photo obsessions

i'm a sucker for a new photographic obsession. last may, on a trip to singapore i bought my nikon D60 and when i got to manila and found my friends were all into lomo, i bought a couple of analog lomography cameras--a diana+ and a fisheye. soon after that, in munich, i stumbled onto a store with the lomo stuff and bought an octomat as well. that meant that i was schlepping a bag around with no less than four cameras in it at any given moment. that was madness. and it tapered off a bit (i don't carry the lomo cameras around anymore as much as i probably should). but it was mostly because i discovered through the viewfinder photography or TtV, as it's usually called around the internet. and that called for, yes, you guessed it, another camera. one which has a viewfinder large enough to use your DSLR to take a picture of that viewfinder. it helps if you mask it off somehow to make it dark enough for your DSLR to autofocus (you'd need extra arms to hold it all if you didn't use autofocus).

but, in case this is all gobbledy-gook, allow me to back up and explain.

my diana+ (and my rockin' pilgrim sunglasses)

first the lomography thing. lomography is a photo trend wherein people take old cameras made by the "lomo" people or holga or other old russian (read: soviet) cameras in general (why oh why didn't i buy some of those when i was in russia in '94?). these were cheap plastic cameras made and sold in the 50s and onward. they are extremely simple and have all sorts of light leaks and quirks which make for some really interesting and unpredictable photos. you can add to the effect by loading them with slide film (preferably expired) and then "cross-processing" it in the chemicals for regular film. you might have seen "cross-process" effects in Photoshop or Lightroom presets that are called this. they often given a bluish or reddish cast to the photos. but you can get it naturally by using an old fashioned film camera and cross-processing.

what got me intrigued about the lomo thing was an exhibition i saw in manila with displays of photos that a whole army of lomo fanatics took during one day at the wonderful serendra shopping centre at manila's fort bonifacio. the way of displaying multiples of the photos in big expanses was just so cool, as were the colors that you get using cross-processed expired slide film:

photo exhibit in manila

who wouldn't fall in love with this?

now the diana+ and the real holgas all use 120 film, but the fisheye and my octomat use ordinary 35mm film. here are some of the pictures i've taken with my lomo cameras, as well as a cheap penguin-shaped camera that came with some candy (those are funnily enough, some of the best ones).

fisheye sabin

diana+ - double exposure and film not advanced

expired slide film - cross-processed

penguin candy camera

expired slide film - cross-processed

octomat

from one shutter depression, this takes 8 photos over 2 seconds

expired 35mm slide film - cross processed

diana + - shot of cameras on the table

including the cyber-shot that's in the sony-ericsson phone

and our old SLR Canon AE-1 program (a classic)

if you want to see some really awesome lomography, check out my friend liane's photostream on flickr. she really knows what she's doing. me, i'm just playing around. some of her photos were part of that exhibit in manila that got it all started for me. 

for lomo enthusiasts, the beauty is in the unpredictability. film that doesn't advance, light leaks, double exposures. all of the "mistakes" are what makes it fabulous. and there's something really appealing in that. a chaos that i'm drawn to. plus, it's like the old days where you actually take your pictures in to be developed and have to wait for them. awesome. there's something that just feels good about waiting (however impatiently one might do that). we don't wait often enough for gratification these days.

which brings me to TtV photography. in a way, you get some of the appeal of the lomography thing...unpredictable, grainy, out-of-focus shots, but with instant gratification, since you actually take them with your DSLR.

the first camera i tried out the TtV thing with was this beauty:

and after reading a few tutorials online, i fashioned this contraption and took some pictures:

and took this:

the only editing i tend to do with TtVis cropping, because when you download your pictures, they look like this:

but otherwise, i leave them alone because what you want is the blurriness, the dirt that's on the viewfinder on the old camera and the generally speaking, the quirks. with this really old camera (it's from 1901), i love the shape of the viewfinder, but most of the "right" cameras for TtV photography are square, like it comes out with my rolleicord, which was the next acquisition. since i wanted to do "real" TtV photography. the problem is that i haven't really been able to try it out properly until yesterday because it's been so cloudy and you need good light for TtV.

