Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Guidance the light that lets you see the way

I have had the opportunity several years ago to meet with a real professional photographer. Photographer might even be limiting. He shoots, designs and writes in still and multimedia (audio/video). Perhaps "artist" would be more fitting. I have mentioned him before. But his guidance is why I am writing about him again.

Over the past few years, we haven't really conversed much except for a few meetings we would both attend. We both got busy then time got the best of us. Because of him being a photographer, I valued his opinion of my own pictures. I think, luckily, he hasn't really seen any of my work. In my not so humble opinion, it's just not all that great. The desire is there, but the effort has been lacking.

Lately, we have been sending emails back and forth. He lightly critiques my blog and I am truly thrilled to get it. Because I can't dedicate a tremendous amount of time to some elements of the blog, I won't incorporate everything he suggests, but I will take into account what he offers.

A few items are actually part of what I expected in the course of the project and blog. I was already planning on changing the look and feel of the blog. Right now, I like that fact that the blog is simplified. There isn't a whole lot that I can do with it. Or else I will become too focused on the minute details like the perfect color and combinations of the font size, and links, or formatting of the tables etc. If I wanted to do that, I would have just made another web site. But, blogger has given us access to the CSS and HTML, we can make some changes. Over the course of time, I will be experimenting with some changes as I get an opportunity. As you can already see, I have changed the background and font colors.

If you don't like what you see, let me know.

One of the other changes that will be more difficult to incorporate will be the stories. I have been putting very small tidbits of information about my subjects. Initially it was by design. I try very hard to not identify the people that entrust me with their stories and images. Perhaps too much? Hence their only ID is an initial and in some cases I get an image of them in their work place. The last few people have been very generous in their time. I have had really nice conversations with them as we share our lives in a relatively short amount of time. Unfortunately, I can't always remember everything they tell me. I am planning on getting a voice recorder so I can actually record what we say. This way I can cull more accurate quotes, or references with greater detail.

This is where David has challenged me. To write with more detail. More from the heart. To dig deep within. Either he sees something in me that I cannot. Or he has a skill and an opportunity to take part in this project that will help solidify his role as an ARTIST.

Sooner than later, I will attempt to change the entries a bit. I will probably still do the regular links as I do often. I feel it's important to be able to share with all of you, what I find interesting. You can either glean tidbits from those links or be able to actually see, hear and feel what I feel.

How many blogs can say that?

I will then try and do a weekly "personal reflection" post. Something I can really put out there. The bulk of the blog will still be links and banter. But it will increasingly become the deeper stories of the people I interact with.

I was looking on the OPTN site and notices we are a few hundred away from hitting 95,000 people waiting for an organ. According to the numbers posted yesterday. The number of people dying each year waiting for an organ is actually over 6,000 closer to 7,000.

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