A Themed Linkage

A glorious Lake Lure wedding. Makes me wish we'd had more time and a better situation in which to explore around Asheville a bit more. If I ever get the opportunity to hone my photog skills with a real camera, I want to learn how to be as good as this lady. Delicious is her entire website.

365 Photos About 365 Kinds of Diapers. I'm in total awe of the dedication some people have. And November 4th made me tear up, exactly 44 seconds in and you'll see what I mean.

Thriller and Interconnection. But mostly, Thriller. I love stuff like this.

Squirrel in Focus. If you all click no other link I ever post on my blog ever again for as long as we all shall live, you'll click this one and we'll all die happy.

How Twins Are Made. If ever there were a case for having two at once, this is it.

Candy Coloured Cuteness. Pink chuck taylors and a white wedding dress is a combo I can thoroughly get behind.

Your Camera Takes Great Pictures. Yes, yes, yes! I hate this backhanded compliment. "...The camera does not make the photograph. It records the image that the photographer tells it to and shows the vision of the artist behind the camera."

10 Photography Quotes That You Should Know. A nice awakening. I need to stop being inhibited by my lack of equipment and instead focus on thinking outside of the box with what I do have. This summer I've taken less photos than I have in at least 5 years. I should do better.

Photo of the Day

Riley came to visit tonight with her Mama. Poor thing is battling a cold, thrush and a touch of colic.

Out of the hundred photos I snapped of her, I think this was my favorite.

Nikon d60: An Explanation

So if you follow me on Twitter you know that today I got a Nikon d60.

Really. What else do I have to say?

Except I was not blatantly copying or trying to steal the thunder of anyone else who may have gotten a Nikon for their March birthday as well. *cough cough* I swear! It was all in the works before I knew!! And my mother MADE me do it!

This has been paining me.

I'm silly.

So anyways. I got one. And it's a little scary. I'd say this camera is equal parts terrifying and cool. Like too cool for me to touch...almost.

I have no idea what I'm doing yet...basically. But here's some pictures anyway.























So why the d60? Good question. The truth? I just gave up and bought it. I found a super great deal on it, it was under the $400 budget I was playing around with...and I pulled the trigger (or uh..purchase button) and got it. Did you know there is a REALLY GOOD REASON not to buy any camera on the market?? I do...because I've read that many reviews!! And they all made my head hurt.

Why Nikon over Canon? I like bright photos and Nikon's straight out the camera stuff always seems to pop just a little bit more.

Things I've learned in the few hours I've had it:

Jack (the Lab) is a contrary old man and an awful model. Chuck, he is not.

Freebie Five

Dooce tackles a subject today that I often think about. She refers to it as the 'Five Fame Fuckers List', and not to take anything away from the great and mighty Dooce I prefer my favorite gossip blogger Lainey's term: 'The Freebie Five'.

Lainey has done this list for years now, she has a little sidebar section for it and her list is ever changing. (She's also smart, witty, hilarious, very chic and posh and everything I like in a gossip blog. That's why she wins. So I read her and you should too, I swear you'll enjoy.)

Anyways, the premise of a 'Freebie Five' is kind of rooted in a stable relationship, the five people you'd be allowed to fuck if given the opportunity...free of consequences. But since I'm not in a relationship I like to call this 'The Five People I'd Do Tomorrow JUST BECAUSE I CAN' List.

1. Michael Phelps (Lainey and Dooce have Michael on their list, as I suspect many women do right now. Michael's going to be a busy boy is all I'm saying.)
2. Prince Harry
3. George Clooney
4. Billy Bob Thornton
5. David Beckham

Michael is an obvious choice. I understand some take offense with the mouth or ears, but I find him completely charming. And I'm totally turned on by ambition and success. Sad. But true.

Prince Harry. Oh come on. Eye candy. And money. And royalty. (Wait, I'm sensing a theme here.)

George Clooney. Beautiful. Charming. Dark and handsome. Love. Oh, and it would have to take place at the Lake Como Villa. Just saying.

Billy Bob Thornton. (What!?) I know. But he's sexy. Dirty. And sexy. I swear.

David Beckham. It's the tattoos. And accent. (Also successful, ambitious...hmm...should I psychoanalyze this or let it go?)

Now for the respectable part of this post that doesn't involve sex.

Last night I went on a bit of a nature walk behind our house. (A little set up for those unaware, the house backs up to a farm and woods and is very 'country' in some respects.) Of course halfway through my camera battery went dead and I ran out of memory on my SD card. But here are a few of my favorite shots before all went to hell.









So, who's on your 'Freebie Five'?

The One in Which She Talks of Death

Anyone who knows me, is aware that some of the most defining moments of my life actually surround death. My earliest memory is a funeral and in all I've attended (at last count) 23 of the damn things. My own father nearly died once, as many of you know. And perhaps the single most defining moment of my young life is the 3 months I spent caring for my dying grandmother.

