5 - 8:00 PM.

The Desert Grasslands exhibit at the Tucson Museum of Art, in which 5 of Steve's images are shown, remains installed through July 7. We highly recommend that you see this excellent show. Karen has made an interactive electronic catalog for the show. This catalog is available at the iTunes bookstore. A non-interactive PDF version can be purchased as well. .

We are happy to say that one of Karen's Islamic tile images has been accepted into the 2013 Arizona Biennial at the Tucson Museum of Art. The exhibit will open on July 19 with a reception from 6 - 8 pm and run through September 29. this is the third time that one of Karen's images has been selected for this show.

Two of Steve's images are included in the Verve Gallery of Photography's 10th Anniversary Exhibition - Figures Studies. The show runs from June 28 through August 31 in Santa Fe.

Two of Karen's mathematical mosaic images from her series, The Perfect in Nature, will appear in the exhibit, Piece by Piece: An Exhibition of Mosaic Artwork, at Tohono Chul Gallery. The exhibit dates are June 28 - October 20, 2013. The reception will be joined with the Dia de los Muertos exhibit on Friday, September 13th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.

We now have ebook versions for 5 of Karen's portfolios, Illusions of Reality, Architectronics, Assembled Images, Islamic Tile Studies, and The Perfect in Nature, and 4 of Steve's portfolios, Illusions of Intimacy, Living Stone, Agaves: Emergence and Transformation, and Sand Mirrors: A Portfolio. All are available through the iTunes store. Two of the portfolios, Karen's Illusions of Reality, and Steve's Sand Mirrors, can be downloaded at no charge. The other portfolios are available for $1.99 apiece. They can also be purchased directly through our websites (Steve's and Karen's) where PDF versions are also available. We invite you to have a look and of course to 'support your (non)-local artist!'

Karen's interactive electronic book, Sticks and Stone, an alphabet book for the 21^st century, has been published by Polytropos Press. Owing to the inclusion of scripting for animation, sound and the image content, the book is currently available only for a restricted number of e-book readers. You can examine some of the book's content and watch a video demonstrating its interactive content on the book's website. You may purchase and download the book directly or purchase it from the iTunes bookstore. the Facebook page for the book and the website each contain a video where you may watch the book being "read." You may also download a sample of the book to examine it to play with it, please do.

Sand Mirrors, the book of photographs by Steve and poems by Richard B. Clarke, is available either directly or through Amazon.com. Information on purchasing the print book is available on the book's website. The iBook edition of Sand Mirrors is now available through either iTunes or the book's website. The print book may also be "paged through" using "Look inside the Book" on Amazon.

We want to remind everyone that prints of the images in Sand Mirrors are available at very reasonable prices from the Image Collective in Ashland, OR, in their TIC Collection. The photographs are all printed on archival materials, 8" by 8" centered on an 11" by 14" sheet, with prices starting at $25. All images in the book are available.

There is now an author page including all of Steve's books at Amazon.com.

Both Steve and Karen have created Facebook pages devoted solely to photography. We have each populated a 'timeline' where you can trace the development of our very different visions. For Steve, we invite you to visit: http://www.Facebook.com/StephenStromPhoto/ and for Karen, http://www.Facebook.com/KarenStromPhoto/). You can also follow our progress and view larger portfolios of images by visiting our websites: http://www.karenstrom.com/ and http://www.stephenstrom.com/.

The complete archive of our newsletters is now available on both of our websites.

To order e-books, visit http://www.karenstrom.com/ebooks.html for Karen's work
or http://www.stephenstrom.com/SESebooks.html for Steve's work.
Or use the following links to visit our artist/author pages in the iTunes store:

for Karen's author page at iTunes

for Steve's author page at iTunes.

To order Steve's books click on the book cover.