PHOTODORK

I’ve been thinking a lot about expectations this morning.  As a self-diagnosed perfectionist, I have a lot of experience with not living up to my own, although my first year of teaching helped train me to cut myself some slack.  But what’s been nagging at me lately lies in the realm of the expectations we have of others.  I know the subject has gotten it’s teeth pretty well into me as my thoughts were enough to roust me from my warm bed at 7:00 this morning and propel me through baking a loaf of bread and then a batch of granola bars.  Oh yeah.  I bake when troubled.  I have a sneaking suspicion that Dylan might occasionally push my buttons just to get a batch of cookies out of the deal, but I have no real proof.

Here’s the thing: what is fair to expect of someone?  Or is it even right to have expectations of someone?  So often we place these weighty requirements on the people around us that have nothing to do with who they are, but rather who we want them to be.  Families are perfect examples of this.  I think we all have these pre-conceived notions of what mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, and daughters are supposed to be like or what we want/need them to be.  We hold the people we’re actually given up to these ideals and they’ll never be a perfect fit.  Notice how I say that won’t be a perfect fit, and not that they won’t measure up?  It bothers me that we instantly take a negative view of people when they don’t meet our expectations.  So maybe your mom wasn’t a great cook (not true in my case, just an example) but she had the patience of a saint and was always willing to lend a helping hand.  Maybe we should just learn to love people for who they are and appreciate what they are willing to offer of themselves.  Which brings me to the other piece of my puzzle: why  do we have to demand so much of one another?  I am perpetually reminded of the “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” conundrum as of late.  If you’re not familiar with the children’s book it’s about a mouse that gets a cookie and then wants milk.  Once he gets milk, he wishes for something else, and then something more, and so on.  I particularly like the “If You Give a Pig a Pancake” sequel, but as always, I digress.  My point is that we are rarely satisfied with what we’re given.  Someone helps us, and we wish they’d done more.  Or gives us a gift and we find fault with it.  Why?  Isn’t it enough that they gave their time, ability, etc. in the first place?  We are all busy, with our own lives to lead and our own interests to pursue.  I don’t know.  I realize it’s an answerless query in many ways.  My stance comes from Taoism which teaches the practice of not having expectations and just taking every person, place, thing and moment for what it is.  Now, I’m not saying I am successful in my practice in this, but I strive to be.  It is not my intention here to insinuate that I am above all this and worthy of climbing up on a soapbox to preach to the rest of you.  Truly, I think I am just trying to reason and write my way through my state of irk.

So what does this have to do with photography, you might be asking?  Well, very little, but that’s the hazard of visiting a site maintained for personal reasons, now isn’t it?  You are kind of at the mercy of my moods.  Sorry about that.  Although, in a way, my current state of mind does tie in nicely to the day’s images as they exceed my expectations.  I shot out the window of the airplane as we began our descent into Colorado yesterday afternoon on a whim, really.  I didn’t think I’d get much from it, or that I’d have to edit them quite a bit for them to be presentable.  Because, really, you should have seen this window.  Clear is not the first word that comes to mind.  Not a trace of the scratchiness and smudginess that made me worry is noticeable on the final product though, and I didn’t have to do a bit of retouching in that respect.  See what I mean about approaching things with no expectations?  Ah well, thanks for indulging me and reading through to the end of the post.  I’ll endeavor to keep things a little lighter in the future.

Sitting in the air-o-port, posting.  I am pleased to say that there is free and abundant wi-fi, which is kind of the highlight of my morning.  It’s been a “Meh” final 24-hours in Albuquerque, which is fairly common for me at the end of a trip.  I think it’s a good sign that I am always happy to head home at the end of a journey; it means I am happy with my normal life, however much I sometimes wish for a more extraordinary existence.  We made one final photo-specific stop yesterday morning, the quirky Aztec Motel, which has been decorated with a variety of odds and ends.  This was another recommendation (Thanks again, Matylda!) and well worth enduring the heat while we wandered around the somewhat eccentric sculpture and wall decor.

