A Different Positive Spin

I am attempting to stretch myself photographically, I am becoming more attentive to the smaller details and have noticed what gives the world its unique quality and to be a bit cliché-ish, makes the world go round. Watching a local soccer game, with every player in their matching uniforms I suddenly noticed this one player. Do you ever wish you just stepped out and did something you really wanted to do but fear the consequences? Let’s face it , we only live once and life is terribly short do something you have always wanted to do but on some level were afraid of what people would think of you. Now I am not giving you license to spin off, and make it a positive thing, not a negative. Just think if everyone does something different with a positive spin we could have a positive impact as a group.

A Day the Way I like

I don't get too many days to do what I want without answering to others and doing for others so today was a treat. I think everone should have one of these days at least once a month. Seriously, I got all of my 'to do's ' done and had the rest of the day to do anything I wanted. Those that know me, will know exactly what I did, I found sport events all over town to cover. I was inside, I was outside and now I need to sort through them. I am calling it a day, A Great Day!

Diverse

What is diverse? Well I would consider my special day this week to be diverse. I really wondered what kind of reality show it would have made. What exactly happened on this specific day was a day at County jury duty. After arriving at the court house by 8:30am. I discovered my dentist sitting behind me. You have to love the court system, after everyone was in their seat we watched a short film on exemptions we were told to take a twenty minute break. A room withover 1000 people told to be back in twenty minutes. Whoever thought that out, hmmmm. Once assigned to a jury pool I had no idea that by the end of the day I would have met some of the most interesting people I will probably come across this month. I was seated next to girl I had gone to high school with. To my other side was a very nice guy who use to be in the armed services and has spent time working as a teacher to teenagers who have violent backgrounds, drug or alcohol issues. Amazing difference he has made in kids' lives. Another young man sat behind me who has started his own businesses. We had a parole officer, a former court reporter, a coach/referee, a restaurant owner and a rebellious young juror who never returned after lunch. By that evening when jury selection was finally finished I truly felt like I had been in the trenches with a room full of people I would feel honored to call friends. Twelve lucky folks were selected for the three week long case. I was released, which was a smart call by the lawyers. I would not have had the patience to sit there and listen to all of the posturing the lawyers were already up to. I do have the court system to thank for introducing some interesting people into my life and I am off to visit the upstart restaurant one of my fellow jurors is hard at work making work.

Overlooked

As in life we tend to go about our business and forget to see the small things around us. I decided to throw the camera in the car for a quick trip to drop off something across town. I found myself at my parents' house and not a care in the world. Everyone I am responsible for was taken care of and I looked around the house for odd things to take pictures of. Well there was a lot of fun things to take pictures of but I noticed how many things I had gotten in the habit of walking by and overlooking. I won't bore you with the pictures of the girls in the backyard. Don't get all excited, the girls are the two little black cats my mother adopted as kittens from a young girl standing on a street corner. They are now very use to my camera being stuck in their face. Here is one item I have walked by countless times and forgotten to appreciate the beauty of.

When Others ...

Have you ever had one of those days or weeks when everything you do is sort of dictated by other people and what they are doing? I have had about two weeks of that and I think it is time I took my life back and did the things that I need to be doing instead of waiting to see what other people need from me only to find out they were not really to concerned about whether or not I was putting things on hold to be there when they needed me. Ok I probably have you all turned around but here is the best part. Today while waiting for all of those things I was to be sort of on call for, I found time to play around with some different lighting techniques. Actually I had done some shots last night only to discover my sensors were pretty dirty, weird since I had cleaned them recently but with most of my normal day to day shots shot wide open the dust wasn't really a factor. No big deal, I lined up my bodies and cleaned the sensors and what a difference if made.

shot with flash thru umbrella off to camera left.