for my rolleicord, i made a contraption out of a box that a bottle of calvados came in. i painted the inside of the box with matte black paint, then secured it at the right size around the camera with a couple of pieces of duct tape:

my rolleicord and my contraption

rolleicord with contraption in place

picture by sabin of me taking a TtV picture with my Nikon D60

with the rolleicord, my pictures look like this before i crop/straighten them:

and like this after:

it looks like i've applied all sorts of processing, but i haven't done any at all, aside from the crop & straighten. that's what's cool to me about TtV--getting the processing effects naturally. i've been a little fed up lately with some of the over-processed photography i see out there. some part of me feels it's dishonest, at the same time as i am strangely drawn to it, because it's FUN to process your photos. this way, with TtV, i can satisfy both parts of my divided personality--the naturalist and the geek who loves software and gadgetry.

the beauty is that you don't HAVE to pay $300 for a used rolleicord TLR to do TtV photography, you can pick up an argus 75 or a kodak duaflex, which is what most people out there are using. you should be able to find one at a flea market for $10-25 (they made tons of them). i have yet to try my $10 brownie 620 , but there will be other days of sunshine and i expect it will work just fine too. you also don't have to have a macro lens for your DSLR, you just have to experiment and get your contraption the right length so your kit lens will do the autofocus thing.

so, what are you waiting for?

wherein she goes on and on about cape town

it's the interview meme that keeps on giving! i asked molly from ohfortheloveofblog to interview me after i interviewed her last week and here are her questions for me. i totally loved the mix of serious and frivolous. :-)

molly:  I’m dying to know about your trip to Cape Town in, was it 2007? What did you do? Where did you go? What was the best and the least pleasant thing about your stay?

i was last in cape town in november of 2007. i had visited once before, in july of 2006. both trips were related to my job, so on both trips i got to hang out with sailors. i think there are many reasons that i fell in love with cape town that first time...partly, since it was july, i was in a summer holiday mood, so although it was work, it felt a bit like a holiday. i was lucky with the weather as well, despite it being winter in that part of the world. i was attending an officer's seminar and got to meet a load of great guys from the fleet down there, plus, i stayed in a funky protea hotel (victoria junction) . i think when your hotel is different from the usual anonymous business hotel, it puts you in a better frame of mind. the protea hotels are hip, funky places with fun decor and playful meeting notebooks with jokes and time-killers in the watermarks. you can't help but feel in a good mood when you stay in one. (and yes, protea people, if you stumble across this, you are welcome to quote me on this.)

another reason it was so great was that i got to hang out with one of my favorite people. i stayed over the weekend and she took me to the winelands. here we are, trying out the wares at delheim (i highly recommend the chardonnay sur lie if you can get your hands on some):

and how can you not completely fall madly in love with a place that looks like this, even in the winter? or where your friend has a friend who works here and you can visit the factory and walk away with rather a lot of beautiful purses for yourself and your friends and family (zebra shopper on the right is MY actual bag).

because it was work, i visited a training centre, the idyllically-placed SAMTRA in simonstown. the managing director was so kind that after he took me on a tour of the simulator and the facilities, he drove me down to cape point, since i hadn't been there before:

after which we had the most fantastic seafood lunch overlooking the sea and even caught a glimpse of some whales languishing off the shore. then, a little walk on boulder beach to meet some of these guys:

on my second visit, i had a number of meetings and once again had the chance to visit SAMTRA and i stayed in the fab fire & ice protea hotel with its shark cage elevators and the dramatic high-backed chairs in the dining room. i think it was over a lovely dinner conversation with the MD of SAMTRA and his wonderful down-to-earth wife on that trip that i first admitted out loud how tired and burned out i was by the prospect of starting all over again with a new boss. it was such a relief to discuss it with such kind people.

