I took this one of carbonated water and food coloring I like the outcome

(2010)

"There are no rules to good photographs, there are only good photographs" Ansel Adams

If they say that the camera can photograph thought then someone should always have SOMETHING to say about a good photograph. I would rather hear someone say a photo of mine makes them feel something negative then that it makes them feel nothing at all. Having said this I would also like to say I feel like an art or photography class should be a requirement in any educational program, because it  can open your eyes to SEEING a world rather than just looking at it. Most of the time you cannot see beauty until someone shows it to you or you take the time to seek it out for yourself. Take a look around you right now without even stepping away from you computer, can you see it? Take a look again until you find it, look for something in a new way. Some of the best photos that are taken are the ones taken at the edges of a situation. T


To me some of the most interesting photos are of the things we all to often forget to look at in our daily lives. Take the time to see what is really around you. You will be amazed at how life will change, you will be amazed at how your art will evolve. Once you have captured something you love and are satisfied with your efforts smile because you are taking the first steps to becoming an artist, BUT never be fully satisfied with the final product because once you do have have stopped learning to grow. You will find that some of your best artwork out there has not even been produced yet. You have got to start looking for the photos nobody has taken you have to take your tools and go even deeper! Well all have access to subjects nobody else does, seek the things around you right now wherever you are at the time. Look into a photograph and see if you can find it's soul, photograph the moment before it has the chance to run away forever. 

Bring Your Camera With You!

often times I feel like a camera nerd when I take my camera and equipment with me everywhere I go. Sometimes people stare at me like "why does she take that bag full of gear with her everywhere?" I realized a while ago that I really don't care anymore if people give me weird looks. I got this photo walking down the ally on my way to the farmers market this summer, and I have sold copies of it as well.

One Perk About Winter

Well other then the fact that winter here is freezing cold, it is nice to photograph sometimes.

In Need of a Road Trip

I cannot wait until the weather gets better, once spring knocks on my door I am off!

Canon Beach Oregon (2010)

So excited for my oregon/california coast trip this summer maybe I can get some photos that are even better than last years...

To An Old Friend

I do not usually write things so long but this is something I needed...

I look upon memories of a lady, a writer who lives in Seattle

who falls asleep no earlier than twelve am and rises no later than seven am. She drinks countless cups of black coffee throughout the day while she listens to Jim Croce and Don Mclean. She has fingernails polished to a deep crimson gloss that punch away at an old typewriter, because she hardly knows the definition of a computer. She has stacks of old books piled on her desk and enough dust covered  trinkets to fill six doll houses. I cannot help but remember her for all these things she once was when I was a lot younger and she did not seem as old. Her outbursts of laughter, her hilarious childhood stories, and her rather loud singing that was never on key. I remember when we used to drink shirley temples together at a smokey grey café downtown,  and often she would bring me strange things like mexican jumping beans from the Old Curiosity Shop on the waterfront . To this very day, I still have a little idea of what exactly these strange jumping beans are, it really is a curiosity.

The past few years she is in something of a rut . As I am not around as often to come visit she has found herself a "little someone" to hang out with. An old cat that is not much of a mouser, has an aversion to being pet and is not very amused at the idea of other living things. Daily her and "That Cat" (as she calls it) sit in her cluttered living room watching the same old news broadcasters boast about  events of horror in todays society. She will talk to That Cat about how mortified she is to hear of such tales. At this point in time That Cat will stare at her like it has no idea what she is talking about. She will pet it's matted white-ish fur and grin at it bit. That Cat will sneer at her showing the gaps where it's teeth once were, and meow the most pitiful meow you have ever heard. 

I feel like right now, at this point in life I find her face hard to describe and it feels very strange to make an attempt at even speaking of her past history or her current health status. All I know is that somehow she is here, I am here, and that means her and I are here together in this place we call life, together living, breathing, and pondering. I don't know how it came to be that we ended up so far apart and at such a loss for words to speak between each other. I must say it is impossible to completely understand how her disease has taken our lives.  Once the cancer is born it slowly begins to take a person over inch by inch. Like an oil spill in a deep ocean it's thick black sludge creeping up on you and spreading itself over your entire body before making it's way into your mind and spirit until it  finally seeps into the lives of loved ones around you. 

Sometimes, I  can feel her deep mossy  eyes smirk at me while she tells me how she feels like there's nobody left for her "I have nobody, but that damn cat" She tells me. Now when I  speak to her it as if I am not speaking to her, but as if I am speaking directly to her disease. I cannot help but want to weep at the poor decision she has made, and I cannot help but want to scream every time I utter the word ill. Although, oddly enough at some point along this path a spark of insight  splashed itself upon my face. I realized that I learned something priceless, that life is nothing but a temporary gift that can be taken away at any moment. That we simply do not know when death will strike upon us and lead us to a place unknown. So why can something so simple, so realistic, so natural knock us entirely off our feet when it has not even happened yet?    

The Peach

Walking down the street, munching on a peach.
That day,
I plucked it from a tree, and put in a brown paper bag.
Sweet nectar;
Trickled down from my lips into my heart.