Lishui Photo Festival

I am going to China in November as part of the Lishui Photo Festival. I will be showing photos from my new series - The Water's Edge. Here is an image from that series. You can see the rest of the series on my website.

We went downtown to the Art walk last night and it was so cool to see the streets teaming with people. Normally downtown LA is a little sketchy, but it was alive last night and there was art everywhere. I was waiting for Rob's comedy show to start and walking around with my camera. I haven't just done some street shooting in ages and it was really fun because the light was bouncing from all over. This guy caught me pointing my camera at him and he grabbed the girl and posed. She looks so amazingly young and vulnerable. I just love it.

Santa Monica pier at sunset

Santa Monica pier at sunset, originally uploaded by mind the light.

Crawfish on a Pancake

We go to Michigan every year with my husband's college friends. The house is just down the street from Lake Huron. They have an old black raft in the garage which we have been using forever. Some years ago, my husband dubbed the game of trying to shake the kidlets off the raft "Crawfish on a Pancake" I think because we had had a fabulous crawfish dinner the night before. The name stuck and here it is in print in Light Leaks magazine. Though here Stella looks more contemplative.

Unconscious Terrain

Unconscious Terrain, originally uploaded by mind the light.

I have posted a new project to my website. It is called "Unconscious Terrain" and deals with the dark and mysterious crevices of our beds.

My tribute to Michael Jackson

Here it is, my record player from the 70s found at a street sale in Italy. We had "ABC" by the Jackson 5 and we'd play it over and over again endlessly. I just listened to it on youtube and it is still magical!

Calming

I find photography a very calming meditative activity. Sometimes if I am stressed out or on unfamiliar ground, I pick up my camera like a weapon. If I am feeling shy, I can always hide behind this shield. It makes me feel invincible - like a spy with knowledge and power.

This was taken at my Mother's house, in her bedroom.

Paris Light

Rob getting ready

Rob getting ready, originally uploaded by mind the light.

What is Happiness?

A friend sent me this article from the NYT after we'd had a similar discussion. He meditates a lot, and we discussed if that leads to greater happiness and good in the world. He said meditation enabled him to deal with the problems and discomforts of daily life with more ease. I believe that. Now I just need to put that belief into action.

Here is the article (not sure how long it will be up so I will excerpt a bit)

Happy Like God

By Simon Critchley

What is happiness? How does one get a grip on this most elusive, intractable and perhaps unanswerable of questions?

I teach philosophy for a living, so let me begin with a philosophical answer. For the philosophers of Antiquity, notably Aristotle, it was assumed that the goal of the philosophical life — the good life, moreover — was happiness and that the latter could be defined as the bios theoretikos, the solitary life of contemplation. Today, few people would seem to subscribe to this view. Our lives are filled with the endless distractions of cell phones, car alarms, commuter woes and the traffic in Bangalore. The rhythm of modern life is punctuated by beeps, bleeps and a generalized attention deficit disorder.

But is the idea of happiness as an experience of contemplation really so ridiculous? Might there not be something in it? I am reminded of the following extraordinary passage from Rousseau’s final book and his third (count them — he still beats Obama 3-to-2) autobiography, “Reveries of a Solitary Walker”:

If there is a state where the soul can find a resting-place secure enough to establish itself and concentrate its entire being there, with no need to remember the past or reach into the future, where time is nothing to it, where the present runs on indefinitely but this duration goes unnoticed, with no sign of the passing of time, and no other feeling of deprivation or enjoyment, pleasure or pain, desire or fear than the simple feeling of existence, a feeling that fills our soul entirely, as long as this state lasts, we can call ourselves happy, not with a poor, incomplete and relative happiness such as we find in the pleasures of life, but with a sufficient, complete and perfect happiness which leaves no emptiness to be filled in the soul. (emphases mine)

This is as close to a description of happiness as I can imagine.

Paris street

_MG_0006_man, originally uploaded by mind the light.

double exposed image from Michigan

double exposed, originally uploaded by mind the light.

One of my new Venice images which will be exhibited at Mars Gallery in Chicago in June. For more info go to my website news.

I took this image of my hairdresser's scissors. I just loved the teeth on them.

rob_MG_6143

rob_MG_6143, originally uploaded by mind the light.

Ireland

We went to Ireland for a week in between packing and moving to California. It was so beautiful and just like what you would expect - green fields, cows and ponies, and pubs galore all painted pretty colors.

We stopped at this hippy cafe with a caravan and trampoline out back on the way to Dingle (I did bounce on their trampoline) and they told us we had to stop at Inch Beach. It was a beautiful large expanse of sand and mountains and I took this photo. (Hint: if you click on the image, you'll see a larger version of it)

Waking up in Paris

I have been in Europe for 5 days now. It has been like coming home - drinking fresh coffee, walking all over, looking at so much art, watching people, watching life parade by and photographing everything and nothing at the same time. Does it matter? I always wished this could be my life somehow and then now it is, and it feels so natural, but I know it will end. Already, the mounds of cat hair under my bed and the stacks of unread mail on the kitchen table do not matter. This is life. This is living. Breathing and walking and seeing and thinking and dreaming. Do my feet need to touch the ground?

beautiful weeds

I just love the moment when the dandelions cover all the grass by the lake in Chicago. They are just such pretty and simple flowers, that we forget about them. I know they are a weed, but what a beautiful weed. I got down on their level and shot the budding dandelions with this new crazy macro lens that I have. What a great view from down there!

sledding

sledding, originally uploaded by mind the light.

Ahh winter. Cold but not without its simple joys, like sledding.

Old woman Venice

Old woman Venice, originally uploaded by mind the light.

Just found this shot and love the light. It is November, but still gorgeous.

I know that woman has walked that same calle (street) hundreds of times.