so, for me, cape town and the people i know there, make it a place where i feel comfortable and relaxed and where i feel i have time to think and clear my head. i'm not sure how it happened, but it seemed to be a magical combination of great people with whom i felt totally at ease, a gorgeous setting and quite possibly the general vibe that i felt in the air when i was there. perhaps the fact that i was literally far from my everyday reality at work gave me the space i needed literally and metaphorically and psychically for that matter, to think and see my situation for what it was.

one of the places where the chill-out, relaxing vibe is spot-on is at spiers' moyo. i actually visited there both times i went, but on the second trip, i think that lying there, giggling with my good friend and her daughter while sipping a crisp chardonnay was what did the trick for me and helped me on the road to my decision to leave the job that was so bad for me, even tho' it meant i no longer had a ready excuse to visit cape town anymore.

but, seriously, how can you not think clearly in a place like this:

where a perfectly lovely woman comes by and paints your face like this:

and you can lean back and chat with your husband back in the northern hemisphere like this:

it has actually occurred to me that the pattern she painted on my face did something to clear my ability to think and see things more clearly, directing and unblocking the flow of my thoughts. do you believe such things can be so?

i honestly can't think of a single unpleasant thing about either of my stays, but will admit that i was in an ideal situation. i was picked up at the airport by our company driver and he took me everywhere i wanted to go when i wasn't with colleagues and business associates. this may have left me rather protected from some of the realities that are no doubt there. for example, we merely drove past shanty towns and although i talked to the driver about them, i didn't really experience them or the people who live there.

i was told some stories of a spate of incidents where some people were causing serious accidents by throwing large rocks down onto cars on the freeway below from an overpass, but again, didn't face this reality. i didn't have time on either visit to go to robbin island (or rather, i probably would have had time, but chose the winelands instead, which shows you my priorities), and i am sure that would have been a sobering experience.

there are many reasons to return--for example, i didn't get to climb table mountain. not to mention that now i've met some really cool people here in the blogosphere that i would love to meet in person (see SA blog link list in sidebar). i would love to go with my family. i might even like to try a bit of camping. and although i don't really have a burning desire to check the big five off my list, it would be fun to see some of those beautiful animals, especially if sabin was along, because she would find it amazing. so basically, i keep an eye out for opportunities for us job-wise in that part of the world and feel that someday, the right thing will come along. and in the meantime, it's definitely on the family holiday destination list.

molly:  Absolutely no hint of judgement in this next question, I’m genuinely just curious: do you think about, and if yes, how do you offset / rationalise / ignore the size of your carbon footprint from all the flying you do? (Or, if they’re work-related flights do you notch up the environmental debt to your employers as I would.)

i will admit to a shocking lack of thinking about such things until rather recently. back in 2007, when i traveled more than 150 days, i didn't think about it at all. all i thought about was how ridiculous it was to try to get from singapore to constanta, romania in two days (no direct route and involving not one but TWO horrible london airports) and how much i hated those business class seats on BA where you are FACING your seat mate and if you have a seat mate (read: random stranger) that doesn't want to put the little wall up, you're a bit stuck. in other words, i was pretty shallow. or maybe i was just really, really busy and had no time to think.

these days, i think about it because i'm still working in oslo and that involves a commute by air. i have wondered how much longer that will be defensible on my part (and my employer's, for that matter). the airlines (especially the ones i fly most often--SAS and KLM) have made it easy to pay a few euros extra (i think it's 8) to offset the CO2 and i choose that option, passing along the cost to the company, after all, they are asking me to do the traveling. however, i'm also usually traveling in a fare class where i feel that i'm paying enough for the ticket that it's defensible. as i see it, the super cheap, discount-rate tickets probably aren't covering a lot of ability on the airline's part to do anything extra for the environment (not that i don't go for those when there are five of us flying somewhere), like upgrading to newer, more fuel efficient planes.

