Piney Woods and Bumping the Edges

On my way back from my dad's house today, my camera was burning a hole in my car, to abuse an old expression. (There was no actual fire involved, thank goodness.) I'd passed a hundred different scenes I longed to photograph on the drive out there, but when you're going 70 miles per hour, by the time you've spotted something to capture, you're already too far past it. Plus, stopping on the side of those back roads is not advisable or possible with such non-existent shoulders.

So I promised myself that, on my return drive, I would stop somewhere and take some photos. I chose Mission Tejas State Park because of its incredible tall pine trees, perfect examples of the Piney Woods region that covers most of eastern Texas. (The phrase "piney woods" puts me straight back into elementary and middle school, when we learned all about the varied ecoregions of my enormous home state. I need to brush up on that info; it's been a while.)



I parked my car and walked out along the path. It was so quiet-but-loud -- no road noise, no airplanes overhead, no air conditioners whirring outside, but the sounds of wildlife cascaded over me as I stood still. I heard at least three different bird calls, insects chirping and clicking, the trees swaying in the wind.

It is astonishing how quickly nature can ease my spirit. I wanted to pitch a tent right there and spend three days just lying under the trees, watching the sky and listening.

Relaxing was easy, but capturing the towering stature of the trees was more difficult. Six months into my first year with a digital camera, I find myself bumping up against the edges of my skill more and more often these days. It's satisfying and frustrating at once. Rather than take a class, which I'd love to do sometime, I'm learning the hard way: raw experience, repetition, and by watching how other photographers work in their craft. Is this what they call experiential learning?

Happy (Yesterday) Birthday, Dad!

Yesterday was a special occasion -- my dad's birthday fell on Father's Day, so I drove five hours for the weekend to surprise him. And thanks to my excellent new 50mm lens, I captured the exact moment he registered that I was standing in his living room!



Happy birthday, Dad. I love you!

Love Thursday: CGL

Before I realized it was Love Thursday, I pulled the most perfectly heart-shaped strawberry from the crackly plastic container, and I also cut the stem off another strawberry and revealed a pale pink heart shape underneath. Of course, I was too hungry for breakfast to stop and take photos of them. But what a lovely reminder that love is all around...

For example: this is my man. You'll see a lot of him on this site, not only because we work and live together full time and therefore he's always available for portraits, but also because he's handsome and I love him to bits.



He orchestrated the Christmas gift of my camera with our dear friend, Mandy (I'll tell you that story when she comes for a visit in July). He's given me plenty of space to learn about photography on my own, and been there to answer my questions when I ask them. When I started craving a fast prime lens, namely a 50mm one -- by the way, I'm wickedly pleased with myself that I know what that even means -- we decided on the one I would get eventually when I'd saved up enough money.

Then he secretly did Craigslist research and found a match in our price range. So now I have a new lens with which to take gorgeous portraits of the people and animals in my world. I tell you, this guy is a keeper.



I've been in love with words as long as I can remember. Seeing the world through a camera's lens is a new love for me, and I'm having so much fun in this new relationship.

Eve Ensler: Writer, Activist, Cancer Survivor

The stunning news hit my inbox this week: writer and activist Eve Ensler was recently diagnosed with uterine cancer. She reassures us that she has good doctors and her surgery was successful, but that word -- cancer -- lands heavy. I know I'm not the only one unnerved by the weird coincidence, that a woman who has made her living and her stand for women from a play called "The Vagina Monologues" got cancer in her most female of body parts. Cancer is too random to follow that useless metaphor anywhere.

Eve Ensler at the 2008 Austin V-Day

I had the honor of interviewing her four years ago for Time Out New York about her New York City-wide event demanding a stop to domestic violence. She was on her cell phone when we spoke, dashing between events that required her attention. She spoke of ushering in a new paradigm, of drawing deep inspiration from the men and women in the world who have been through enormous violence but who -- instead of perpetuating more violence -- have grieved it, transformed it, and dedicated themselves to eradicating that violence, with wild, extraordinary energy.

In true activist fashion, her first public commentary after her diagnosis is to speak out for women who are fighting for their lives. Last Saturday, she published the piece titled "My cancer is arbitrary. Congo's atrocities are very deliberate" in the Guardian. Eve, here's to your returning health, to the good work, and to the paradigm shift. It can't come soon enough.

Getting Up Close

One of my favorite ways to show respect to this planet Earth I call home is to slow down and get close. There are too many miracles around me, and my life is far too brief, to rush on by them. This year, I'm exploring the practice of macro photography as a way of saying, "Look! Look at what I saw!" to anyone who sees my photos.

For example, can you guess what this is? (Don't worry, I won't make you wait too long.)



Did you know that the leaves, stems, and green unripe fruit of tomato plants are slightly poisonous? It's true -- they contain small amounts of the toxic alkaloid tomatine. I don't know that it's enough to kill you, but it surely isn't as delicious as the tomato fruits themselves.

These little fuzzy pre-flowers are on one of our backyard garden plants. Last year, we put in the tomatoes too late, and the summer was brutal, so we didn't get any fruit until October. !! This year looks more promising.



Gardening and learning how to grow food from scratch is one of the small ways that I try to make the world a little better. Even though I'm not able to feed my family entirely (or even 10%) from my garden yet, I'm learning, and even the practice of tending a garden cultivates patience and great gratitude for the farms that provide the other 95% of the food I eat every day.

What's your favorite way of slowing down and taking a good look at the world around you?