Morning and Night People

I've always thought the difference between morning people and night people was a funny one. Usually I've found that when you have a relationship with someone who is opposite you (say you are a morning person and they are a night person), it changes your relationship. Morning and night people run their days completely differently. For morning people, they could feel like their day is halfway over by noon. For night people, their day could just be starting (or not even started yet) by that same time. It seems as if morning people attract other morning people and vice versa. Each type of person has their own stereotypes as well: morning people seem to be more "type A," people who want to start their day early and end it at a reasonable hour in order to be as productive as possible; morning people sometimes seem to think night owls are lazy (they wake up late), and a little irresponsible (how could they stay up so late?). Night people, on the other hand, seem to be people who go with the flow, and are more interested in spontaneity than productivity. But they, as well, judge the other side: morning people are seen as a little crazy (why would you want to get up so early?!) and uptight (can it be ok to stay up later than ten o'clock?). Obviously, stereotypes are not always true, but what I've mentioned is what I've found to be true in my own life much of the time.

Here are some photographs from my morning. I am a night person, who was up too early for my own good.

Extra Reading: 

Paul Schneggenburger: Interested in finding out whether sleeping with a lover is a solitary act or a combined one, Schneggenburger took long exposure photographs of several couples sleeping together. He wanted to find out if sleeping together promoted shared emotions. By photographing the couples from midnight until 6 AM, Schneggenburger was able to find dynamic and beautiful results. Please go take a look. 

Talk Talk Talk

The face of a person who talks to people all day:

I am really starting to like this job. Everyday I get to have at least a few great conversations, and I get to be outside all day. Each day challenges me in new ways, and I like a good challenge. Even when people are rude... it's pretty funny how much certain people despise canvassers. But most people are pretty nice!

Extra Reading:

Benedict Campbell: Campbell, who has a lot of experience with advertising as a photographer, likes to make images where reality is enhanced, not completely altered. He also makes sets using digital art, similarly to what he does with his photography studio. Go check out Campbell's hyper-real look. His work reminds me a little bit of pop art: pretty cool!

Pushed to the Limits!

Canvassing is the most physically exhausting job I've ever done: my throat is sore, my feet hurt, my back is stiff. Each day, I walk miles around the city, saying the same thing over and over, trying to get people to sign for my cause. The first day, I was incredibly nervous, but now I am beginning to catch my pace, and sometimes it is even...fun! You learn very quickly that criticism and/or rejection is simply no big deal. It's also rewarding to be able to enjoy the sunshine all day! And I really don't feel the need to exercise when I come home... ha ha. I am taxed, but it feels good to be that exhausted sometimes.

Here I am at the end of a long day:

Version One:

 Version Two (I'm there, I swear):

 Version Three:

And here are some iPhone photos of the beautiful city that I passed by as I worked:

I collect photographs of personalized license plates:

 I like this one because I call my best friend Bubba. Good thing she's not the Bubba that has to rest in peace!:

 Hawaii 5-0:

 It's that time of year again! People are beginning to move their living rooms out to the front yard:

You can follow me on Instagram: @sofotografic. 

Extra Reading:

Kirsty Mitchell: Mitchell, who grew up in the English countryside, has always had a great appreciation for storytelling. One of her favorite parts of childhood was when her mom would read her stories and act out each character and their specific voices. In college, Mitchell studied art history, photography, and costume for performance. She also interned for Alexander McQeen and Hussein Chalayan, who are incredibly inspirational in the fashion world and beyond. After her mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor, Mitchell began to lose herself in photography and self-portraiture; she began creating scenes from the memories she had of her mother and the stories she used to tell. Mitchell's photography is magical and other-worldly, and her story makes her work that much more inspirational.

I hope you all had a great day! See you tomorrow!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day again to you all!

This is my beautiful mother:

My mom is generous, funny, lovely, smart, intuitive, tenacious, strong, loyal, cool, fun, nurturing, clever, and creative. She has been a wonderful role model to me. Everywhere I go, people tell me how much they love my mother, and that is because she gives infinite love to the world. I love my mom so much, and I know that she'll always be a strong force in my life.

Today was a pretty mellow day, but I did take a crazy Kundalini yoga class with my mom. The class was on a DVD, so we got to do it in the comfort of our living room, which was good because it was unlike any other yoga class I had ever taken! At one point, the Sikh who taught it told us to place our left hand on our hearts and our right hand in the air. She said to make sure that we had the right hands in the right places, because if we did not, it could cause a heart attack. Then, toward the end of the practice, the teacher explained an exercise and then said, "Do it right, because if you don't, you won't get anything out of the whole practice!" Needless to say, my experience doing Kundalini today was intense and a bit frightening! 

