Friday, August 7, 2009
Happiness is only real when shared
Why do we stubbornly cling to an idea even when we are receiving messages that we need to change our course of action?
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Trash the dress
The "trash the dress" shoot has been a hit on my flickr account. I have had more hits on it than other set. The next set doesn't even come close.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Fun Shoot
My creative juices have been at a stand still lately. I love photography but I have been a bit bummed with shooting models. Nothing I have done lately has really impressed me. I love the early morning but no one else does. LOL. I look at these kids whose main objective is "to be famous". They have been told their entire lives they are special, when in reality they are just like everyone else. They really don't have the look or the drive to stand out from the pack.
A girl from the office wanted to do a "trash the dress" shoot. My heart wasn't really into it but I agreed anyway. We did it at another photographer's home, in the back yard. We had so much fun with the shoot, it was what I needed so badly. We threw paint and mud on her, she rolled in the mud, then we turn the garden hose on her. It was so cool.
A girl from the office wanted to do a "trash the dress" shoot. My heart wasn't really into it but I agreed anyway. We did it at another photographer's home, in the back yard. We had so much fun with the shoot, it was what I needed so badly. We threw paint and mud on her, she rolled in the mud, then we turn the garden hose on her. It was so cool.
Monday, July 20, 2009
I like cemeteries
I like old cemeteries. There is a joke in our family that I liked cemeteries so much that I named my youngest daughter after one.
I find them to be very interesting, the massive stones, etched with not only important dates but with information that either the person who died or the ones left behind deem so important it has to be on a tombstone.
This is a perfect example. This stone is in Pinewood Cemetery in Charlotte, NC. Pinewood was the black cemetery until the 1970s or so. I am sure the R.M. Miller, Jr. thought he was honoring George Miller by placing the stone. But why put that George Miller was a slave and servant to R. M. Miller? And why put his own name on the stone? After 84 years who is really being remembered? A search of the burial records of Pinewood Cemetery doesn't even list a George Miller as being buried there.
While researching Elmwood/Pinewood Cemetery in Charlotte I came across this insert:
http://www.cmhpf.org/Surveys&relmwood.htm
Segregation and the Mark of Jim Crow In Elmwood Cemetery
Elmwood Cemetery’s landscape design also tells the story of racial divisions within Charlotte-Mecklenburg, divisions that were strictly upheld throughout the South until the middle of the twentieth century.
The Elmwood Cemetery complex was, from its inception, a combination of three distinctly separate burial grounds: Elmwood Cemetery, containing plots available for sale only to white citizens; Pinewood Cemetery, with plots available only to paying African Americans; and Potter’s Field, a plot of land owned by the city and used exclusively for the burial of white citizens who could not afford to purchase a plot.
While Potter’s Field was placed on the edge but still within the boundaries of all-white Elmwood, Pinewood Cemetery was designed as a completely separate burial ground. No roads connected Elmwood and Pinewood, and Pinewood could not be accessed by the main entrance to Elmwood on Sixth Street – African Americans used an entrance on Ninth Street to enter Pinewood, which had no paved streets and no peripheral fencing until the middle of the twentieth century.
The system of strict racial segregation set up under the Jim Crow laws of the early decades of the twentieth century dictated not only where African Americans could work, eat, shop, and socialize, but also where they could bury their dead. To emphasize the boundaries between the already segregated Elmwood and Pinewood cemeteries, a fence was erected in the 1930s between the two burial grounds. At one point, a “No Trespassing” sign was added to the fence, its warning addressing visitors to Elmwood.
Years after the city of Charlotte voted against discrimination in the sale of cemetery plots, the fence between Elmwood and Pinewood continued to stand as a symbol of racial discrimination.
Finally, in the late 1960s, empowered by the successes of the African American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, black Charlotteans began a crusade to bring the fence down. Leading the fight was Fred Alexander, Charlotte’s first black city councilman and the political voice of African Americans in Charlotte.
During the spring, summer and fall of 1968, Alexander argued the case for voluntary removal of the fence, fighting a white majority opposition within the City Council until January of 1969, when “Mayor Stan R. Brookshire broke a three-to-three tie in the Council.”
The next day, the fence was removed by the Mecklenburg Jaycees, an African American boys organization whose members had volunteered repeatedly before the City Council to remove the fence.
“This fence,” Alexander told Charlotte News reporters as he watched the fence come down, “has always been an insult to Negroes. It didn’t mean anything to white folks, but when I was a little boy, I used to come here and see this and to me it was just the worst thing in the world.”