It's one thing to see countless corspes all dolled up in funeral homes, another to find your grandmother dead in the middle of the night inside of your own house. This situation I find not creepy, no matter how odd that sounds, but rather comforting. I've witnessed hospital deaths as well and something about the lack of tubes and machines involved with my grandma's death was serene and beautiful. She died happy. That much I know for certain.

There is absolutely, without a doubt, one certainty in life: we will all die. No matter how many anti aging creams you use, medications you take or exercises you perform, you too will succumb to death. I know this because I had an aunt once who lived through a massive heart attack, spent the next 3 years of her life eating rabbit food and walking 2 miles each day only to have Breast Cancer strike her down at her otherwise most healthiest period in her life.

Death is funny that way.

Side note: I like to think if she had it all to do over again she'd indulge in a Big Mac once in a while. Let that be a little food for thought.

So death, the bottom line is this: it fascinates me, I accept it and it frightens the living hell out of me. The one thing I have no control of. What a powerful notion.

Earlier I saw this (thank you Katie) and I've yet to stop thinking about it:

On May 1, 1947, Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the observation deck
of the Empire State Building. Photographer Robert Wiles took a photo of McHale a
few minutes after her death.

The photo ran a couple of weeks later in Life magazine accompanied by
the following caption: On May Day, just after leaving her fiancé, 23-year-old Evelyn McHale wrote a note. ‘He is much better off without me … I wouldn’t make a good wife for anybody,’ … Then she crossed it out.

She went to the observation platform of the Empire State Building. Through
the mist she gazed at the street, 86 floors below. Then she jumped. In her
desperate determination she leaped clear of the setbacks and hit a United
Nations limousine parked at the curb.

Across the street photography student Robert Wiles heard an explosive
crash. Just four minutes after Evelyn McHale’s death Wiles got this picture of
death’s violence and its composure.

From McHale’s NY Times obituary, Empire State Ends Life of Girl, 20:

At 10:40 A. M., Patrolman John Morrissey of Traffic C, directing traffic at Thirty-fourth Street and Fifth Avenue, noticed a swirling white scarf floating down from the upper floors of the Empire State. A moment later he heard a crash that sounded like an explosion. He saw a crowd converge in Thirty-third Street. Two hundred feet west of Fifth Avenue, Miss McHale’s body landed atop the car. The impact stove in the metal roof and shattered the car’s windows. The driver was in a near-by drug store, thereby escaping death or serious injury. On the observation deck, Detective Frank Murray of the West Thirtieth Street station, found Miss McHale’s gray cloth coat, her pocketbook with several dollars and the note, and a make-up kit filled with family pictures.

The serenity of McHale’s body amidst the crumpled wreckage it caused is
astounding. (via The most beautiful suicide (kottke.org)

You see, along with my morbid fascination with death and dying, I also have a fascination with Post Mortem Photography. This was widely practiced in the 1800s as a way of preserving the memory of a dead family member. Often they had never had their picture taken before they actually died. The dead bodies would be positioned, many times, to seem "alive". Sometimes faces were painted, often photos were taken of the dead body with living siblings, parents or other family members. All in all, very creepy stuff. Several good examples can be found here.

A recent variation of post mortem photography has emerged involving photography of stillborn infants. Once whisked away from family as quickly as possible after birth, parents of stillborn children are now encouraged to spend time with the infant. Many choose to bathe their child, dress it, visit with it and properly say goodbye. Often they take their own photographs (the only they'll ever have), but a not for profit formed called "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" which has professional photographers donate their time to take these lasting photographs. I strongly urge you to visit their website and see some of these pictures. Talk about taking the stigma out of death and dying, they are all so beautiful and poignant.

My final example of post mortem photography is the following photo essay: Life Before Death. I saw this posted sometime in the last few months, somewhere I can't remember on the internet. But I've had it in my favorites ever since. This essay deals, in many cases, with cancer patients. Patients who willingly agreed to be photographed before and after death. They are the definition of hauntingly beautiful.

"Death is a test of one’s maturity. Everyone has got to get through it on
their own. I want very much to die. I want to become part of that vast
extraordinary light. But dying is hard work. Death is in control of the process,
I cannot influence its course. All I can do is wait. I was given my life, I had
to live it, and now I am giving it back"

--Edelgard Clavey, 67, one of the participants in that photo essay.

Photo of the Day: Election Day Edition

I did my Civic Duty today and voted in the Primary. I'm happy to say I helped lead Hillary Clinton to victory tonight, even if it ultimately doesn't mean much. I've dreamt about casting a vote for Hillary in an election since I was in high school. Today, in that booth, I stopped for a second after voting, soaked in the beauty of that name at the top of such a historic ballot, and smiled. I might not get to vote for her in the fall, but today I did it. Such a powerful moment for sure.

I digress.

My polling place is at Plum Creek Baptist Church. Thankfully I remembered as we left the church basement today that I had Jon's little camera tucked into my purse. I knew I wanted a few shots of my surroundings and immediately got to snapping. To the chagrin, I might add, of my family.

I have a thing about cemeteries, and old structures. And I knew I could make the images I took look sufficiently creepy with a little editing.

They did not disappoint. At least not me. I love them.