It is always a pleasure to find unlikely combinations of color, texture and material in the same space.  It lends a great deal of visual interest to the photograph, and the stark lighting of New Mexico didn’t hurt either.  While the motel looked slightly less than habitable, it was a treasure-trove of mini still lifes just waiting to be discovered and examined more closely.  I probably could have spent another couple of hours or so fiddling around with my camera, but for oppressive heat and numerous “No Trespassing” signs posted.  We did try to get permission to photograph, but couldn’t find anyone to actually ask.

So I felt kind of shifty photographing anyhow.  If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m sort of a play-by-the-rules sort of gal.  I couldn’t see the harm in photographing though, as I had no ill intent behind my actions.  I really just wanted to explore the space, so in the end, I convinced myself that my intent was pure and therefore, perfectly justifiable.  Like I’ve said numerous times before, I’m such a dork.

Today is our last full day in the city of heat and brightness, as I have now officially dubbed it. A few items still remain on my checklist for Albuquerque, but I feel that we’ve done a reasonable job exploring the area.  We retraced our steps a bit yesterday, but we managed to find a couple of surprising candidates for photographing.  I need to revisit one today and actually get out of the car to inspect it closer, but the other received its fair share of photographic documentation on the spot.  Most of what you see here today came from a small courtyard reserved for meditation and prayer at the Presbyterian Hospital.

Now, just so y’all don’t worry, I wasn’t out in the courtyard desperately asking for someone’s immediate survival and we weren’t at the hospital for anything serious, just a doctor’s appointment for Dylan’s uncle .  In fact, I would have hesitated to bust out my camera and enter a space marked for spiritual purposes, but then I saw this guy go out there and use his cell phone, so I figured that photographing is infinitely more spiritual than cell phone use and did my thing.

And later, as I examined and edited the images from the day, I reflected on the idea of inspiration.  Sometimes it comes in the oddest forms.  I would not have expected to find reason to photograph in a hospital, but some lovely images resulted from it.  I think we are often caught up in the notions of what makes art, well, art.  It has to be beautiful, or thought-provoking, or profound.  And surely art can be all those things, but it can also be simpler than all that.  It can be about the process of creating, which I’ve found to be most significant.  Maybe it’s just about recognizing the moments that inspire us and capturing them.  I realize I’ve gotten a little too deep for Saturday morning, so I’ll leave it at that and let you take from it what you will.

I have limited access to the internet at the moment.  Both time and setup-wise, which I suppose is to be expected when you’re on semi-vacation.  At least there is internet at the hotel we’re occupying for the week, it’s just that we’re rarely  in our room.  So, when I didn’t have time to get my post done first thing this morning as usual, the chances of getting the post done at all today narrowed considerably.  But, ta da!  We’ve taken a moment’s refuge from the heat, and here it is.

Yesterday was my kind of day, which means it was low-key and full to the brim of art-nerdiness.  We started the day with a trip to Satellite Coffee to try out the recommendation of an old high school friend (thanks Matylda!).  I had the Mexican Latte and it was just as tasty as promised.  I’ve already had a second one, if I’m being honest.  Then it was onto the Albuquerque Museum of Art.  We’d noticed in our first day of exploration that there was an Impressionist Exhibit currently on display and couldn’t resist.  Surprisingly though, that wasn’t the real draw of the museum, at least for me.  After we’d looked about in the main exhibit we perused the rest of the museum and found a really solid collection of contemporary art and a truly inspiring exhibit of high school photography.  And I only know it was high school work because of the information that accompanied the exhibit.  The images were, well, freaking incredible for lack of a better description.  Both traditional and digital photography was represented and I was floored by the quality, creativity, and quantity of the work present.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around Old Town Albuquerque, which besides the inevitable tourist-trap stores, has a fair number of galleries and interesting little shops.  We found a cafe with some shade to eat lunch in, picked up a few pieces of art, and had some nice chats with gallery-owners.  Plus, plenty of opportunities to shoot presented themselves, and I’m proud to say I took each one.  Previous to rebooting Photodork with the “Photo of the Day” project, I almost never took pictures on vacation.  I’d always get real excited about all the time I was going to have to photograph on the trip and then cop-out when we arrived on the scene.  My excuse was perpetually that photography is what I do for a living and I deserved the break.  Such a difference lies in the photos I take when I’m hired (generally wedding photos and senior portraits) and the work I think of as my own.  Thinking back on in now, it was a lazy excuse and one that I am glad to have eschewed in recent weeks.

