Wedding Photo 3

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

Wedding Photo 2

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

Tenmile Creek

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

The Wedding

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

I survived! I got tons and tons of pictures! And I'm so pumped full of caffeine and endorphins that I might just stay up all night. Well, I would but I have yet another function to photograph tomorrow. The annual company picnic is going on and I'll have lots to do. A scavenger hunt for the kids, a barbeque for the adults, and a spirited volleyball tournament is sure to keep me running all day with the camera.

This weekend has made me wonder if I could actually do this for a living...at least until I graduate with a master's in architecture. This would be a great day job until then.

I’m going to wait until the bride gets a chance to see the finished product before I go posting more wedding photos. But I’ve had a chance to skim through them and there are many hopefuls. I think I pulled it off!!

In My Mind, I'm Already There

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

The Reality Of It All

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

I was really excited to see the elephants at Wildlife Safari. Tudeskii knows that I was just hopping up and down when I heard they had elephant rides while we were there. All through the park, I was thinking elephant, elephant, elephant! I wanted so badly to get up close and personal to one and get a really great photo.

The reality was far more boring and down right sad.

When we finally got thru the whole park and made our way to the elephant rides, I watched in horror as the same two animals paraded around in a tight circle with tourists riding their backs. The trainer made the animal stop and pose for pictures along the way. He would say "Rosie, trunk!" and she would lift her trunk up in the pose that you see here. I was so disappointed to see these beautiful creatures moved around like that. I don't know what I was expecting- as this is a safari park in the middle of Oregon- but I didn't realize I would be struck by their tedious and strained motions. I’m sure that they are treated quite well by their trainers but I was just let down by how dull the whole process seemed. I took several pictures but I just couldn’t capture what I had hoped to- a glimmer of wildness and excitement. They were bored by the activity of the day and it showed.

Petting Zoo

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

Sometimes I'm surprised by the outcome of a particular shot. I took this picture, not thinking that I was getting anything special. I fiddled around with it in Picasa today and was struck by his eye- the color and all the expression surrounding it. I moved the image to Photoshop, employed some dodging and burning techniques as well as desaturation of everything but the actual eye color. I really like the final result. He's just a goat in a petting zoo...but here, somehow he seems like something more. He has a look about him that I can't quite get over.

Sometimes the photograph just tells me what it wants to do. I ignored this photo when I first downloaded it as I didn't think it was anything special. I was much more interested in the zebras and elephants at the safari. But tonight, this image spoke to me and showed me where to focus, telling me what it wanted to be, willing it in a way. I like when I'm pulled in a particular direction and when the outcome is so satisfying.

On The Count of Three, Everyone Say Awwww!

Aren't these two giraffes just adorable? They were rubbing heads together affectionately as we passed by.


� Punkin Dunkin Productions


� Punkin Dunkin Productions

Stripes

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

Look Maw 'n' Paw, we done gone to Wildlife Saw-far-eee!

We made it down to Winston, Oregon today and rolled through Wildlife Safari. This place is a must for anyone living or visiting Oregon. Zebras, elephants, giraffes and monkeys, oh my! We spent more than an hour driving through three different wildlife areas. Afterwards, we caught up with several elephants giving rides, monkeys swinging around by their arms, and one little tamarin with a severe case of A.D.D.

So come along with us (and by us, I mean me and my hair!) as we venture through the safari and all its animals. I’m going to space out my photos all week so you’ll want to stop back again every day.

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

First up, the Damara Zebra located in the Africa exhibit. I love how his stripes extend up into his hair. These little guys stand between 40 and 60 inches high. They came up rather close to the car and just stared at us.

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

Eureka!

Yesterday, I had a major breakthrough.

I asked a complete stranger if I could take his picture. And the sky didn't fall down. And he actually let me photograph him (in fact he was real nice about it). Here it is:

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

Nothing special, I know. But it is a major deal to me. ahhh....