frankly, i think that the global economic crisis will make companies think harder about how much they require their employees to travel. they'll use the technologies that are available (not that i think that face-to-face meetings aren't necessary some of the time, they are) to hold virtual meetings. people won't be placed in the ridiculous situation i was placed in of giving a 30-minute presentation in singapore on a monday and the same presentation in constanta, romania on the wednesday of the same week, then being expected to be in newcastle for an opening of a new office on that friday. and i wasn't even top management. i think that level of madness will come to a well-deserved end. as will last-minute trips halfway across the world. on more than one occasion i was asked late on a friday afternoon to be in singapore on the following monday. however, that hasn't been the case for the past year, my current employer is MUCH better at planning than the old one was.

molly: How many pairs of shoes do you own? How about some pics of your favourites?

i'm a little fearful to actually go and count, tho' it's not as bad as it once was. i have probably 4 pairs of heels that i wear for work with suits. 4 pairs of havianas that are my summer wear and which i wear around the house when it's not too cold (i actually have them on now because we really warmed up the house with the fireplace today). i have two pairs of furry boots--one red, and new purple ones that i just bought (on sale, of course), plus a pair of tommy hilfiger wintery boots that can get muddy (the furry ones really shouldn't) and a couple different pairs of wellingtons for those many rainy days in denmark (different styles for different moods). i've got nike running shoes (the iPod ones, despite the fact that i don't really run except when chased--but as we know, i love gadgets) and nike tennis shoes for casual wear. two pairs of K swiss to wear with jeans. a couple of pairs of flats (i'm a sucker for camper shoes). one pair of crocs. two pairs of el naturalistas, which are my latest everyday shoes. i've got a couple of pairs of sparkly shoes for with fancy dresses, but i don't use them that often, so they're at the back of the closet. i've got riding boots, which i haven't used in far too long. but, as requested, here are a few of my faves:

jessica simpson stilettos

(i know, i lose a few IQ points every time i wear them, but they're beautiful)

the beloved SA havianas (i will cry when these wear out)

please ignore the pedicure, but do note my one and only tattoo:

my summer flats from last summer:

my first pair of purple el naturalistas:

and the newer pair of red ones that i wear nearly every day these days

(and since it was taken with my iPhone, perhaps a small lesson in why people shouldn't use mobile phones while driving):

and last, but not least, my new purple furry bumper boots:

molly:  I’m sure there’s a part of you that thinks about moving back to the States now that it’s a Whole New World over there. If your husband’s work would allow it (‘cos I believe that’s the main reason you’re all in Denmark?), would you consider it? Are you considering it?

actually, we're not considering it at all. the economy over there is still in the toilet, despite the new president (granted, he's had less than a week). and, despite my occasional frustrations with the danes, our life is here. originally, i came here because my husband was an officer in the danish army and i was but a drifting graduate student. also, when we got together, his girls from his previous marriage were small. too small to be put on a plane to the US to visit us. but now, ten+ years have gone by and our life is here. our house, our friends, sabin's school, her friends--not that i wouldn't take an expatriation in a heartbeat. i just wouldn't imagine it being to the US.

during the bush years, it was out of the question. i skulked through passport control, head hanging low and while i no longer feel i have to do that, i think the US would drive me crazy. the bush legacy is is at least partly an enhancement of the lack of common sense and trusting in employees that was always there. i see it when i encounter those lovely people from "homeland security." they have no visible ability to think for themselves, no sense of humor and frankly, many of them don't even have all their own teeth. it would drive me crazy now after being gone for so long.

i don't like how i feel when i'm in the US. i'm more stressed and i feel it changes me into a more hurried, rushed person who could go postal (as we say in the US) at any moment. i'm more aggressive--verbalizing threats against other drivers and the like. i'm a kinder, gentler person here in DK (tho' i realize i might not always seem that way on this blog). in short, i like me better here.

