I'm Jen Altman and welcome to Nectar & Light. I have been blogging since 2006 over here and started Nectar & Light when my obsession for design became secondary to my love of Polaroid photography and of course, my daughters. Nectar & Light was born out of a desire to share instant photography and a peek at our life. In 2008 when the Polaroid Corporation announced that they would stop producing integral film, I created a goodbye letter of sorts. Along with 24 international Polaroid photographers, I published a limited edition book called For The Love of Light: A Tribute to the Art of Polaroid. I never imagined where that project would lead me. Along with the Polaroid Notes that were directly inspired by the book, as well as Pretty Polaroid Notes, I also created a how-to book about instant photography with two of my loveliest girlfriends, Instant Love: How To Make Magic and Memories With Polaroids - it was published by Chronicle Books and released in May 2012.
Since starting to write Instant Love, life and work has been a whirlwind adventure. I have shot some seriously gorgeous weddings all over the world... and we moved to Brooklyn and now find ourselves in Asheville, North Carolina. I have written two more books that I'm incredibly proud of, Gem and Stone: Jewels of Earth, Sea and Sky that published in September 2012 and a book about taking photographs of your own children, Photographing Your Children: A Handbook of Style and Instruction that was released April 2013. In 2011 I started a second blog called Nectar where I document our family's adventure in food, music and travel. Adie and Aela both of have their own blogs as well... and Fall 2012 brought us yet another chapter in our lives – I opened CISTHENE – a witchy little shop full of Talismans, Potions and Pouches. You can follow updates here…
I'm so grateful for where this blogging adventure has taken me so far and I will never forget that it really all started right here. I don't blog nearly as much as I used to and I have mixed feelings about that. But I thank those of you who have stuck with me through those long moments of silence and for acknowledging that time spent offline - honoring those you love and living the life that your heart desires - is more important than talking about it on the internet. Thank you... lots of love and wishing you beautiful adventures of your own design!
*photograph above by the lovely Susannah Conway.