Union Station at Eleven AM

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

It's Official!!!

I got the callback tonight.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have my first official photo gig. I am taking pictures for a wedding on August 27th. And I am so nervous that I have to put my head between my knees and breathe deeply. Oh, but it would be so wonderful if the photos turn out and this becomes something that I can do on a regular basis.

This is not going to be a paying gig because quite frankly, I don't know what the photos will look like. And I do not want to disappoint anyone on their wedding day. So I'm not charging...I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.

I hope to some day take pictures like this wonderful photographer out of Corvallis does: Willamette Photo. He does amazing stuff.

And I like his quote:
“You don’t take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it.” Author Unknown

(Alder, that one is for you)

August is Full of Tourists

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

Wouldn't It Be Nice Not to Give a Shit What They Think of You?

"What Do Women Want?"
by Kim Addonizio

I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap,
I want it too tight, I want to wear it
until someone tears it off me.

I want it sleeveless and backless,
this dress, so no one has to guess
what's underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty's and the hardware store
with all those keys glittering in the window,
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.
I want to walk like I'm the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.

I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm
your worst fears about me,
to show you how little I care about you
or anything except what I want.

When I find it, I'll pull that garment
from its hanger like I'm choosing a body
to carry me into this world, through
the birth-cries and the love-cries too,
and I'll wear it like bones, like skin,
it'll be the goddamned
dress they bury me in.

------------------------------------------------

GR-OWL! That's some fucking Chutzpah right there, I'm tellin' you.

IT'll. BE. THE. GODDAMNED. DRESS. THEY. BURY. ME. IN.
Oh Hell, yeah!

So I’m thinking to myself, as I lose this weight (57 pounds today, wooo-who for me), that I want to stop worrying about what society thinks of me. Just fuck ‘em. Seriously. And I’m thinking it would nice to have a red dress of my own.

Even if it’s not red and it’s not a dress but I can wear it just the same.

That red dress symbolizes the attitude that every woman should carry around with her. It’s the “smoking hot, fire-engine red, lipstick smeared, come and get me cause I’m the best you’re gonna get” attitude that I’d like to walk down the street with. Maybe I shouldn’t lose any more weight. I might be a real handful if I do. But you know what I’ll say?

Bow before me!

Sunday Morning at the Factory

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

A Believer is a Bird in a Cage...

"A believer is a bird in a cage, a freethinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wings." -Robert Green Ingersoll

So for anyone keeping tabs on my blogs to visit sidebar, you'll notice that I added a couple blogs about religion including Dharma Vision, The Un-Apologetic Atheist and Julia Sweeney's blog (yes the SNL actress). I’ve added these different blogs to my list because I am studying the beliefs of others so I may desperately understand my own. Currently I call myself an ex-Christian and a non-believer. I can’t make the jump to any one religion and I can’t quite make the jump to an atheist either.

My father said in so many words that because I was baptized as a child, I will always be a Christian. But I don’t believe that. Just like when people tell me I’ll go to hell for being bisexual or not believing in God. How can I go somewhere in the afterlife that I don’t believe in? You have your heaven and hell, why do I have to have the same thing based on what you believe?

What I do believe:

Religion is a form of laws designed to teach social controls and a conscious to children. Love thy brother and don’t covet thy neighbor’s wife. Sometimes I get the distinct feeling that people with a faith are inclined to think that us non-believers have no morals. Nothing could be further from the truth. I grew up in a household where I was taught right and wrong. Sometimes I was taught using religion, sometime through guilt tripping but regardless of how I was taught, I was given a basic framework that I use today. I do make certain changes to my framework now and then. Some family members believe that it’s not acceptable to be gay or to live with someone one before marriage. I try and accept that they will live their lives as they see fit and I should live my life in a manner that supports my morals. I don’t think it’s acceptable to eat meat because a life is taken in the process. But I don’t run around telling everyone else that they’re a bunch of murderers.