i always say that i have a mid-atlantic feeling--adrift somewhere in the middle of the atlantic, not belonging on either side. i no longer feel fully like an american nor do i feel like a dane (tho' i fear i act like one more often than i'd like to admit). and both are surely by choice. you don't get over eight years of distancing yourself from bush in less than a week of the new president (as much hope as he gives me). i guess i'm quite content to continue voting and holding an american passport and living here, observing it all from afar. i can't actually imagine a situation in which that will change.

molly: What plans, if any, for your etsy shop?

good question. i created it last summer sometime, but have never listed a single item. i have some kind of huge block/fear about it. i think the block has to do with the creative block in general that i had after leaving my stressful job. perhaps now that i feel that clearing out, i will take the plunge and list something. i'm just not sure what. probably my pillow creations come to mind as the first thing i'd be willing to list. or perhaps some gocco cards. or my little fimo clay robots or maybe some of the 25 pairs of earrings that i've made. or maybe even some photos printed up nicely...(perhaps what's stopping me is the array of choice).

but i can always find a zillion excuses. like that i don't have a zipper foot for my old sewing machine, so i couldn't make pillows with a zipper so you could easily wash them. so i'd need a new sewing machine before i could list anything. or that i don't really know how to bend those little wires with the earrings, so they don't look entirely professional.  these are the stories that i tell myself in my head, but i know they're just excuses. hmm...i don't really have any excuse about the gocco cards, so perhaps that's where i should start.

i think if i'm honest, i'm also a little bit afraid of making what's fun and light-hearted into work and drudgery and something that i have to do. today, i can stay up late sewing or painting if the spirit moves me. if i were selling things and people actually ordered them, then i would HAVE to do it. there would be constant pressure to come up with something new or to keep doing something that i'd become tired of.

so, frankly, i don't really know what i will do with it. i probably should just give it a whirl. what am i gonna remember?

molly: Bonus frivolous question (‘cos there was nothing frivolous about Question 3...) -  which is, so far, your favourite Murakami novel and why?


i love this question, but will answer it in another posting because i think we've all had enough for now (and it's now nearly 2 a.m. as i write this). i realized this evening, after my sister left and i had time to sit down that i've really missed this whole blog thing. i'll be by this week to read what all of you have had to say while i've been running around. and i will tell you which is my favorite murakami sometime this week. thank you molly, for getting me back on the blog bandwagon again.

500th post - an interview of me by tangobaby

that 499 was staring me in the face in my blogger dashboard this morning. i knew this would be my 500th post and i had nothing but a really weird dream that i had last night (strangely not in a mall) which although i took a page and a half of notes when i woke up from it, wouldn't have much sense to all of you...so, i was very fortunate that the lovely and talented tangobaby was staying up late during her staycation and just sent her 5 interview questions for me. we can all breathe a sigh of relief about that one! especially me, because i didn't want to waste my 500th post on drivel. so, here goes...

tangobaby:  I see now in your profile that you're currently working as a bee charmer. Since previously you were in the shipping industry, can you please elaborate on the change of career and tell us how you do charm bees. Is charming a bee easier than charming a sailor?

me:  back in '97 when i was on my fulbright in macedonia (at the point where i was just hanging out because the subject of my research turned out not to exist), a couple of NGO/peace corps types who i had met in the ex-pat community in skopje were going to travel to russia during the summer. they had been to the russian embassy to acquire their visas and had faced a lot of bureaucratic red tape and had come away discouraged. one of the women, bless her heart, was a prematurely grey 40-year-old with one of those eyes that looked off the other direction during the conversation and the other was a frumpy, slightly lumpy, no makeup, very granola-type. they were very nice, don't get me wrong, but they just weren't getting anywhere on the visa front. they knew i spoke russian (and had a few very short skirts and some nice new high-heeled sandals), so they asked me to help them out.

