photography

When it comes to my photography, I don’t put myself out there too much.

I know, I know…you’re saying…wtf? She has a photoblog, posts on flickr, writes for VFXY Photos, and she doesn’t put herself out there much? Hah!

Seriously, though, I don’t put myself out there in a way that will call for *too* much rejection. I guess I’m afraid of that rejection, of not being deemed good enough to participate with the rest of the photoblogging / amateur photographer community. I’m a chicken.

But in the interest of trying new things, I have submitted a portfolio to the Fine Art Photoblog call for submissions. If I were accepted into one of the two open positions (which is a long shot, considering there are 30+ very fine photographers who have submitted their works), I would then be one of 8 photographers who post regularly on that site. It would be a great honor and a huge responsibility (just look at the requirements).

I wasn’t going to submit. Afterall, I’m moving in a month (ack, a month!), and I’m starting a whole new life. I was worried about not having enough time. The thing is, though, that I do photography for the love of it, and I make the time. Also, so many people have told me that I have to have an outlet during my doctoral progress. I need to have something that can allow me to get away from the research, reading, and thinking, thinking, thinking. Photography is something I absolutely love to do, and it is the perfect outlet for me.

Plus, I’m excited to share photographs from my new home…to see a new part of the country in a whole new way. And if I get to share that with others, in a broader forum, all the better.

Photographer Jim Goldstein set up a project where online photographers would blog their top ten photographs for 2007. While Jim actually blogged sixteen of his top 2007 photographs (he had six honorable mentions), I will post my top 10. Fortunately, it wasn’t too hard to come up with a list because I put photographs into a set at Flickr for my yearly favorites. The hard part was choosing only ten of those photographs.

I’ll tell you why it’s a top of 2007 and give you the quote that ran with the photograph (so the titles make sense). Each photograph is linked to the larger size on my photoblog, so click on the photograph itself to see it larger.

#10 shine
mission bay, san diego, california
This photograph is one of those that didn’t get a lot of attention but I loved it. I loved it because it showed how large the ocean is and how tiny we are when on it. That one little boat moving toward the lit part of the ocean was so powerful to me.

“People press toward the light not in order to see better but in order to shine better.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

#9 wild
phoenix, arizona

This amazing sculpture was at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. We walked in and out of them, looking through the windows and doors, and hiding from one another. It is very cool to see in person. It was like being inside of a giant tumbleweed — minus the prickly parts. :-) However, what I really loved was the sky and the sculpture together. They seemed to be made for one another that day.

“Art is not tame, and Nature is not wild, in the ordinary sense. A perfect work of man’s art would also be wild or natural in a good sense.”
Henry David Thoreau

Learn more about this piece of art.

#8 colourless world
flagstaff, arizona
I love this shot for its simplicity. It was a weed against the snow but the shadows and the nubs on the weed really impressed me. It felt like a visual haiku to me.

I liked it so much that I used it as an image for some of my holiday cards.

“I love the winter: the colourless world, the keen cry of a winter bird in dry air, a sharp branch against the whiteness, the almost frozen water.”
Sakuo Nakamura

 

#7 amid
mission bay, san diego, california

This is a shot of my niece, Willow, running up from the ocean so it holds a great personal meaning for me. It’s showing people (or their silhouettes) doing what people do at beaches: playing in the water, carrying a boogie board, etc.

“I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand”
Edgar Allan Poe

#6 timely inn
valle, arizona
Shot during a spur-of-the-moment trip on the way toward the Grand Canyon that Willow and I took one day after school. This shot is one that I really like because of its diagonal flow.

It was taken at a small roadside curio shop as Willow and I walked around in the chilly wind, trying to get angles on a bunch of different things. I kept looking at these teepees thinking they could be a cool shot if I could get the right angle (there were buildings and other things in the way). The post-processing made it the shot I wanted.

“The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day.
Now spurs the lated traveller apace
To gain the timely inn.”
William Shakespeare

#5 beautiful
pitt county, north carolina

I did a lot of traveling this year (mostly to visit campuses to check out doctoral programs) and during my trip to North Carolina I met up with Don Hazelwood (of beebo wallace fame on Flickr). He took me to visit the famous Edsel and this is what came out of that outing.

It was such a blast to hang out with another Flickr person (and so not typical of me).

“…cars are not beautiful.”
Karl Lagerfeld

#4 freedom
boston, massachusetts
One of the reasons I don’t like street photography is that I hate the feeling that I may be intruding on someone’s personal space. I stood in this spot for at least a minute thinking about this shot and if I should even do it. She paid no attention to me and because of that, I felt free to do it.

She touched my heart because she was so intent in reading her magazine. I was struck by her sense of freedom from all that went on around her. She was going to enjoy a lovely afternoon in the sun and not let anything stop her from doing so. I hope I always have that kind of freedom, too.

“Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.”
Bertrand Russell

#3 advance-guard
oak island, new york

The fog on Long Island was amazing that morning. I took my cousin’s car and drove down to Jones’ Beach. It was the middle of summer and there was hardly any traffic or any people. I stopped off in this parking lot, that would normally cost me $20 to park in, and looked out over the grasslands. The bird just sat there ignoring me.

The fog, the grass, the bird, the pier, the reflection and the very calm green water all worked out to create something wonderful. It was too perfect not to photograph.

“We are the pioneers of the world; the advance-guard, sent on through the wilderness of untried things, to break a new path in the New World that is ours.”
Herman Melville

#2 speak
monument valley, arizona
I told my brother that he was on my good list since he made it possible for us to go through Monument Valley at sunset. Perfect timing.

“It shall be said that gods are stone.
Shall a dropped stone drum on the ground,
Flung gravel chime? Let the stones speak
With tongues that talk all tongues.”
Dylan Thomas

#1 in the rain
highway 260, arizona

This is my top choice for so many different reasons. First, of course, it’s my boy, Dakota. Second, it’s a tribute to him, his presence in my life, his life, and my love for him, and the loss I feel at not having him around anymore. Third, I love this photograph. I think it’s beautiful and oh-so-Dakota. It was our last major roadtrip together and such a wonderful day. We drove for about 8 hours that day, while I got out and took photographs, and he pressed his face to the glass. I loved that dog. He was a good friend.

“A face at the window,
A tap on the pane;
Who is it that wants me
To-night in the rain?”
Richard Henry Stoddard