dailypost

What is identity*

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This week, WordPress’s Daily Post blog asks us to consider Identity. I find this subject fascinating and I think about it quite often. The idea of “Self” comes up a lot as I delve deeper into the study of Buddhism.

I am coming to the conclusion that identity is something that is not real. Identity changes, depending on who you are with, what your surroundings are, etc. Identity is a construct that we invent to help us make our way in the world. We put ourselves in boxes, we define ourselves for others, because that is what society tells us to do.

 

*Totally coming up dry as far as blog post ideas go, so I looked at my drafts folder. Here is something I wrote and left unfinished in April of 2016. It’s kind of weird to read it now. I think I still kind of agree with it. Maybe I’ll revisit this later this week.

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Sign Says

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This was a good one

This week’s photo challenge is “The Sign Says.” I have to deeply apologize for my dark and twisted sense of humor (I do warn you, though,  on my About page). I am a fan of stick figures in peril. In fact, when I find a good one I will contribute to the Stick Figures In Peril Flickr group.  This was an interesting one I saw in Paris on top of Norte Dame. I believe the message is (as I interpreted it): “Climbing the rickety stairs to the bell could cause you to fall to your death.” And, indeed, it prevented me from climbing the stairs to the bell.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern

Photography

water drops

This week’s Weekly Photo Challenge is “Pattern.” The first thing that popped into my head was a day trip to Mt. St. Helens a couple of years ago. I was fascinated by the patterns of the trees. Because of the devastation of the eruption in 1980 the trees growing there were very symmetrical  I imagine this is because they all started growing at the same time. When you looked out into the forest it looked like fractals and there was something very odd and unnatural about it. I wanted to post a photo of that but, sadly, I didn’t take a photo that day that illustrated my observation.

So I went prowling around in my Flickr stream.

I started at the beginning. This led to a whole other train of thought as I looked at the evolution of my photography over the past 8 years. I saw photos that I completely forgot about. Like the one above (which I think is a decent enough illustration of patterns in nature).

Looking at these photos from the future, I can say that some of them aren’t half bad at all. Some of them are not as good as I thought they were at the time, granted. But some of them are pretty good, if I do say so myself (not an easy thing for me to do).

I find it interesting that I gravitated away from Digital photography. There was a very prevalent  little pull that caused me to move in the direction of film photography. It is interesting how that happens. I remember when it happened. It started with this little camera.

I am really enjoying this journey. Photography has always been my creative outlet. I loved it when I was primarily shooting digital and I love it now that I am shooting film. I love both for very different reasons.

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge – Lunchtime

Photography

20130315-120748.jpg

“I don’t like the way work break rooms smell. They smell like frozen meals, stale popcorn and sadness.”

-Q.O.D. from my friend Rachel on Facebook.

I couldn’t resist posting that. I loved it. I am in a very poetic mood lately and that sentiment seemed to fit in with my mood.

This is where I eat lunch almost every day, the staff room at work. From the perspective of the glass window in the ceiling.

For the record though, it is mostly not sad.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Forward

Photography

Rafael walks into a portal

This week’s theme for the Weekly Photo Challenge is “Forward” and this image from my film swap with Brendan from Aware of the Void popped instantly into my head. I am still so stunned and blown away by these images, in fact this week everyone around me has been forced to sit down and see them all and listen as I analyze in great detail every single one.

If you didn’t catch the recent post on this particular project, I shot film here in Oregon and sent it over to Brendan in Ireland. He red-scaled and double exposed with images from around where he lives in Dublin. The effect is really cool and sometimes uncanny, as the case is in the above image. In this particular photo, my husband is walking down a road here in Oregon but looks like he is walking into some strange portal, which is really a ruin of a building in Ireland.

This photo, and this project makes me think of all of the exiting things I have yet to learn in film photography. I am taking a darkroom class in March and I really look forward (ha!) to it. I feel like I am on the road to a really exciting time, creatively.

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