a little work pride...

I'm like a proud mama today cause my Husky Football postcard came in the mail! I'm super jazzed about it cause I've wanted to shoot images like this for a campaign for a long time. Who knew football apparel could look and feel so soulful? Booyah!

Mr. Sarsgaard

Today I watched this great little interview New York Times Style Magazine Online did with Peter Sarsgaard. And besides being completely delightful, it reminded me of the conversations that I love having. Conversations that jump and dance around every part of life - seemingly meaningless, but ultimately profound. Something he said that jumped out at me...

"I'm interested in redemption. I'm interested in people
who change...that's important to me."

Oh, to be able to hear the whole interview! Dig a little deeper! Ask him some more questions...

eureka!

The best part about unpacking after a big move is discovering things you thought you had lost forever. Almost a year ago, I realized that my little digital camera (the one I take everywhere and use for ideas and inspiration) wasn't charging anymore. Blasted cheap camera! Procrastination lead to more procrastination, but when I finally managed to special order the battery and pick it up, I had lost the camera itself! Sadness swept over me and I couldn't help but think about it every time I was around town with something amazing right in front of me and not able to capture it.

When packing up to move to my new house, I found it - in the most embarrassingly obvious place, of course - and was excited to pop the new battery in and start shooting again. But nothing happened. Bagh! Again, sadness swept over me. Thankfully my papa is smarter than me, otherwise I never would have been reminded to.....charge the battery! Charged and ready I couldn't help but capture my excitement (see below).

The photos above are only a selection of the goods that were Rip Van Winking on my camera over the last year - you can find more of them here.

"Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making
something out of it after it is found."
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819 - 1891)

on nature

"Then one day I was walking along Tinker Creek thinking of nothing at all and I saw the tree with the lights in it. I saw a backyard cedar where the mourning doves roost charged and transfigured, each cell buzzing with flame. I stood on the grass with the lights in it, grass that was wholly fire, utterly focused and utterly dreamed. It was less like seeing than like being for the first time seen, knocked breathless by a powerful glance. The flood of fire abated, but I'm still spending the power. Gradually the lights went out in the cedar, the colors died, the cells unflamed and disappeared. I was still ringing. I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck."
ANNIE DILLARD, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek from Seeing

I love reading Annie Dillard more than I can say.
Her words are thoughtful and deep and at times literally take my breath away. Since the first time I read Dillard - during my time in living in Brooklyn - the outside world has been a much more vibrant place. I have always been a person that is very aware of what is going on around me, always looking, seeking, analyzing, but Dillard challenged me to look even closer - to get down on my hands and knees, lay on the ground if I have to. Nature has definitely always been a place where God woos and surprises me, but Dillard gave words to those experiences that so captured what I could previously not express. Camping this weekend reminded me that I still need to finish Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Like anything overwhelming and good, I have had to take this book in stages. Letting it sink in slowly - savor every word.

Today, I stumbled upon brooklyn band, The Secret Life of Sophia's song Outside. It's beautiful and haunting and seems the perfect background to a little quality time with Ms.Dillard.

{Download a copy here}

it's not you | it's me

He's been with me - by my side - since I was in highschool. We met. We fell in love. He surprised me day after day and lead me to one of my passions. But recently he's kind of been letting me down. I try again and again - thinking, maybe this time will be different. But no. It might never be the same again. We might......(sigh)....have to break up soon.

I am speaking of my Sears "Practically a Pentax" SLR camera. It was originally my dad's, who let me "borrow" it for my first photography class in highschool. I remember going to my first class thinking, "What if this becomes something I fall in love with?" And I did and since then I have claimed the camera as my own. It followed me to college, shot all of my work, and even my senior exhibition. All this time people were telling me to switch over to digital, but like the cell phone craze, I told myself I would try to hold out as long as possible - Sears would carry me through.

But the last four rolls have been terrible. Nothing is crisp, it's blurry and unfocused in weird places, terrible colors. Sometimes there are double. I have a feeling light is creeping in from somewhere. These photos are probably the best of the bunch, cause they have a great polaroid-sixties-blurry quality to them. Don't worry, I'll keep Sears, he'll always have a place in my heart, but it might be time to say hello to....Nikon.

{I do love this photo of my brother - I will miss him when he's gone out to sea. Adventures await him! And a recent great purchase - Tab and a 25 cent piece of fancy italian cheese from Metro Market. Probably one of the funnest times I've ever had with the Sailor at the grocery store. Again - deep deep belly laughs. Who knew the grocery store could be so fun!?!}