site update

Ooh, look! I added an About page and a Contact page. Now I'm officially Unoriginal.

"We're not strange!" they said.

Project 52
Week 2: Photograph a Stranger

So Lech, our friend Tim and I went out for this photo assignment to Rockridge, on a mission to photograph a stranger. In general I have a difficult time approaching people I don't know (I can be shy around strangers), but I lucked out as the woman on the left is Lech's friend that we randomly crossed paths with. Technically a stranger to me, I photographed these women as they happily posed for the camera. Yeah, it's kinda cheating, I know.

Project 52

My buddy Lech pointed me to this particular Project 52 that he's participating in. I wanted to do a 52-Weeks-Of-Us project, taking pics of Tom and me together, but that fell by the wayside because we can't get our act together simultaneously, so I'm trying hand at this project instead. I can't promise I'll do all the weeks, but I'm happy I at least started.

Week 1: Create a mission statement.

This will be a constant work in progress and I figure out what the hell my style is, where I want to go with photography, essentially my Voice (or Eye). So far, it's this:

Celebrate the beauty of impermanence.

I was raised Buddhist. And although these days I only go to Buddhist services for a wedding or a funeral, there are some fundamental principals that I will always carry with me. One is the understanding that life is fleeting. And we as humans want to connect to things. And this can sometimes cause us turmoil to hold on to something that will not last forever. But if we acknowledge the transient nature of the world, we can celebrate life for what it is, even if it will eventually slip away.

And I guess it seems contradictory to want to capture/hold on to something with a photograph. But I think it's a way to say, "Yes, this is how it was at that brief moment, and now it's gone. But it sure was something, wasn't it?!"

So I'll be continuing with this thought. Let's see where it leads to.

Happy New Year!

Better late than never, right?