Dang, people, it is hot here.  The thing is, yesterday was one of discovery, but that is kind of the thing that sticks out most in my mind right now.  At one point the little thermometer in the car registered 97 degrees, and I almost cried.  Well, not really, but I wouldn’t say the knowledge that we were three degrees away from hitting the triple-digits put a big, glad smile on my face.  Especially since we forgot to pack sunscreen and were still about an hour from purchasing some.  It was also a busy sort of day: lots of errands and such, so I didn’t get to the whole picture-taking thing until a bit later in the day and even then, I was just squeezing shots in here and there.  Not really a bad method, I’m just used to shooting for chunks of time.  Or maybe it’s that I’m supposed to take a quick shot and be on my way and the next thing I know I’ve wandered two blocks off course and it’s been twenty minutes.  It’s always good to have a shooting buddy, ladies and gentleman.  Preferably someone with a watch and a fair amount of patience (and yes, Dylan, I’m thinking of you as I write this).

I poked around in this really cool store yesterday (not on the errands list mind you, but we’re sort of on vacation) and eventually asked if I could photograph their candle display.  It took up most of a wall and I couldn’t resist the varying colors, sizes, and shapes.  It was like a coincidental still life.  Plus, it was airconditioned in there, and I might have been trying to delay the time until we stepped back outside and started melting.  The very gracious sales lady granted me permission to shoot in the shop and the rest is history.

Alright, so those of you who read my post yesterday might be remembering that I “skulked around” outside some residence to photograph their cat in the window.  If you’re assuming I didn’t ask permission to do that, you’d be absolutely correct.  So why did I ask to photograph in the store?  Well, that’s a sticky wicket and one that generally applies only in photography.  I mean, sure, if you want to set up your easel and paint in a store you probably need to ask permission too, but as cameras are the most portable art form the whole permission issue comes up a lot more frequently.  Here are my guidelines: if I’m just taking a quick shot of a fairly public area like a neighborhood, even a house, I just do it.  Now, if I was going to set up a view camera and tripod across the street from someone’s home and take about thirty minutes photographing it (can you tell this actually happened?) then that’s a different story.  In that case, I’d ring the bell, explain who I am and what I’m doing and ask very nicely if I could photograph.  I might even offer to send them copies of the prints…because they live there and it is a bit intrusive.

Businesses are a whole other ball of wax though.  Corporate-owned stores are a huge pain.  If you, trying to be a responsible citizen, call ahead and ask permission to shoot in their store (even if you use the word photograph, so they don’t just assume things when you say “shoot”) they will be paralyzed with regulations and fear that you are actually doing some undercover news story on them.  They’ll most likely say that they have to call an uppity up and then never get back to you.  So, in those kinds of stores, I just do it.  Most often, they’ll never even know that you did.  And if you really are just using the images personally or for altruistic art reasons, I don’t see the harm.  Flip side of the coin: you’re in a small business with just one sales person.  Ask nicely if you can photograph and they’ll usually agree.  Plus, if it’s a small store, they’ll probably catch you and that just sounds like a hassle (notice how I’m not sure if it is?  That’s because I follow my rule and have never had a tussle).  Well, there you have it…the complicated rules of shooting in public.  Makes you want to never photograph outside your own home, doesn’t it?  If this seems like too much rule and regulation, then just keep this more general guideline in mind: if you feel uncomfortable doing what you’re doing, it’s best to ask permission or abstain.  Happy shooting!

