attention:

It has been rough around here. I have been trying to find ways to smooth it all out. Knitting, drawing, painting, baking, all of these things sooth me. Making photographs used to sooth me, but then it didn't. I decided that I didn't want to look at life through a camera viewfinder. But, now, once again, it is time for photographs!

I have been reading about making pictures; a few different articles have made their way to me as I wait for my less than $10.00 toy camera and lomo film to arrive from Seoul. I am excited. But then I read the comments made at the end of these articles. There are some rude people out in the world. There are people calling themselves professional photographers who are raining down ugliness on people who aren't professionals, on people who just want to have fun and capture images of fun. And family, and things that are important or just pretty or interesting. I will be the first to admit that just because a picture exists, that doesn't make it compelling, but not every picture is going to be compelling. That's why we read the articles and take risks! If I get one compelling picture from a roll of film, well I think that's pretty great, not to mention that the more we practice, the better we get, the greater the number of compelling images we can make.