Urban Chickens

A couple, three weeks ago I obsessed on a prop for a test shoot and before I knew it I had driven a hour and a half to buy chickens. I thought I'd return them , but I didn't want to do that drive again.   I now have a use for the dog house my beloved, Murphy, wanted nothing to do with.  Three times I've moved that doghouse trying to make good use of a bad idea.  The chickens seem to be liking it just fine.  And here is where it will stay.   

I have always wanted chickens.  As a kid I had several chickens - pink ones, green ones, purple ones.  They just never made it past the stage where all the dye had grown out of their feathers.  Stories of doomed Easter animal are plentiful in my family.   One year we had a drowning in the toilet.  The chick was getting big enough to fly out of his box.  And I naively kept him in the bathroom.  I found him face down in green water.  One I literally loved to death.  I carried the chicken everywhere I went and finally rolled over on him while napping.  He lasted a day.   The only one that got nearly out of his Easter dye and into his big chicken feathers was gobbled up by my dog, Attila, in one stealth slurp.  

The chickens I have now are about 3 months old.  I have a red rooster, a black and white speckled rooster and a black hen with a necklace of brown tipped feathers.  I am keeping them in my defunct garden plot.  I brought them home to acclimate in my defunct greenhouse.  Next year those two things will be as they should be and my hen should be laying her eggs.

I have been getting my education on raising them from a host of internet sources.  I was amazed that there is even blogs on Urban Chickens.  One is here at Urban Chicken Underground .

Tweeting?

Well, I am a Twitter now.  And if you are interested you can go here to follow.  I've got much more to do now.  Am I creating more work for myself?

Omnicom"s New Payment Terms

For any of you Advertising Photographers you might want to take the time to read the latest in PDN here about the new payment terms with some of the biggest agencies.  This is yet another way the economy changes are playing out in our lives.  There is something we can do.  Act right and act appropriately.   ASMP statement here.

  

Competition

I like to think I am not competitive, but once when I shared that feeling with a friend she glanced over at her boyfriend with a smirk and smugly laughed.  Well anyway, I have embraced the identity and now I am methodically paying the dues for competitions this year.  My reps have been pushing me to do this for years.  One I recently entered is the PDN Faces Contest.  If you are a portrait photographer, go for it.  I have learned something that has taken this hard head to finally accept is you have to pay your dues for recognition.  What that dues is is up to you, but it is necessary.  Things rarely fall in your lap.  One must "dig their ditch".  Recognition and the need for or necessity of it will be a topic another day.

The Center-(formally known as the Santa Fe Center for Photography)

2009 Project Competition winners announced here. And singular image winners here. I am looking forward to seeing the artist statements and imagery of the Projects.  I hope to be a part of a review one day.  Alas, not this year.  Try, try again.  Congratulations to all the winners.

Cc at the Monkey Grass

The Seventh Seal-Ingmar Bergman

I can't remember why I queued this film but last night I watched Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal."  I guess it was to begin my study of Ingmar's artistic lighting and dramatic cuts.  Or it might have intrigued me because it is a film dealing with death.  Quote that has shaken me spoken by the distraught knight Antonius Block during his confession to death.... "We have made an idol of our fear and called it God."

Alice in Wonderland

Is Faith Possible?

What's it all for?  I listen to "Fresh Air" whenever I have the time, but I am a bit shaken by the last episode.  Terry Gross interviewed Bart Ehrman this week.  His new book "Jesus Interrupted" was discussed.  Without going into too much detail, Bart Ehrman is a bible scholar  who was once an evangelic Christian now turned agnostic.  All of this is discussed here.  I am not shaken by the contradictions of the bible or that we are not sure who is the true author of the books.  It is one of the books of the New Testament that has scared me.  It is in the book of St. Matthew where Jesus is mocked, in shock and frightened of death while hanging on the cross that has saddened me.  I like the books of St. Luke and the others where Jesus embraces death and doesn't question his belief.  It was also Bart Ehrman's summary in the interview that left me somewhat empty today.  "Is Faith Possible?"  

Congruent

Some words just repeat themselves in my head over and over until I just have to say them out loud.  This morning "congruent" is the one.  My mind is so weird.  It does things without my consent, one of which is the mantra of a word.  I also find myself reading things, anything, along the highway while driving, standing in the checkout lane, riding the elevator.  The thing can be as simple as "the license for the operation of the elevator is in the Management Office."  What the kicker is, I'll read it over and over.  Anyway I am having one of those mornings and "congruent" is spinning around in my head like a pair of jeans in a clothes dryer. 

I don't know what set this off this morning but the word "congruent" is quite fitting.  For the past few years, 2 or 3, I have been working on becoming more congruent in all aspects of my life.  Easier said than done.  Contradiction is a word I'd use to describe myself in the past.  Even though some may say I contradict myself, I like to think now I am just changing my mind or having a bad day. 

 

So what is more congruent in my life, specifically?  I truly believe in myself now.  I don't just say it.  I feel it now.  Yes I know I have blogged about how I have lost sight of my worthiness in the world.  Today and just today,  I see it really as a behavioral relapse.  Deep down and without false modesty, I truly believe in myself.  

On Turning 50 (not me yet)

What is age?  It meant so much when I was young, but with each year I am surprised with the idea of time being relative.  I am thankful of growing older.  I am embracing what aging means.  Who gives a s--t what the outer appearances are and who decided what beauty is anyway?   

 I am guilty of appreciating youth.  It is fun and easy as a photographer to photograph the smooth, dewy complexion of the young.  What is it about our society that is driven by youth, pop, new?  Oh, how I do know now that my youth was wasted on my youth.  My life becomes more deeply meaningful with each passing year.  And here it is, that worn out saying, "oh if I only knew then what I know now."  I didn't want to say it , but there it is, I did.  I want to start a movement for growing older and being beautiful.  Remember "Black is Beautiful."  Well, I want all to join in on an alliance for "Aging is Awesome."  (and please ignore how I titled this post.  I was setting my age back at 5.)