I also walked home in the morning, and these are a few photographs from that walk:

Extra Reading:
Jessica (@paperlemon): In honor of Mother's Day, I want to promote Jessica's Instagram feed. Jessica is a mother who photographs her kids doing everything under the sun, from enjoying trips to Disneyland, to having sleepovers, to having tea near the ocean. Her photographs are light and dreamy, and beautiful. Go check her out and follow her!

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day! Thanks for reading!

Two Stories at Bedtime

Hello, everybody! Happy Mother's Day! Sorry I didn't post a blog yesterday; I had a change of plans in the evening, and I didn't have my computer with me (but I did have my camera, of course!). Anyway, the following post is what would have been yesterday's post (I will do another Mother's Day post later today).

I love story time. It's one of my favorite things. A fun thing to do is to make up stories on the spot, and tell them to someone else at bedtime. I will recount a story I told, and a story I was told by someone else.

First, mine:
Cheryl was a robot, and she lived in the factory that she was created in. Her creators were called the captors because they shipped all of her brothers and sisters off to strange places. One of her siblings was mailed to a safari in Africa, and all he did was rode strange creatures called elephants. Another one was sent to Atlanta, Georgia, where it was way too humid. Cheryl had escaped before the captors were able to ship her off; she was created by big machines, and as she rode the conveyor belt, she looked from side to side to make sure the captors weren't looking. Once the coast was clear, she quickly jumped off and ran for shelter. For days and months and years Cheryl spied on her captors, which is how she was able to find out certain top secret information about her poor brothers and sisters. She tried to escape the building, but there were no windows and all the doors were locked from the inside.
One day, after a long three years, Cheryl looked on with horror as one of her captors walked toward her. Her heart went pitter patter pitter patter, but the captor saw her, and she stopped moving as he picked her up. "I wonder how this little robot got here," he said. The captor took Cheryl to the shipment room and set her down, preparing her to be shipped. Cheryl decided that she would travel to wherever he sent her, and then free herself before her new captors could jail her. The next day, Cheryl was put on a plane to Toronto, Canada.
When she got on land, Cheryl took her left fist and broke open the box that she sat inside. She ran through the streets, seeing so many different sights: trees, grass, sidewalks, houses. At one house, Cheryl stopped and looked inside. There was a woman captor in the window, cutting vegetables for a meal. That is when Cheryl got a terrible and brilliant idea. She took her left fist, shattered the window, and ran toward the woman captor. Something came over Cheryl. She grabbed the knife right out of the captor's hand, and stabbed her in the heart. After that, there was no turning back. Every time Cheryl killed another human, she grew to be twice her size. After a number of killings, all Cheryl had to do was step on her captors to kill them. She was so much bigger than any human, and her body even extended into space. After Cheryl killed all seven billion people, she took their bodies and spelled out, "Robots Rule" all across the earth. She took over the universe, and robots had power for eternity!
The end.
Moral of the story: Don't mess with with things or people you don't know. Horrible things will ensue.

Ben's story:
Disclaimer: Ben did not make this story up on the spot. He recounted what he could remember of a story he authored as a child.
There was once a tomato who lived on a farm, and his name was Bob. Bob hung out on a vine with all of his brothers and sisters. It started to get boring on the vine, and Bob knew that there was so much more to see on the farm. One day, a dogtaur (head, arms, and torso of a human with a lower body of a dog) came sniffing and walking up to Bob's vine, and told Bob that he should go explore. At once, Bob hopped off his vine and into the field, rolling all around the farm. Eventually, Bob met a stalk of celery, named Harry. Harry exclaimed, "Oh, it's a tomato!"
Bob exclaimed, "Oh, it's celery!" After their introduction, Bob and Harry explored the farm some more, and eventually they came to the house at the end of the farm. They hopped up on the front windowsill, and saw a woman chopping vegetables for a salad. The woman looked up and saw Bob the tomato and Harry the celery sitting on her windowsill, and she said,
"Oh, look! Some more vegetables for my salad!" Quickly, Bob and Harry jumped off the sill and ran away as fast as they could. Then, SPLAT: the farmer stepped on Bob the tomato and Harry the celery. The end.
Moral of the story: Explore the world, but have a plan first.

We told these stories to each other while laying in bed and drinking tea, quickly falling asleep afterward. Story time is the best time, and if you don't take part in it yourself, you should begin today by telling a story to someone you love. At first, your stories might not be as good as ours (hehehe), but eventually you'll get the hang of it!