it just so happened that i needed a russian visa myself as i was headed on my friend gabi's honeymoon. so, i took my paperwork and theirs, put on my short orange dress and walked over to the russian embassy, which was about two blocks from my apartment. the dress is here on another occasion (when i was too afraid of heights to stand all the way up on a column at a ruin in central macedonia):

in those days (and maybe still today), you needed an invitation to get a visa to russia. my friends had a formal invitation from the place they were going to stay--very official-looking. i had an invitation from some friends. now there were some issues with my invitation. for one, it only had my first and middle names on it, not my last name. oh, and although the passport number was correct, it said i had a german passport. so, when i fronted up with a last name and a US passport, i expected i'd have some explaining to do.

it was a bright sunny day in early june. very summery and i was in a buoyant mood (it was probably the dress). i was let into the courtyard to the consular window by the guards. you actually stood outside and there was a picnic table there where you could wait. i went up to the window and explained in my rusty russian about the three visas and avoided mentioning the problematic bits with my invitation, hoping they might not notice.  then, i sat down at the picnic table to wait.

before long, the visa officer, a stocky, 50-ish russian gentleman, came out to the picnic table. he asked if i'd like a coffee and i said, yes and he asked someone to bring us coffee. then, he asked me about my invitation. he pointed out that my last name was missing and that it stated that i had a german passport. i was, of course, aware of these facts. but he was quite nice about it, laughing a bit and not at all intimidating. i explained that i was going together with german friends and they had arranged for our invitation and the russian friends must have not realized i wasn't german too. and then he laughed and said he'd issue the visa and that i should have a nice trip. and that i was welcome to come back anytime for coffee. then he went in and issued all 3 visas while i waited (which was quite unheard of, people normally waited at least a week).

when i went back to my friends to give them their visas, ellen pronounced me a bee charmer, so that's the long version of where that came from. actually, i think it's a line from the lovely 1991 movie fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop cafe.  that same summer, i had several other bee charming experiences, which i'll save for another day, so it was somehow the place i was in and the aura i was giving off.

i decided that i wanted 2009 to be such a bee charming year--to call some of that positive energy back into my life, so that's why i recently changed my blogger profile. and sailors are just as subject to bee charming as anyone else (if the queen bee can swear), so i expect to keep right on charming them as well.

tangobaby: You're remarkably candid about your feelings on your blog, especially in the area of the media and politics. If you could distill the greatest differences between the media and politics in Denmark and the US, what would they be. If you could infuse part of Denmark into the US, what change would be most beneficial? (Feel free to expound voluminously.)

me:  first, i guess i'm remarkably candid about my politics and opinions in general pretty much all the time, so it's natural for me to be so here on my blog as well. my blog is an extension of me, so to speak, so i behave here like i do in "real" life. and i guess i'm honest to a fault. husband has said that he understands the phrase "brutally honest" now that he knows me. this has been both good and bad for me, but is so closely tied to my identity and how i want to live my life...in a very real, raw, true manner, that i can't imagine being otherwise. i have tried to learn to temper it a bit when necessary, but i don't always succeed.

now back to media & politics...the largest difference surely comes from the fact that running denmark, with a population of 5 million, is like running a moderately-sized US city. of course, cities don't have embassies or a navy, so that's a bit of an over-simplification, but, it's still a scale. it's a bit easier to put a national health care system in place for 5 million people than for 300 million, just as one example.

there are a lot more parties in danish politics than in the US and people are starting new parties all the time. and because denmark is so egalitarian, it's really quite difficult (for me at least) to see any real difference between parties. the social democrats, the radicals and the socialists are the opposition to the coalition government that's in power at the moment, which consists of the left (venstre) party (which confusingly, is actually right), the conservatives and, as a "supporting partner," the danish people's party (dansk folkeparti). dansk folkeparti is the most colorful party, with a very colorful leader named pia. she's a real piece of work with her madonna-esque gap between her front teeth (the comparison most decidedly stops there) and speaks for the lower classes (whatever they may be in denmark, since everyone is SOOooo middle class)--those people who want to keep denmark for the danes, who are afraid of any foreigners and who go on charter holidays to mallorca, where they take their rye bread and liver pate along from home and stay in a hotel full of other danes. i'm sure that the woman who ran into the disabled guy in the wheelchair the other day was a member of dansk folkeparti's core audience.

