The day didn’t start well, and I’m determined to keep it from ending as dismally as it began. I started a tradition last August on the first anniversary of having my left toe amputated. On August 17, 2002 I worked on a painting – a big footprint of my left foot, minus the big toe. All day I’ve been struggling with what to paint next. But then I came to a realization that instantly told me what I should do; art comes in many mediums. Photography counts. 🙂
I set up a little miniature studio in my room using a spare throw blanket I had and a box on which to set my camera. Forty-five minutes and twenty photographs later, I had a series of eight pictures that really suited what I was after. I’ve edited the colors a bit, cropped them (it wasn’t a perfect studio, after all…), and hastily created a web-gallery for them. The poem, which you’ll see in the gallery, was graciously (and post-humously) courtesy of John Keats. All photography is, of course, my own. Don’t steal it, or I’ll be forced to kill you with my Swiss Army Faux-Toe.
Also, a warning. This will contain photographs of my left foot (obviously), which I know still makes some people uncomfortable. If you don’t feel comfortable seeing it, that’s fine by me, I understand. But if you’re okay with it, you can see my traditional Two Year Anniversay Toe Art by clicking here. Another warning, the photos may take a few extra seconds to load – I didn’t want to compress them too much or they’d look far too grainy. That would be bad, since I was oh so careful to stand perfectly still to avoid just that problem. And finally, please, please, please let me know what you think after you see it by signing my guestbook.
Speaking of photography; remember how a few months ago I spent every Sunday volunteering to take care of 13 three-year-old kids? Well, the other woman who volunteered with me recently got relieved of the job. Little did I know that she had served in that position for over 8 years, spending every single Sunday with children three years of age and younger. The whole church congregation decided to honor her for all of her work, because she has done such an amazing act of service, and it’s so apparent that the children adore her.
Back on a particular Sunday in February, I took my camera and spent two hours taking photographs of the children as they played. One of the children is actually my teaching partner’s grandson. I got some truly spectacular photographs that I had intended to give to the childrens’ parents for Mother’s Day. But, wouldn’t you know it, I forgot all about it when Mother’s Day rolled around. But then my Mother – who volunteers to organize all of the children’s activities for the church – suggested that we use them to create a photo album for my teaching partner. I loved the idea, so I burned the digital photographs onto a CD, took them to Sam’s Club, and had them all printed out. They all went into a beautiful little photo album, next to statements my mother collected from all of the kids about why they love their teacher, and how much they’ll miss her. These particular three-year-olds were important – she had taken care of all of them each Sunday since those kids were only 6 months old.
Unfortunately I was too sick to go to church today, so I wasn’t there when my Mom gave the photo album to my teaching partner. But apparently, I accomplished what I set out to do: she cried because she was just so touched. She was especially happy when she saw the last photograph in the book – it’s a beautiful photo that I still can’t believe I happened to get at just the right moment. Sunlight was pouring into the room, right onto her face, as her young grandson put his hands on her face and smiled at her. It was perfectly framed in the shot, the lighting couldn’t have been better, I didn’t have to touch that photo at all. She loved it. All of the kids’ parents were there as well, and my Mom said they just kept going on about how cute all of the pictures are. I’m going to ask a few parents in particular if I can use their child’s photo in my portfolio because I’m just so pleased with them. I absolutely love that style of photography, the really candid photographs – especially of children and families – when you’re just hanging around in the background while the subject does their thing. Then, with children especially, every now and then you just call them by name, and take their picture just as they look up at you. It worked out so well. That’s exactly what I want to do for my wedding, pay about five photographers to hide in the shadows and take a million and one candid photographs. I don’t like staged things.
Actually, when I picked my prints up from Sam’s Club, there was a gorgeous Hispanic woman standing next to me at the counter. She saw my pictures, asked if she could see them, and spent twenty minutes going through all of them, telling me how much she loved them. She told me about how her husband is a professional photographer, and she kept asking if I had taken any courses. She completely agreed with me about staged photos, and she put it so perfectly, “Off-center is best, candid is better – otherwise, it looks like it’s from Sears.” There were other prints in that set apart just the pictures of the kids – I had taken photographs at the Washington National Cathedral last Sunday when I took my visiting friend there to see it. He sat down in the gardens and wrote in his journal for about fifteen minutes, so to occupy myself I chased gigantic bumblebees around the flowers. I took nearly 60 photographs of one particular bumble bee, setting my camera to continuous mode to try and catch some close-up shots that were okay. I ended up with a few photographs so clear you can see every little detail in the bee’s wings, and in one picture you can even see the fur on his back, and the side of his mouth. It’s phenomenal, I’m so pleased with my camera. My Mom laughed when she saw the prints and said, “Well, obviously you aren’t afraid of bees.” Honestly, I hadn’t even thought about it, I was just thinking about how cool the pictures could be.
Of course, the downside to that is I have about a million and one pictures of the same set of flowers, with a bee hiding somewhere inside a clump of them. Oh well. 🙂
I’d love to be able to make a living out of chasing bees around flower gardens, experimenting with focus surrounded by beautiful carvings, perfecting angles and anti-centering to avoid the tacky Sears-Look, and continuing my work with candid childrens photography (that’s my nephew Max – Kevin posts so many pictures, I doubt he’ll mind me posting this one online).
Sadly, I think photography will just have to continue being a hobby. I still can’t fathom spending so much money on a really professional camera, and besides, that’s not how I enjoy photography. I hate fiddling with lenses, focus, shutter-speeds, all of that technical stuff, every single time I feel the urge to take a picture. So help me, I like point-and-shoots. Mind, I mean really nice, high-quality point-and-shoots, but still. I like to be able to go trigger-happy when I feel like it. Some photos work, some photos don’t. But more often than not I have been able to produce some pretty amazing photographs for only using a 4.0MegaPixel Minolta F100 Digital Camera. I still appreciate having some spiffy features at my disposal, such as white balance adjustments, but I like to be able to ignore their existence and just let the camera take care of it for me if I’m just in it for the fun of pushing the button and hearing that fake digital shutter noise. Sometimes just the thrill of taking photographs is enough. Of course, I still wouldn’t say no if someone wanted to buy me one of those nice UberMegaPixel cameras… 😀