Extra Reading:
Steve Brockett: Brockett is an aerial photographer, painter, and kite maker (kite maker, how cool!!). His aerial photographs are sometimes ethereal and sometimes symmetric, and are all very beautiful.
His paintings are not planned out. Brockett is interested in the subconscious powers of art, and what we make when we don't try to control it.
The kites Brockett makes are constructed with polyester cotton carbon fibre or fiberglass spars, and are painted using screenprinting techniques or liquid fabric ink and a brush. The kites all have intricate designs. Please go look at Brockett's work!

I'll talk to you guys later today in my Mother's Day post. :)

Canvassing Style

A canvasser is one of those people with a clipboard and a cause, asking people, begging people, to sign (and sometimes donate money to) something. They are the people who you probably avoid constantly. You do a little dance around them, cross the street when you see them coming, tell them you are in a hurry, even when you aren't.

Today was the first day of my canvassing job.

This is something I never, ever thought I would do. Actually, I specifically and vividly remember telling my boyfriend this a year ago when he came to pick me up one day from school. I had just talked to a canvasser for 30 minutes, and though I enjoyed talking to him, I pitied him as well. I didn't want to be that person who got into people's space, getting rejected constantly. The person everyone tries to avoid.

Then you need money and you get a little more enthusiastic about that canvassing job.
The irony...

So please, next time you see a canvasser, even if you avoid them, try to have more compassion for them. They are probably working for a good cause, and though some of them can be a little dry, most of them have good intentions. Hell, maybe even sign their papers. You'll make their lives easier, and you'll help make change.

Makeup in the car:

Some scenery from the day (iPhone):

Being legit (also what's going on with my left eye?):

Extra Reading:

Verve Photo: Created by photographer Geoffrey Hiller, Verve Photo is a place that informs readers about the powerful documentary photographers of today. Along with concise blog posts about a specific photograph/photographer, Verve Photo also provides many other links to photo resources. Hiller is an editorial photographer who has shot all over the world for magazines such as National Geographic, Newsweek, Mother Jones, and the New York Times Magazine. He has a lot of work, so if you have some time on your hands, go peruse his website!

And of course, thanks for reading, guys! 

Why Giving is Great

I took the past year off of school in order to reevaluate, reapply to college, and work. Every year of grade school, middle school, and high school, I spent my days caring more about my education than my social life, being more of a perfectionist and a mini-adult than a kid. Every year except my senior year of high school. This is why, after I had a year of college under my belt, I wanted to reapply to other schools (read: art school) to see if I could get more scholarship money. If you have not graduated high school, I would highly suggest making your senior year a year that you apply yourself (even if you didn't during every other year). The reason I suggest this is because reapplying to college is no fun no fun no fun (assuming college is your route). Trust me, the second time you apply is worse than the first time, and you have to do more work, and less is offered to you. That is why I have chosen to go back to the college I went to originally, which is Portland State University. I had this big fat dream of going to art school and another fat dream of having no student loan debt. Well, my friends, life doesn't work that way here in the USA. 

That is why I needed Julia. Julia is the college guidance counselor at Northwest Academy, where I went to high school, and she is the greatest. She has a dry sense of humor that I thoroughly enjoy, she is honest and blunt, and she does not over-guide (read: she does not tell you what to do even if you want her to). This year, my philosophies about college and student loans changed by the hour, and Julia was always there to keep me grounded. I am truly grateful for someone who is willing to sacrifice so much for her students and former students. 

This morning I was really excited because I got to give back to Julia. I headed over to good old Fred Meyer, picked out a bouquet of sunflowers and took them to Julia's office. She seemed to think I had been the one that had done something great for her, when really all I was trying to say was thank you for all she has done for me. 

I've never been able to beat the feeling of seeing someone react to a gift, note, or compliment. Seeing their joy brings me immense happiness. Giving brings me just as much, if not more, than receiving does. 

Here is my version of Julia's gift:

 And here's Julia's version:

Happy day. Happiness.

Extra Reading:

Sean McCabe: If you'd like to see some more amazing lettering, go check out McCabe's website! He has been in the design industry for over ten years (but is still super young), and now he is dedicating himself to teaching! He hosts online classes, and if you are interested in doing lettering, you should buy one of his video tutorials.

Vivian Maier: Maier was a nanny who also made street and self-portrait photography in her spare time. She was extremely private about her work, and after she died, thousands of her negatives were discovered at a thrift auction house in Chicago. Ironically, Maier is quite well known now, her photographs widely sought out by photographers and art appreciators alike.