Tuesday, November 29, 2005

click me baby one more time


Today I have been 26 years old for one solid month. In that time - four fast weeks - I have taken advantage of photography in ways I never had before.

We have this saying in my immediate family: We take two kinds of pictures; people in chairs or people in restaurants. Really, if you flipped through the Madge family photo albums, you'd see a collection of relatives smiling while sitting in our living room chairs, or they'd be grinning while waiting for their food to be served at a favorite restaurant. Actually, I like the restaurant photos more than anything. They suggest to me that we were really making the most of our dining out; we did it so infrequently during my youth that is was worthy of recording with my mom's Kodak camera.

Now I eat out so much - too much - that the experience of it all has lost its magic. That makes me so sad to admit.

But anyway, if the Madge family cliché photo is either one of two things I just mentioned, then in the real photo world, it is probably cliché to take a photograph of that stand alone tree on the horizon. Or statues. Yes. You know what I'm talking about. But now that I'm very fresh and new to this photography world, I don't mind starting out with the clichés. In fact - I am proud of my early work! Without further ado, some of my latest pictures are off to the left, supposedly.

[This statue woman was taken in a cemetery in downtown West Palm Beach; it is right across the street from the Norton Museum of Art and, coincidently, about four or five blocks from my old apartment building. I loved that neighborhood! And that apartment. Sigh. I didn't notice this when I took her picture, but, don't you think she looks like she's crying? I am spooked by things like this, but also ridiculous enough to admit that while I took her picture, I told her that everything was going to be okay. She looked sad then, but not in tears!]


And now for a back-to-the-normal-font-size sidebar. Bold, no less! I turned in a paper this evening that was written in this very Georgia font. I am so effing sick and tired of Times New Roman, I can't even begin to tell you. In all my years as an obedient student, I have never, ever strayed from Times New Roman. Never! (My loyalty is, quite often, detrimental.) But this one time, I simply had to; Georgia was on my mind. (I feel akin to those girls in the 7th grade who, no matter how many times the teacher specified blue or black ink only, turned their assignments in with pink-inked answers. Those ditzy rebels! Now I am among them.)



6 comments:

kimberlina said...

i love your photos! and everything is cliche. live the cliche. embrace the cliche. sometimes cliche can make you happy.

Meghan said...

the statue looks sad, this is true... but it's a cemetery, and very few statues there look happy. at least this one was beautiful in its sadness. makes me think of times i've been in cemeteries and seen things of this nature.

in my family, there's also two types of photos: everybody grouped around something and smiling, or people making faces while in the same location as the aforementioned photo. it's sad. "serious photo! ok, now goofy photo!" every time.

i'm going to go share the deliciousness that is the pumpkin pie i brought back to school with my friends. Brits out!

---MB

uvvrd- Cockney for "hovered"

Cheryl said...

Get a new camera, and you even start being artsy with the fonts, huh? I'm lovin' these pictures--you have a great eye.

FRITZ said...

You went to my FAVORITE place to take pictures....cemetaries! I have HUNDREDS of prints taken at cemetaries, and many include women just as this. Good composition, dear. You're really getting the hang of this.

Plus, you're story about taking pictures sitting down or eating has got me cracking up.

madge said...

Kimberlina, you are so right. Thank you.

Meghan, Pioneer Cemetery! Need I say anything more...Yes. I think it's funny that your family takes a serious and then funny photo. That's hilarious.

Cheryl, Thank you! When I start messing with the fonts, you know things are getting crazy.

Fritz, thank you doll!

Calzone said...

forgoing times new Roman?? Man for a librarian you are wild.