Please stay safe this Thanksgiving. If you MUST (which you don't) spend time with family, do so outside with masks on and/or stay 6 feet apart and no shouting.
There's a lot to be grateful for this year: family, friends, Zoom/Skype/FaceTime (whatever company you use), my home, a wavering creativity streak...
SONGS:
Rooms on Fire - Stevie Nicks
creature - half•alive
First Time Feeling - Ripe
YOUTUBE VID:
I live in Arizona. I live in the desert. I have never had a white Christmas and honestly, I like that. However, there is a certain magical aspect to snow. With this video, I can experience the magic without being cold.
ART/INSTAGRAM:
Watercolor absolutely amazes me and I so want to get better - and then to pair it with embroidery... She does a watercolor effect on an embroidery hoop and on paper. Amazing.
These mugs are CAPTIVATING. The colors, the patterns... love the vibes here.
I love these abstracts. The colors and what not... just can't take my eyes off of them.
ARTICLE:
Out There: On Not Finishing by Devin Kelly by Longreads
"In one of Lisel Mueller’s poems, “There Are Mornings,” she writes: “the plot / calls for me to live, / be ordinary.” It’s a moment of trascendental mundanity in a poem punctuated by a blazing sun, mirrors burning. So often, the plot of our lives seems like a clarion call for the extraordinary. It is, nearly always, how the world is marketed to us as consumers, and speaking specifically, how the world is marketed to me as a man. Think of how young you were when you first thought you had to be the hero of your own story. I must have been barely older than a baby. My father called me maverick. It made me feel like a rebel. I wanted to be a star. I had to win at all costs. And yet: when was the last time anyone ever told a man to be ordinary? Think of the difference that would make, to begin to dismantle our need to be heroes, to finish things, to consider ourselves defined by accomplishment, particularly in a world where women make less money on the dollar and yet are defined, in settings both casual or professional, by what they have done or failed to do. Living, as Mueller writes, is so often, and so deeply, an ordinary thing. And yet the extraordinary sits there like a burning sun on the horizon."
The Negatives of Being Positive by Kaitlyn McQuin by Restless Network
"Who’s heard this one before? Think happy thoughts. Just be happy. Had I known it was this easy to avoid a depressive episode simply by thinking happy thoughts, I would have saved a ton of money in therapy. This advice, despite coming from a well-intentioned place, is bullshit. It’s so hurtful and not helpful in the least, and if you, too, struggle with depression, then you know firsthand that thinking happy doesn’t make you feel better. If anything, it makes you feel worse because it introduces you to guilt."
BLOG POST:
I read this blog post recently about why photography is priced so high and I just need people to read this and understand it.
why is photography so freaking expensive? by Weekend Creative
"It’s even more challenging when potential clients question the quote that we provide. I think that the most frustrating part is that often the questioning comes from people who sell products that have set prices. There is a cost to design and manufacture a product, and businesses set prices for products based on the cost to produce them as well as the value. If a customer wanted to purchase a product, and asked the company to lower their prices because the price didn’t “fit their budget,” the company is not just going to change their price. If they did change their prices for everyone who thought their products were too expensive, they would quickly go out of business, but they then expect other businesses to change their prices just because they ask.
...
You are also paying for our creativity. When you hire a photographer, you hire them for their specific style and creative ideas. It’s important to look through their portfolio before hiring them to make sure that their style meshes well with your brand. Creativity has value. If you are looking for images that will set your brand apart from others, creativity will be one of the key elements."
This blog post talks about equipment and cost of doing business, the unseen photographer's hours, the creativity and experience of hiring that specific photographer, market value for a company that uses good photographs, and how the client can think about lowering the cost.
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A recent photo I've taken:
xx
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