I know that she isn’t going to shout out and enjoy her time in the spotlight on her blog and so I want to just make sure that someone does for her! I know a lot of photographers and none are more about the art and the joy of learning and creation then she is and what a refreshing thing to see being celebrated.

This post is about some random tidbits…… as it seems I have been tagged by Paula!!!

The rules:
1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Write 7 random things about yourself.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post.
4. Pass on the tag.

1. I am a voracious reader (or I was before I started my own business) you name an author I’ve at least picked up the book in the book store to decide if I wanted to read it or not. I’ve read classics, mysteries, sci-fi, fantasy, romance (shhhh) and well anything else. I read when I’m on a roll 100 pages an hour… I don’t know if that’s good but it means a good book goes quick.

2. I cannot stand cliques, I have this horrible fascination with cliques but I hate the thought of any group that is exclusionary that also means of course that I always want to be part of cliques and then whenever I get included I have to quit…

3. I have seen every single star trek the next generation episode (and movie) and every single xena the warrior princess episode…

4. I have to have the covers up over my ears when I sleep, it’s a long story but lets just say don’t let your 6 year old see the exorcist.. it takes years to get over that crap.

5. I think ice cream is okay but raspberries, when people talk about eating chocolate or ice cream as orgasmic, I don’t get it, but raspberries I could eat my weight in ripe, perfect raspberries.

6. The only other job other then photographer that I think would make me happy is being a private detective, Archie Goodwin is one of my favorite characters ever.

7. Our house is like the playboy mansion… not the wild large brested models and the sex (nice hits for those words lol) but because we change into our pj’s the second we get home, even my four year old says “okay lets get on our pjs” lol

hope that’s random enough

okay tagging hailey, jen, jennifer, betty, julia, tammy, susan, tonya

But that being said, I still love the Olympics.  We’ve been up as late as we can handle watching them live.  We check up on ESPN in the morning.  Watching the victories is nice, but I don’t care so much about medal counts (I personally love how Canada interviews athletes who compete and end up in 14th place, just as important as athletes that medal).  As a huge machine, maybe the Olympics has it’s flaws.

It is on a person by person – a soul by soul basis that I love the Olympics.  What is it like to work so hard for something, to push and push – and only you know if you’ve pushed and worked your best – and make it to something like the Olympics?  What is it like to say you are the fourth fastest man in the world, the strongest woman in the world, the best at the butterfly, in the top ten women who use a foil?  To set a goal and work towards that until you can go forward no longer. It is the simple act of trying for such a goal that I love, it’s hope and it’s will and it’s strength and in many ways it’s vulnerability too.  Because really,you are baring your soul for the world to see, to try for something so amazing.  So many of us would be to scared to jump into the void and see where we end up.

So philosophy and Sunday musings aside here are a few amazing images I thought were beautiful and that speak to what the Olympic ideal means to me.

so are you watching?

That’s scary for people who like rules, and order and grades :) I love grades, I’ve used grading systems in my own life for years. but that’s a comfort zone, not a faith. Interesting times ahead.. hopefully.
One of the links that has come to me half a dozen times in the last few days from a myriad of sources is a place called Ted Ideas worth spreading. It’s brilliant thinkers, clever thinkers, interesting thinkers all kinds of people talking about ideas and art and creativity and a myriad (word of the day) other things.. I thought if it’s coming at me from so many places, well maybe this is one thing I’m supposed to share.

Have you already been there, what do you think, see anything interesting, share the specific link in the comments :)

It made me think about it (well I dwell on this all the time lol but it made me focus in on it a bit more) I take pictures because I must, I always have, even when I was just taking snapshots on my grandmothers Kodak and never developing them because I couldn’t afford it. I had to photograph everything. It’s no different today now that I do it more mindfully, or my skills have developed, then it was then. I cannot do anything else.

I was asked by someone a few months ago “what camera should I buy to be a photographer” she wanted a list of things, should she get a tripod before she got a backdrop, that kind of thing. I told her, to be a photographer you just need to take pictures. To be a great photographer you have to love it, you have to study fine art and commercial art and the world around you and light, but there is no laundry list. I do this because I must, I looked for something that was right there in front of me for years and now that I’ve found it, well it’s part of me totally, it could not be taken away any more then you could take away my skin or my soul.

What spurred this long, personal blog post… We watched a movie I’d seen years ago, Pecker and I remember watching it and loving it and then I completely forgot all about it (denial I hadn’t admitted I was a photographer yet!) But now I saw it with totally different eyes (and I caught all the photographer cameos and references whoo hoo history of photography and a photography book obsession)

Anyway if you haven’t seen it it’s a very sweet John Waters movie (and if you are familiar with mr. waters you’ll know he can be rather vulgar and this one does have a few moments) about a boy called Pecker who is in love with photography and how he is “discovered” and how he handles fame and turns that fame around. What photography is really all about is seeing the beauty and art all around you and Pecker shows that perfectly.

Some great quotes from the movie at cameraquest and the preview at youtube – the preview is totally pg13 but the movie isn’t so perhaps not for the easily offended (slight nudity and sexual overtones in a couple scenes)