as far as media, there is DR--danish radio, which would, in being publicly funded, be something akin to PBS in the US. however, it's a major media force in denmark--with two t.v. channels, 4 radio channels and lots of local radio. they do a limited amount of own production quality t.v. dramas and then crap like a danish version of x-factor (5 million people is not a large enough pool to draw talent from, let me tell you), which appeals to the masses.

i learned just the other night that if a t.v. station broadcasts from denmark, they cannot have commercials during their programming, only between the programs. a friend of ours works for a commercial station that broadcasts from the UK to get around this. weird how these things work.

as for other media...we have disney (the hannah montana channel, as nearly as i can tell), which strangely has ads only for their own programming, discovery, BBC world, CNN, BBC entertainment, 3-4 swedish channels, a couple of german ones, one swiss, a couple of french. but the main thing i watch is british detective shows and comedies. nothing is dubbed in danish (except children's programs and hannah montana for the morning broadcast), the market is too small, but it's good for people's english.

the DR popular radio station, P3, is great. they are some of the funniest DJs i've ever heard on radio (and i  lived in the southern california, chicago and phoenix radio markets) and they do a lot of really edgy stuff. the DR satire department is not at all afraid of lampooning any aspect of danish society and current events. nor do they have issues swearing on air. much freer in that sense than US media and not so restricted by political correctness.  i think it's this that i would infuse into US politics/media. a figure like jon stewart is doing so in the US, but he's on comedy central and that's not exactly wide distribution/mainstream media.  here, the daily show is broadcast on CNN and DR2, which says something interesting.

another interesting aspect of denmark that i'd like to inject into the US is a bit hard to describe. one of our best friends is black--her danish mother was studying in london and met a nice nigerian boy and produced our friend. she grew up in denmark, as danish as can be, but her skin is really black. and i always joke (even to her), that she doesn't know she's black. not in the way that people who are black in the US know they are black. she's completely complex-free and that's so refreshing. the US could use more of that and perhaps it will come for the generation growing up today now that obama is our coming president. i would wish that for the US.

tangobaby: You're a girl of many blogs. What does your hubby think of all of us in Bloglandia? (I ask this because my Boy is still befuddled about it all.) Does he encourage and/or enjoy your pursuits, or does he try to unplug your computer and hide it?

let me explain all those blogs, because they're for different purposes and not all active.

• moments of perfect clarity - this is the main blog. this is the one i write on (nearly) every day and where it all happens. this is my REAL blog.
  
• balderdash - this blog seemed to be needed as a place to put the funny made-up definitions i was coming up with for the WV words. and making a new blog afforded me the opportunity to invite a others to contribute. i've found that i really need to be inspired to write them and so my entries there are more sporadic than i would like them to be. i faithfully write down the words tho', they're scribbled on surfaces all over the house.
• just know where you are - this is the blog my sister and i put up about a year ago, when she was getting ready to go home to the US after being here for five months. we thought we'd continue our conversation there. that hasn't really happened (mostly because i think she lost the link and doesn't remember it exists). it has ended up being a place where i post pictures and small vignettes of what's been happening on our side of the atlantic. i do this because i have set it to send an email to our parents when there's a posting there and it's a good way to keep them informed when i don't call them often enough. i also post recipes there and i do think my sister goes there to look those up. we named it just know where you are because my sister wanted a GPS last year for christmas and husband's response was to buy her a map and a compass and tell her, "just know where you are," which i thought was pretty clever.
• too late nathan - my cousin does a family newsletter twice a year. i put up this blog as a supplement to that...to be a place where we could share a few more pictures and where my cousins would tell their stories. they haven't really done so. i think my family is actually rather luddite, if i'm honest. and it disappoints me a bit, because i have 29 cousins and i know that some of them must have something witty and/or humorous to say.
• getting it outta my system - only has 3 posts in it, but i write there when i want to vent about something that no one else should read, but which i need to get out of my system to move on. it's completely private and no one can go there but me. :-)
• sea skill - this is an invite-only blog where i put my work-related writing over the past year. i was having a writer's block in october and thought it might help cure it, since i seemed to have no trouble writing within this little blogger compose space during that time. it did help. it was also a way to solve the problem of my working on a mac in a PC environment and the issues i had with working on three different computers and never having the file i needed on the computer i needed it on at the moment i needed it.  basically, it's a sharepoint.

