I haven’t felt like writing a blog entry in a long time, but I have been updating my friends, colleagues, and the world about my life in other ways. This morning, I feel moved to recap the previous year and look forward to the next.
I continue to take photographs and share them on Flickr. Some of my recent adventures include hiking Camelback Mountain for the first time, a weekend getaway to Jerome, going to the Arizona State Fair for the first time in the five years that I’ve lived here, going “full frame” by trading in my Canon Digital Rebel XTi and EF-S lenses for a used Canon 5D, and meeting a longtime Flickr friend from Brooklyn who visited me and my husband with his husband. It was great to bring the online life and real life together, and we all really hit it off. There are several other photo sets I’ve posted in months since my last blog post as well. The best way to keep up with what I’m up to in a visual way is to follow my Flickr photostream.
I’ve also really gotten into Facebook this year. I don’t add people I don’t know as Friends, and I don’t have a Fan Page, but I do enjoy keeping up with my friends through status updates, photos, videos, links, etc. I am sort of the designated photographer at gatherings of friends and coworkers, so it’s always fun to upload an album from a shared event and tag everyone in it who’s on Facebook– which is most of them. For a while there, I was spending a couple/three hours a day on Facebook, but I’ve cut back because I have so many other priorities. I felt I was neglecting my photography and Flickr social circle for a while there, so I’ve returned to spending a bit more time on that. One thing I love that Flickr added in the last couple of months is People in Photos, which allows you to tag your Flickr friends in photos the way you can tag your friends in photos on Facebook. Those friends have to be Flickr members in order to be tagged, so it’s most useful for photos from FlickrMeets; that is, when a group of photo geeks get together to go on a shooting spree. Not necessarily good for your neighbor’s family’s Thanksgiving party unless they’re all Flickrites themselves. Thanks to this new feature and my general hamminess, I can now point you to photos of me on Flickr. As of this writing, there are over 900, though I’m not sure they are all public!
Each of us is whole and complete, a heart that beats at its own pace, a light that shines in the dark. Whether or not we have a Valentine today, we can love ourselves, love those who love us, and even love those who don’t. Though we be apart from each other, we are a part of each other.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
This is a photograph of blue LED icicle lights taken through a wide heart-shaped aperture with the Lensbaby Composer. I turned the manual focus ring so that the little lights were out of focus enough to became spectral highlights in the shape of the aperture they shone through.
This is a photo of a neighbor’s lingering holiday lights taken with the Lensbaby Composer with a heart-shaped wide aperture. The manual focus ring was adjusted to place the lights out of focus and create spectral highlights that appear as heart shapes due to the shape of the aperture.
NOTE: Thanks to you, this photo hit Flickr’s Explore pages! You are welcome to blog it, download it, print it, share it, etc. All I ask is that you not use it for non-commercial purposes only & give me photographer credit, e.g. “Photo by Daniel Greene.”
I sing this Christmas song and simultaneously express it in signs from ASL (American Sign Language). I purposely adapted some of the hand-shapes to create sign-rhymes. While no song that is simultaneously sung and signed is truly ASL, I do hope that I have created something here that can be enjoyed by both hearing and deaf people. I also believe that people of all faiths can appreciate the hope that each newborn child brings: that he or she may help to heal this world.
I am a Jew who loves Christmas. To me, Chrismastime is a season, not a celebration of Christ. I do not believe that Jesus was the messiah. Personally, I do not believe that there will ever be one Messiah; instead, I believe that each baby born brings with him or her a great hope that he or she may help, in his or her own way, to heal the world (tikkun olam). The Nativity story, while I do not take it as fact, resonates with me deeply because of its miraculous romanticism and its underlying themes. Both Christmas and Chanukah convey a message of new hope, light in the darkness, and the triumph of good in the world in spite of hardship. I believe that the themes of Yuledide can be appreciated by Jews, Christians, and Pagans alike because — face it — both Christmas and Chanukah were religious overlays to Pagan holidays in the first place. So, maybe I should just say that I love the Yuletide! (Even though I don’t identify as a Pagan.)
All labels aside, whatever your religion, may you enjoy this time of year and may it bring you a renewed sense of hope!
P.P.S. I’m so glad that my new 28mm lens allows me to sit at table and take photos of my food with onboard flash! With my 50mm prime lens, I would have to get up from the table and stand over my food to take a photo of it, and with my 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens, I would have to add even more weight to an already heavy kit (since that lens is so heavy to begin with) by piling my 430EX hotshoe flash on top of it all. So, I now have a lightweight photography setup for going out to restaurants, taking photos at the table of food, friends, and family, etc. I’m excited about the possibilities!
…of all those who have died in service to the United States of America.
I almost kept this post to just that first sentiment, “In memory of all those who have died in service to the United States of America.” But that would be too safe. And I can imagine being criticized for copping out and pandering to blind patriotism.
Yet I know that many Americans’ patriotism is not blind at all, but rather… forgiving. I am reminded of a story my Granny Greene recounted. She spoke of a woman she had known who worked for the USO during World War II. She said, “When you walked by a young man in the canteen and he patted your fanny, you just smiled and kept on walking. That’s patriotism!”
And that’s what many of us do– smile and keep on walking. We know that Continue reading →
Inspired by the Camera Toss phenomenon, I swung my compact camera by its wriststrap in front of my electric menorah a few days before Chanukah started. It looked so festive, I decided to save it for the New Year.
I haven’t had any spare time to blog this week, because I’m spending my spare time rehearsing the Kol Nidre song and the Isaiah haftarah for Yom Kippur services this Sunday evening and Monday morning.
I first learned to read Hebrew at the age of 32, and I first learned torah and haftarah trope for my bar mitzvah at the age of 33. I read my first haftarah for Yom Kippur mincha service (Jonah) when I was 33, my second haftarah for Yom Kippur morning service (a selection from Isaiah) at 36, and my third haftarah for Yom Kippur morning service (the entire Isaiah haftarah) at 37.
I am a bit out-of-practice since I don’t read Hebrew every day, and I haven’t seriously chanted trope since the time I chanted the Isaiah haftarah for my synagogue two years ago. This makes for a lot of cramming, and I have a tendency to put things off!
Perhaps when I am done rehearsing and performing the Kol Nidre and Haftarah, I will publish audio or video of it, but I’m not sure whether or not that’s appropriate.
Anyway, forgive my absence, and if you observe Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I wish you L’shanah tovah tikateivu v’tehateimu!