I feel like a special correspondent.  Of course, you guys have no idea where I post from, so it really makes no difference that I’m in a whole different state, but it feels like I’ve pretty much hit the big-time right now as I post from a hotel in New Mexico.  I really am a huge dork.  I’m not sure the “photo” part of this blog name is necessary.  We could rename it “Sarah the Big Dork”  and it would still be an apt title.  But, I’m rambling.  I’m sure you’d rather hear all about my road trip here, right?  Well, it involved eight or so hours in the car, which is as long as it sounds.  I took no pictures, because I really hate it when people shoot through glass and as I didn’t especially feel like riding with the window rolled down, I just appreciated the scenery sans camera.  And there was nice scenery; I don’t think the sky could have been bluer.  Oh alright, and I’ll confess that I am heartily sick of landscape photography at the moment, so that might have also been why I didn’t take any photos.  There.  I said it.  I guess I do feel better with that off my chest.

So the photographic part of this journey began approximately two minutes after we’d set our stuff down in the hotel room. I took a shining to the layout, colors, and architecture of the buildings I could see from the front porch and started there. But those aren’t the shots I chose for the Photo of the Day. Nope. As always, I spied a little creature and couldn’t help but photograph that. I even skulked about outside some poor, unsuspecting New Mexican’s home to photograph their cat that was perched so charmingly in the window. I know, do I have no shame?

It looks like there are plenty of things to keep my camera busy here for the next few days.  I love the colors and architecture that I’ve found here and am excited to point a well-rested eye at them today.  This is the part where I’d get to say my custom sign-off line if I actually was a special correspondent, but since I’m not, I’ll just stick with: see you tomorrow!  And I hope I do.

I’m cheating.  Not on anything particularly important, mind you, like my taxes, husband, or college entrance exams.  No, nothing like that.  I cheat on my diet all the time…to the point where it’s like I’m not even really on a diet.  But that’s not what I’m talking about either, I just digress.  I’m cheating by writing my blog post early. See, we’re leaving on our road trip reasonably early and I don’t want to get up even earlier to post before we leave.  It’s about an eight hour drive, so if I waited until we got there (because, oh yes, the camera and laptop will be coming along) then it would be late enough that I’d probably just forego posting all together.  Therefore, I’m cheating by writing this the night before and scheduling it to magically appear on my site at 8:00 Tuesday.  Handy, sneaky little feature there, WordPress.  I say well played to you.

Today’s images come from Saturday afternoon when the rainfall still seemed novel and refreshing.  Although, to be honest, I never really tired of the weather even when we embarked on day three of constant rain.  In fact, I actually grew impressed with its perseverance.  It just kept coming.  By early Saturday morning though, the banks of the Poudre River had become swollen and flooded.  All of the shots were taken from the passenger side of the car.  I know, I know, that’s super lazy of me.  But wait, I have an excuse: I didn’t want the camera to get wet, now did I?  I had to stay in the safety of the car to protect the camera.  At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Whenever I drive somewhere special just to photograph, I always feel like a bit of a fraud.  Don’t ask me why, I did it plenty of times in college.  But somewhere along the way, I began thinking that to be authentic, the photograph had to be taken in the course of everyday life.  You only photographed a new setting if you happened to find yourself in one.  That’s really a pretty lame mindset though.  Some of my favorite photographers, like Robert Parke-Harrison or Aaron Rose, go to some impressive lengths to create the photographs that comprise their work.  And I show it to my students and tell them that it’s okay to care about your work that much.  It’s okay to go to great measures and invest time and energy in something you care about.  You can craft entire miniature worlds and photograph them if you feel you need to.  I forget that lesson sometimes, I guess.  And when I remember, like now, that fifteen minutes we went out of our way to take today’s images seems like a minor detail.

