Day 28 – What is ON Your Refrigerator?

Cubed or crushed?

Oh my goodness!  I am having so much fun with these daily themes I have dreamed up!  Each day, I get the pleasure of looking at dozens of fabulous and fun photos posted by everyone else doing the assignment with me, and they are sometimes poignant, sometimes far out of the box, sometimes achingly beautiful and sometimes just plain fun – I am amazed at how so many people can see and think of the same thing in so many different ways.  And it is so exciting to watch some of them as their eyes open to the world around them, as they realize that there are so many ways to SEE, as they strive to push their own creativity buttons.

And now, I get to look at how everyone sees his or her respective fridge!  Ta ta for now!

Advertisement

The Serious Photographer

Walking away from a dream is sobering but freeing in the end…

I will never be a Serious Photographer.  I reconciled myself to that fact irrevocably and completely last night as I lay waiting for sleep to come.  I will never have the talent, nor will I have the equipment. I am a Serious Mother with hobby.

I know more than a couple of Serious Photographers:  Jared, Jodi, Jennifer to name just a few.  They have pure raw talent and let’s face it, the equipment to back it up.  And I know one photographer in particular, whom I shall not name (but is not Karen) who markets herself constantly with a weekend special here, a senior mini there, two shot special in between.  She does not have the raw talent to back it up, but she is working to find her place.

Perhaps one day, I will find my way to a great lighting set-up, a Nikon, a lens or two extra and even a remote release, but it seems an impossible dream and irresponsible to even think about..  And let’s face it, I will just never be able to crassly market myself.  So, I will never be a Serious Photographer.  But that is fine because I am a Serious Mother and I have a place with God.  And that is more than enough.

How remiss of me!

Strangely enough, when I tried to find something “blank” to photograph, my mind started to whirl with possibilities. Then a feast presented itself to my eyes.

I received a reminder tonight of what a lazy, neglectful blogger I have become.  Oh, I have the more than occasional flights of fancy and pure inspiration that I have sincere, deeply sincere, intentions of posting, but they just skip merrily down that path to Hell where most MOSTLY good intentions go.  So now I sit here with my mind completely blank.  “You must be brain-dead!  How can a mind be truly and completely blank,” you say, but alas, my mind really is blank in between the words that my fingers are struggling to type.

Let me tell you how blank I am tonight:  As I have been sitting here struggling to think of something, ANYTHING, to write, at one point I asked my lovely son to let the dog in from outside.  Keep in mind that the dog is very loud on our wood floors, click clacking and sliding around, my son is very loud, elephant stepping across the floor, the doggy gate does not shut quietly in my son’s hands and the doggy biscuit does not clatter ever so quietly across the floor.  I stared quite intently at the air, thinking of nothing at all and when I roused myself from my reverie, I asked my lovely son if he had, in fact, let the dog in.  He pointed at her, sitting quite nicely on her princess pillow, doggy treat all but gone.  Blank.

Thinking really shouldn’t be this hard…..

And once more, an utter blank when presented with all of the wondrous possibilities of a ‘caption box.’ It turns out that seeing is far easier than actually thinking. Who knew?

And she picked up the camera….

… and shot a few frames.

I have to tell you the truth:  it has been extremely hard to pick up the camera.  Oh, I have been dragging it around with me; it’s just that I leave it in the camera bag, neglected, alone, sad, dusty. It really isn’t that I loath taking photos right now, it is more that I am so wiped out after a day at the library that I can’t summon the creativity to come up with a decent shot

. 

Wiped out after a day at the library, you say with an incredulous voice?  Yes, wiped out.  For the past month, I have had at least 4 graphics projects going at once, constantly and daily, because this co-worker needs this and that co-worker needs that while the director needs something else entirely RIGHT NOW.  And in the middle of it all, I am trying to get book orders done, doing everything a circulation supervisor does (customer service, overdue reports, letters, calls, collections agency referrals, database edits etc..), trying to keep the library blogs and Facebook pages current, replacing and repairing worn books, sorting all book donations, and writing and assembling books for the Photoshop and Gimp classes that I am teaching in one month, while everyone stops by my office to talk, talk, talk – and I have 6.5 hours each day to try to get it all done – I give the library 1.5 hours a day of my own time so that I can keep my head above water.  It is no wonder my chest is starting to hurt every day when I get into the car to drive to work.  And it is no wonder that my camera is sitting neglected.

 

But… I did get out to shoot a photo or two today and had someone model for me unknowingly – I did show her the photos after I shot them.  The photos were all shot at Ontario Dam – no, I didn’t head to the Great White North – Ontario is a tiny burg in Northern Indiana.  But don’t blink or breath while you are driving through because you will miss the stop sign.

Just a corn field on the way home….