Religion has been used to explain the unexplainable. Where did we come from? God created Adam and from him, Eve was created with one of his ribs. I don’t believe this for one second. Science tells me that there cannot be a human man without a woman to give birth to him.

Religion is used as a justification for some situations. It’s okay to hate so and so because they are not of my religion, or they don’t believe exactly what I do. Some religious people justify their actions because they can go to church and be forgiven.

Religion can be a great source of comfort for some people. Unfortunately I am not one of those people.

I think the biggest reason I’m so skeptical of a higher power is because when I was at my lowest points in life, there was no one above pulling me up by my boot straps and getting me back on the right path. Sometimes I would pray to a God, sometimes it was a god (as in god of small favors like letting me slide by a crowd of nasty teenagers without an incident or let me get through the day without thoughts of trying to kill myself), but usually I would just ask to no one in particular “why me?” I had to pull myself up and get going on my own. It took a very long time to get right again. AND I DID IT BY MYSELF. Well, I did have help along the way from some friends and family, but at no time did I feel that a higher being was helping me out. Some of you may say the higher power worked through others in my time of need, some may say it worked through me. But I have a very difficult time accepting that I am not in control of myself and my life, as well as my afterlife (whatever it may be). This is where I differ from many religious people. I don’t see how I need to just let go to a god. Why should I leave something so important as my life to the whim of another energy or being? Why isn’t it all up to me?

Sometimes I wish I were a believer, just so I didn’t feel so… different from everyone else. It can be very daunting going against the crowd. I’ll admit that I don't fully understand it. I don't comprehend why some people are believers and why some are not. It seems like it would be easier just to pretend than to proclaim my difference and become divided from the crowd. I do like to be different sometimes, but I don’t really ever like to be alone.

I've started the long process of exposing myself to other religions and other ideas that people have so that I may form a more solid base for my own beliefs. I haven’t come to the conclusion that there is no God, but I’ve also not been given significant proof that there is. I'm still very much skeptical of religions that put women below men in many instances. It just doesn’t feel right to me. How can one gender be better than the other under their god? I’m also skeptical of religions that proclaim their followers to be full of sin and having to repent their whole lives. I don’t understand why someone would grow up believing that. It seems so… outlandish.

Recently someone commented on my art and my waning religious beliefs by saying he thought I was already spiritual and I captured that spirituality in my art. It sort of threw me for a loop. Me, spiritual? Nah…couldn’t be. I cautiously took what he said, and let it knock around in my head for the last couple of weeks. Is it possible that there is another path to becoming religious? Is it possible that I can find a God and a religion by not going to church? It’s such a wild concept that it just might work for me. I’m skeptical but I’m also open to the possibility of finding what I need through seemingly unconventional methods. Perhaps by continuing my art, I may find a path that's right for me.

Nye Beach

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

Yaquina On Fire

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

Saturday Morning

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

Seahorse Invitational

I had the chance to attend a swim meet out on the coast this past weekend. Unfortunately I was a bit too distracted and subdued that day for undisclosed reasons. I don’t feel that these photos are really part of my better work. Perhaps if I am invited again, I can get caught up in the spirit of the crowd and comfortably maneuver around the pool to gain some better vantage points. And yes, a telephoto lens would greatly improve my chances of capturing the action.





It was recommended that I not use a flash because it would distract the swimmers as they dove in. Unfortunately some of my pictures were a little blurry because if it. I spent a little too much time on these photographs trying to get them to pass for something acceptable. Oh well.





One thing I enjoyed watching was the reaction of the crowd to the young swimmers. Kids that swam a little slower received just as much support as did the kids that finished first. My impression was that many parents tend to take active roles throughout the whole affair from organizing fundraising efforts to setting up equipment and even announcing during the meet.






This father, in particular, had both his children in the meet and he has been part of their swim team for many years. Like many other adults at the meet, he appeared to be a genuinely proud father who encourages his children to be good athletes rather than solely focusing on being winners. His kids did wonderfully, with both surpassing several personal bests during the meet.