Man, posting everyday is tough.  And the funny part is, it isn’t coming up with the photographs that is proving difficult, which was my original hesitancy at beginning this project.  Sometimes, I don’t have a lot to say.  Or the stuff I have to say would feel weird next to the pictures I’m posting, or weird next to anything really.  As you might have guessed, today is such a day.   I am feeling a little pressed for time as well.  We leave for Albuquerque tomorrow morning, and of course, I’ve got the last minute scramble going on: laundry, packing, errands, etc.  Today is the last of my Horsetooth Reservoir images, so I think I’ll just leave it at that.

I know, I know…I can’t help it.  If there’s something that looks remotely fuzzy or feathery in my general vicinity, it’s like my camera locks on it and I just can’t not take the picture.  So I present you with today’s cuddly creature: a little bunny that was hanging out near our car in the parking lot of the marina.

It has been raining for the better part of two days.  I believe it started on Friday night and hasn’t stopped yet.  Of course, the amount of rain has varied.  At times it’s been a light sprinkle and at others the type of downpour that makes you dash through it to avoid getting soaked on your way to cover.  Personally, I like this sort of weather; it makes me feel cozy and grateful for the shelter of my home and an adventure to go outside.  And it keeps my flowers watered for me, which is always a bonus.

It seems, however, that water will be the theme here on Photodork for the next few days.  I have a couple more installments of the afternoon on Horsetooth Reservoir to share and yesterday I photographed the overflowing banks of the Poudre River.  Anything I might even consider snapping a shot of in the next 24 hours will probably be soaked unless its indoors.

No matter what though, they’ll be a change of weather and scenery on Tuesday as Dylan and I embark on a road trip to Albuquerque with his mom that morning. We’ll be there for the rest of the week and I am excited for the prospect of new things to aim my camera at.  If you’re familiar with the area and have suggestions of places to see, I’d love to hear them.

You can expect the next few days to be filled with my Horsetooth images.  I took 142 pictures, people!  I can’t just squeeze that into one post!  So, I’ve been dividing the images into 36 exposure segments and picking the photo of the day from a different segment each day.  And, if you’re super nerdy like me, you realize that 36 segments is not just a arbitrary number but rather the number of exposures on a large roll of film.  I know, I amaze myself with my dorkiness sometimes, too.

One of the unforeseen benefits of this blog is an increased number of photo-related discussions with people who are checking out the site.  Sure, during the school year I talk photography for about 3 hours a day.  These conversations aren’t always quality though.  In fact, I’d wager that 50% of the time the word “photo” passes my lips it’s in this sentence: “You’re missing the following (insert a number between 3-8 here) photo assignments”.  Or this one: “Your grade in Photo is a(n) ____”.  Don’t get me wrong, I like my job and I don’t mind the more mundane part of it like keeping a grade book and such.  It’s just that I prefer the conversations I get to have about the medium itself.

I bring all this up as a very round about way to my discussion yesterday with Dylan’s mom, Jamie.  She asked me a question about megapixels (as in, what’s the difference between a 2.o megapixel and a camera with more, really?).  And I am sorry to confess, nice readers, that megapixels are one of those technical aspects of photography that make my eyes glaze over and my brain turn lazy circles wondering why I just can’t get myself to care about this.  Luckily, to a certain point, megapixels aren’t the be all and end all of digital photography.  If you’re looking at two cameras (don’t you wish the plural of camera was cameri?  I do, but that’s a little off point, isn’t it?  Sorry.)  with a small difference between the amount of megapixels each offers, I wouldn’t get my feathers too ruffled.  What I’ve been told, and what I believe, is that what really effects the quality of the image is the glass in the lens.  The better the glass quality, the better the image clarity, etc.  So, if you’re in the market for a digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) then focus more on the lens you’re purchasing and not the megapixel count.  If you’re considering buying a point-and-shoot though, you might pay a little more attention to the megapixel count, but certainly don’t lose your head over it.  Once you get beyond a certain number, like 10, it really is a moot point.  And don’t worry, if your eyes glazed over while you read this, I completely understand.