paper & plastic

i have had these blue and white napkins forever, and was inspired the other day to take some photos of them. i did a whole series of paper napkins, plates and plastic cutlery. here are a couple.

candles & matches

lately i've been shooting a lot of still life with my polaroid. something i thought might be hard to do, because you kind of have to control the environment, and i am just used to taking snapshots. lighting was my biggest fear, since i know very little about it. fortunately, we had a few days of super overcast skies, which made for really beautiful light that was perfect for a still life shoot. so over those two days i kind of went crazy, and took about 200 shots. here are two of them.

my first

this is the first photo i took with my 680 slr (the most awesome camera ever!). not my best, not my worst.

morning oj

so i decided to start one of my many new year's resolutions a bit early. in my experience, january 1st has never been a great day to start a new life. in the past i've found that by the time noon rolls around, i've already broken most of my resolutions. it usually goes something like this . . . wake up late (1)be more responsible), feeling very lethargic (2)start exercise regime), hung-over (3)drink less and 4)take care of your skin), hungry for greasy food (5)eat healthy) and totally stressed about the long list of resolutions that i have to uphold (6)manage stress better). so needless to say, i felt a new plan was in order. the other day i decided that i put too much pressure on myself with all of these resolutions (i do a whole list on my birthday as well, and they, too, fall by the wayside within days). instead this year i would just come up with one resolution. of course that didn't work, since my one resolution was an all encompassing "be better at everything." at 36, i realize, that is not going to happen. i'm going to have to narrow down "everything." i think what i really want is to live more consciously. make conscious decisions, take time to appreciate things, slow down, think before speaking, think before screaming, act on impulses (not screaming impulses, but creative impulses). i decided that i have spent years entertaining one great idea after another, acted on very few, and brought to fruition even less. my promise to myself is to follow through on my ideas, no matter how scary or time consuming they may be, and just see how that turns out. so here is my first idea. a blog with my polaroids (and thoughts if i feel like it). let's see how long it lasts.