© All Photographs Punkin Dunkin Productions

Two Versions

© Punkin Dunkin Productions



© Punkin Dunkin Productions

Daybreak

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

Newport Dock

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

Summer Evening on the Oregon Coast

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

Mount Pisgah Shed

Sorry it’s been a few days since my last post.

What is it called when you get a promotion that comes without higher pay, recognition or a better spot in the company’s food chain?

I was asked to take on an additional task this past week which involves taking help-line calls from agents manning our phone lines. In between all the regular calls that I take, I will now take calls from other customer service reps who can’t find the answer they need or who have to transfer unruly customers to someone else. I enjoyed it for the most part, everyone tells me I have a great phone voice and a fantastic disposition (one customer told me my parents did a good job in the enthusiasm department with me, which as my parents are well aware of is a crock of shit. They loved to remind me how much of a rotten child I was and all the grief I gave them. If I had a nickel for every time I heard my mother say ‘Wednesday’s child is full of woe…and you were born on a Wednesday,” I’d be rich by now).

So for the last week, I’ve been absolutely swamped at work and I haven’t been able to find the time to blog, even just to get a picture up every day. But I’ll try harder next week. I’m getting the hang of my new work duties and it should be easier from here on out.

I’m hitting Newport and Florence tomorrow to take photos for my school project. I expect to post many of them here.

Untitled

One of my favorite photos that I captured at Devil's Punchbowl State Natural Area (hey, that is the official name!).

Yet another reason that I need a telephoto lens

This picture could have been really cool if I was able to zoom in just a little more.

Otter Crest (at least I think so...but I'm sure someone will correct me)

I couldn't decide which one to post. I like the color on the first one (even though the blue gets a little unrealistic as my eyes wander towards the back of the photo) and I like the uncropped look to the second one. Which do you prefer?

Evening in Fog

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

We visited the coast on Sunday. From Florence to Lincoln City we traveled through several foggy areas making it hard to grab good pictures. I was also distracted by several stores and ended up shopping more than taking photographs. I think I’ve gotten over my obsession with the Dollar Store but I couldn’t stop myself from shopping at Goodwill and St. Vincent De Paul. For some reason, I hit pay dirt at the Lincoln City Goodwill when I found several books on sale. Usually such good books are not at Goodwill but my theory is that the rich tourists bring their fancy books with them to the beach and after they tire of them in the middle of the summer season, they drop them off at the nearest donation box and then run out and buy the latest bestseller (I found several newer books on business and money management that seemed oddly out of place). I discovered a couple of Tobias Wolff novels, It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, and a book on selling photographs for profit (a half serious dream of mine…but only after I bought the book did I notice the 1991 copyright and the little revision notice on the cover that said, and I shit you not, “Revised and Updated! Includes information about using computers in your work!”). I also found the brand new bestseller Don’t Kiss Them Goodbye by Allison Dubois. For those of you that don’t watch much television, the show Medium on NBC is based on Dubois’ experiences. What can I say? I’m a sucker for psychic shows and this show makes Monday nights almost tolerable. After a long day at work with no reprieve from angry customers, I like to go home, plop down and watch this highly entertaining show staring Patricia Arquette.

I played with this photograph which was taken at the Devil’s Punchbowl along Highway 101. I wasn’t sure what I would get with all the damn fog but after a few go-arounds in Picacsa, the outcome was pleasantly surprising.

Relay For Life Part III

Here are some final photos from this year’s RFL. I took all of these as the luminary ceremony was getting under way. Like last year and the year before, I don’t stay for the observance as it is just too difficult to watch all of that emotion pour out of the crowd. I have a hard enough time looking at the candles that line all the way around the track. Side by side, the names and faces each have their own identity and yet they meld together with one another creating an overwhelming display of hope, sadness, fear, joy, pain, and love.

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

© Punkin Dunkin Productions