and as for husband's opinion...he thinks it's madness. i'm occasionally petulant to him about him not reading my blog, but he says, "i get to have the conversation with YOU, in person, i don't need to read it." and he's really right. many of the things i write about are the result of conversations i've had with him over a cup of tea in the evening or breakfast on a sunday morning.

tangobaby: As a former almost beauty queen from SD, what in your childhood prepared you for your life abroad and your years of travel? 

me:  i didn't have a passport or travel outside the US (except to canada and mexico, which didn't count since all you needed was a blockbuster card) 'til i was 26 if you can believe it. but, despite growing up in a very small town (1334 people), i learned to be outward looking from my mother, who hauled us in a 7-state area showing horses every summer. she drove us miles and miles and i learned from that to be fearless and that you didn't have to sit around waiting for a man to do stuff for you, since dad stayed home and golfed and no doubt enjoyed the peace and quiet.  and i've written before about how the made-for-t.v. movie the day after with jason robards and a deep and abiding loathing for ronald reagan (which i must have learned from my dad) made me want to study russian and visit russia.

i don't think i ever imagined that i'd live outside the US, especially not in denmark, which wasn't even on my list of places to visit--kind of in the same way that north dakota wasn't really on my list either--it just seemed boring. it just goes to show that you have to be open to what life throws at you and just go with it. and that, i learned growing up.

as for the beauty queen thing, i don't think that had anything to do with it, that was about revenge on a boyfriend who dumped me.

tangobaby:  To me, your photography is very graphic, vibrant and playful. Does your vision of the world inspire this aspect of your photography? What do you wish to learn most through your photographic exploits, what lessons are you looking for?

me:  this is an excellent question, mostly because it's provoking me to think about something that i never really thought about before.  i think that i'm very attracted to strong colors (which may contribute to my winter depression in this dark, grey danish landscape) and find myself taking pictures of things with strong colors. i only just started to play with the black & white presets in lightroom, to try to force myself off the direct positive and to expand my horizons (hence the new avatar pic).

as for the lessons i'd like to learn through my photography...i'm not sure i have consciously had any. but, i've been positively surprised on numerous occasions to notice some detail in a photo that i didn't realize was there when i was taking it...a shadow, a detail, some depth. i enjoy noticing those things. and i would say that noticing my surroundings has been one side-effect of photography. i think in photographs now in a way that i didn't used to. i tend to have a camera on me all the time, tho' i discovered the battery was dead on the pink sony when i was in ikea the other day and had to use my iPhone, which takes crap pictures, but i NEEDED a picture of this lamp to show to husband:

i'd like to learn a lot more about my camera. i have a nikon D60 DSLR and i've invested in some great lenses--an 18-200mm zoom lens and a macro, plus a fun lensbaby. i'm using the manual setting and choosing my own ISO more and more often, but still use it on auto settings most of the time. so from a learning standpoint, i'd like to work more on manual. my rolleicord TLR and other analog cameras help me on that front as well. i guess developing a photographic eye involves new, fresh ways of looking at the world. i look at things more closely than i used to, noticing chipping paint and details that i wouldn't once have noticed. photography grounds me and places me more firmly in the world, here and now. and although i hadn't articulated it until you asked me, that's what i want from it.

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well, that's it, that's my 500th post and my interview with the fabulous and wonderful tangobaby. thank you, dahling, for asking me these great questions! and now i've got to go pick my sister at the airport, which means my postings for the next ten days may be sporadic at best. but i'm sure i'll find time to share some pictures!