I find them to be very interesting, the massive stones, etched with not only important dates but with information that either the person who died or the ones left behind deem so important it has to be on a tombstone.
This is a perfect example. This stone is in Pinewood Cemetery in Charlotte, NC. Pinewood was the black cemetery until the 1970s or so. I am sure the R.M. Miller, Jr. thought he was honoring George Miller by placing the stone. But why put that George Miller was a slave and servant to R. M. Miller? And why put his own name on the stone? After 84 years who is really being remembered? A search of the burial records of Pinewood Cemetery doesn't even list a George Miller as being buried there.
While researching Elmwood/Pinewood Cemetery in Charlotte I came across this insert:
http://www.cmhpf.org/Surveys&relmwood.htm
Segregation and the Mark of Jim Crow In Elmwood Cemetery
Elmwood Cemetery’s landscape design also tells the story of racial divisions within Charlotte-Mecklenburg, divisions that were strictly upheld throughout the South until the middle of the twentieth century.
The Elmwood Cemetery complex was, from its inception, a combination of three distinctly separate burial grounds: Elmwood Cemetery, containing plots available for sale only to white citizens; Pinewood Cemetery, with plots available only to paying African Americans; and Potter’s Field, a plot of land owned by the city and used exclusively for the burial of white citizens who could not afford to purchase a plot.
While Potter’s Field was placed on the edge but still within the boundaries of all-white Elmwood, Pinewood Cemetery was designed as a completely separate burial ground. No roads connected Elmwood and Pinewood, and Pinewood could not be accessed by the main entrance to Elmwood on Sixth Street – African Americans used an entrance on Ninth Street to enter Pinewood, which had no paved streets and no peripheral fencing until the middle of the twentieth century.
The system of strict racial segregation set up under the Jim Crow laws of the early decades of the twentieth century dictated not only where African Americans could work, eat, shop, and socialize, but also where they could bury their dead. To emphasize the boundaries between the already segregated Elmwood and Pinewood cemeteries, a fence was erected in the 1930s between the two burial grounds. At one point, a “No Trespassing” sign was added to the fence, its warning addressing visitors to Elmwood.
Years after the city of Charlotte voted against discrimination in the sale of cemetery plots, the fence between Elmwood and Pinewood continued to stand as a symbol of racial discrimination.
Finally, in the late 1960s, empowered by the successes of the African American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, black Charlotteans began a crusade to bring the fence down. Leading the fight was Fred Alexander, Charlotte’s first black city councilman and the political voice of African Americans in Charlotte.
During the spring, summer and fall of 1968, Alexander argued the case for voluntary removal of the fence, fighting a white majority opposition within the City Council until January of 1969, when “Mayor Stan R. Brookshire broke a three-to-three tie in the Council.”
The next day, the fence was removed by the Mecklenburg Jaycees, an African American boys organization whose members had volunteered repeatedly before the City Council to remove the fence.
“This fence,” Alexander told Charlotte News reporters as he watched the fence come down, “has always been an insult to Negroes. It didn’t mean anything to white folks, but when I was a little boy, I used to come here and see this and to me it was just the worst thing in the world.”
Harry Potter
I really don't like to go to the movies, but Taylor (my granddaughter) loves to go. Something about being in the theater and watching the movie on the big screen appeals to her. About once every couple of months we will walk to the neighborhood theater and catch the early show. Usually it is some Pixar cartoon because I really don't like regular movies and she will watch anything as long as she gets to go and get a large bag of popcorn.
She talked me into taking her to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was a wonderful movie. Taylor had read all the books so she knew what was coming but I was on the edge of my seat most of the movie. The special effects were awesome and gave it the fantasy edge while the sub plots kept it real. Taylor will be getting the DVD when it comes out, if for no other reason, so we can it again and again to catch all of the sub plots.
There were 3 screens running the movie and it was packed. I would have thought it would have been overrun with kids, but there were only a handful of kids. It might just be my neighberhood but it was mostly late 20 -30 year old couples. Almost as many guys as there were women.
She talked me into taking her to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was a wonderful movie. Taylor had read all the books so she knew what was coming but I was on the edge of my seat most of the movie. The special effects were awesome and gave it the fantasy edge while the sub plots kept it real. Taylor will be getting the DVD when it comes out, if for no other reason, so we can it again and again to catch all of the sub plots.
There were 3 screens running the movie and it was packed. I would have thought it would have been overrun with kids, but there were only a handful of kids. It might just be my neighberhood but it was mostly late 20 -30 year old couples. Almost as many guys as there were women.
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