Jon on the other hand says I'm sick and demented for photographing graves and that the barn looks like a serial killer shack.

I was flattered.

Confused and Consumed

When I was a little girl my Aunt B used to carry around a huge Canon SLR everywhere she went. For years and years she was the go to photographer of the family. Back in the days of rolls upon rolls of film, I would watch her go about her business. Carefully she would frame the faces of each family member, sneak up on conversations capturing the most intimate of shots. A gentle laugh amongst friends here, a child's innocence there.

I was a girl enamoured. As soon as I was old enough my parents let me use their gigantic point and shoot. And when I was 13 they purchased me my first, in a long line, Fuji. I loved that camera, carefully taking it with me anywhere I went. It was the camera I used to capture all of my UK basketball pictures from my obsessed youth.

I resisted the digital age. For a long time, when everyone else was using measly 3 megapixel cameras to produce grainy shots I was refusing to give in to this new media. That is, until my freshman year of college. Before my first trip to Sanibel I decided I absolutely had to have a digital camera. So my Mom bought a 4 megapixel Samsung.

It's was a decent little camera. I can't complain since it did all of things I ever asked it to. And when it ceased to suffice my needs I bought the Fuji S700 I have now.

For the past year I've loved that camera as though it were my child. I had never owned such a wonderful piece of equipment. And from the first sharp, color saturated picture to the last I've adored its capability.

For what it is, it's been a fantastic camera.

But I feel limited in what I can pull off with it now. The biggest limitation is indoor shots. They are, quite simply, horrendous. No matter how well lit the room is, it just can't manage a good indoor shot. And I hate using flash. So, I just don't take inside shots. Except for the ones I have to.

So, if you've been following me on Twitter you'll already know that I've been in the market for a D-SLR for days now. I've decided to forego the macbook for now and instead spend that extra budget money on an SLR. Vacation is my biggest picture taking time of my entire year and to commemorate being back on the island (ugh, miss it so much!!!) I really want to have an SLR in my hands this year.

Which, hello! Totally means I'm running out of time to figure this out.

I've managed to make my head, literally, hurt from all of the camera reviews I've spent hours reading online. I've been tempted by Olympus and Sony flashing their shiny features in the corner, confused by Nikon and Canon and have found myself waist deep in "Camera Wars".

I don't know what I'm going to do. Hopefully a trip to Best Buy tomorrow to hold the Nikon and Canon in my hand will help solve the situation. Maybe.

But at least I've blogged about it. I like to keep my blog abreast of the situation.

(Side note: I live with a 13 year old boy, abreast is a funny word in this house.)

Another One

Photo of the Day

I realized while sifting through old photos that while we were in Seagrove this past May, I did not once sit in the wet sand and let the waves crash over me. Now, I figure this is partly to blame for staying in North Florida in the middle of May. It had a tendency to be a bit chilly. But really, it's a pity that I didn't sit down next to Jon instead of stand back, snapping this picture.

I'll do better this year.

Although, now that he has a camera of his very own his obsession with photography is beginning to rival my own. So maybe, this year he'll just return the favor.

I should also mention another recent find....

Last year I made a photo book from Shutterfly of our trip. It was a free promotion that came with my camera. But I liked it so much I decided I should do one this year too. I never manage to scrapbook or save my photos for posterity in anyway, even though I go to the store and buy all of the supplies to do so.

So, this year I've been looking into the other photobook options. While I liked the one from Shutterfly it was very bright and ended up coming off a bit too sappy for my tastes. I found this site: Blurb

And immediately knew I'd found the one. I am in love with the simplicity of the books.

And I figure the sappy-ness of the last book I made lies in the quotes I chose. They were...oh there are no words. They were too much. Very unlike me. I don't know what I was thinking.

Which is why this year's book, I've decided, is going to feature quotes derived solely from "The National Lampoon" vacation films. Like these gems:

This is no longer a vacation. It's a quest. It's a quest for fun. I'm gonna have fun and you're gonna have fun. We're all gonna have so much fucking fun we'll need plastic surgery to remove our godamn smiles.

or

Clark Griswald: Roy; can I call you Roy? Have you even driven your whole family cross-country?
Roy Walley: Oh, hell yes. Once I drove all of them to Florida. The smell coming out of the back seat was terrible.
Clark Griswald: I know that smell, Roy; but what if you had driven all that way and Florida was closed?
Roy Walley: Closed? Uh, they don't close Florida.

or

Clark: We're from out of town.
Man Giving Directions: No shit.

I mean, honestly, I think it'll make a classy piece of family memorabilia.

Photoshop

I've already spoke about my interest in the photo editing site, Picnik. And since my new camera arrived last week I now am the proud owner of Paintshop Pro: X2, even though it took me until last night to finally install it.

But today I ran across something I had to share.
https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html

I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure it does a decent basic job. If you try it, let me know.

Or continue on like me and stay in the dark with photo editing. I tend to like a simpler approach and like knowing someone's photograph was created by their actual skill and good eye with a camera anyway.

At least that's what I tell myself to justify not having learned a thing about any of these programs yet! ;)