SuperDewa Photography
slideshow image 1 Slideshow Image 2 Slideshow Image 4

Welcome

I am new to blogging, so bear with me as I learn what the heck I'm doing. Until I am fully comfortable here, you will continue to find me and my photos more often on my flickr stream. Feel free to look around, leave comments, and ask me any questions. I'm open to suggestions if you play nice!

Coming Soon!

Details on buying prints and/or hiring me are in the works. In the meantime, if you would like to buy a print of one my photos or hire me to take photographs, please send me an e-mail.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

So, let's try this.

I've been considering giving blogging another try (I've tried a few times in the past but never got very far), and figured now was the time because I am beginning a year-long photography workshop/class with Tracey Clark over at Big Picture Classes. The class is called Picture Inspiration, and it's a spinoff of some other wonderful but shorter classes Tracey's given there and I've had the good fortune to take in the past year. There is still time to join the class, if it interests you. Seems to me that blogging what I do for that class each week will at the very least have me blogging once a week, so it's a perfect way to start. And ideally I'll blog more often than that. I've had things I've wanted to share that don't really fit the flickr or facebook formats.

So on to the Picture Inspiration assignment of the week (Week 1). Tracey asked us to share a self-portrait. I've taken a number of self-portraits over the past year and I find that sometimes they are easier than others. Right now is not one of those times. I am having trouble being happy for the camera, and there's more going on that makes whole dealing with my self-image thing confusing. I tried to hide behind blur and bokeh and creativity, but I finally went with a simple self-portrait, setting my camera across the table from me.


.

Here is the description I wrote for flickr (do I want to repeat myself here? Better to start off doing so and take it away later on that to regret not doing it and have to go to the work of doing it in the future):

Self-portraits were supposed to get easier the more I did them, but right now they are feeling harder than ever. It's been a rough year, and it's taking it's toll on me.

I remember when my children were little and all about needs that required constant attention, and more experienced parents would say "it only gets harder when they hit adolescence," and I would laugh, because obviously teenagers didn't require the work that babies through pre-schoolers do.

Well, I can officially say now that parenting gets harder when they hit adolescence. When they're little, their needs and wants are obvious, and they demand help from Mommy. When they get older, their needs are just as strong but not as obvious, and figuring out how to help them is a lot harder.

And when they're little, you can share all your thoughts about parenting and your individual struggles with other parents, and you can be open about yourself. When they get older, there's pride and privacy and other considerations to take into account, and parenting becomes a lot more lonely.

Anyway, the self-portraits have become harder because I feel vulnerable in them, and I have a lot to say about them that I can't because my self-image is so entangled in theirs, and I have to be careful.

For Week 1 of Picture Inspiration

11 comments:

Candace said...

Congratulations on your new blog! I hope you find it as fulfilling and fun as I have for the past 2 years. I started my blog just for a creative outlet in photography and writing. And it has done exactly that for me as well as introduced me to many other bloggers whose work I enjoy seeing regularly. I have also had a few small opportunities come my way because of my blog so that was just icing on the cake.

Like you, I am on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and that confuses me at times, too, to have all that different stuff going on. I prioritized and chose my blog as my main thing. When I make new posts, they are automatically linked to Facebook and Twitter. I just don't have the time to individually be uploading things to Facebook and Flickr a lot, too.

I will say that blogging itself can become time-consuming because, as you probably know, getting readers and commenters is somewhat dependent on you reading and commenting on other blogs. Therefore, when I started blogging, I was posting 5-7 times a week and now I only post about 3 times a week, sometimes only 2. I use the other days to read my favorite blogs and keep up with them. I don't find it a chore at all; I enjoy reading them, seeing their photos, learning about their lives, and getting some inspiration from them. I do know other bloggers who have gotten burned out on this, though, and have stopped blogging altogether because it got to be too much of a commitment.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and that it helps you get where you want to go, photographically and in life. I thought it was interesting what you said about having to be careful what you can say about yourself because of your life being so entwined with your childrens' lives and having to respect their privacy. I am sometimes amazed (and intrigued) at some bloggers who so fully put themselves "out there" on their blogs and reveal such personal things. My blog does mention my life and things I do and occasionally, I write about "deeper" things, but I don't really reveal anything I think I might regret later. I also never discuss my job or workplace because we have a strict social media policy that I would be very embarrassed about violating so it's best to never mention any of that, in my opinion, even though there have been times when something that happens at work would have been something I might have liked to write about.

I hope you enjoy your blog! I look forward to seeing more.

(I am unable to post here from my Wordpress blog so I have to do it from an old blog I don't use.)

Unknown said...

Candace, congratulations on being my first commenter ;-) ! I'm sorry wordpress wouldn't work -- do you think it is my blog or wordpress? I really appreciate what you wrote, because you answered a lot of questions for me. I have so little time to check Flickr accounts lately, and I am worried about how that will work with the blog. I am starting slow, just to get a feel for it. I will have to figure out how to link posts to FB & Twitter, although I will take my time on that -- not sure I want to do a lot of advertising this yet.

Anonymous said...

There seems to be a frequent problem between Wordpress and Blogger where it's just hard to post on to Blogger from Wordpress so it's not your blog. I've had the problem several times before. Sometimes it goes away :)

Lisa said...

I'm excited about your new blog! It's so fun to have a blog, but I find I'm frequently behind on mine.

Lisa said...

I had to post from an old account as well. Maybe if I could remember the Wordpress info., it would help?? lol

mufi said...

Love the new site, D!

Unknown said...

Thank you! Lisa, this is a blogger blog, so you could sign in with google, too, I think.

Kirstin said...

I love this portrait of you and I LOVE that you've started a blog. Fabulous!

Karen Roper said...

Hi Deirdre, love your blog! It already looks great! And so glad that Candace gave you the flip side of blogging. I'm afraid my comments at flikrmail were very negative. But it could have been other things going on in my life that made me give it up...I really don't remember. Great idea to take it slow and not try to build too big a following too soon.

I love your self-portrait. It is something I struggle with too...I'm much more comfortable behind the lens.

Maureen said...

How cool that you've started a blog. And I love your selfies. I love that even though they are difficult for you, you continue to do them. I believe that's where we find growth, is pushing to do the things that make us flinch or squirm or feel just a little bit uncomfortable.
I have been struggling with trying to do both flickr and blogging. I've decided it can't be done, at least not done well. I've been trying to spend a bit more time blogging, but I so miss my flickr friends and the quick, easy contact there. *sigh* not sure if I'll find a balance.

Unknown said...

Thanks, all! I am floundering a bit -- lots of questions but not even sure how to ask them.

Post a Comment

I love feedback!

photos and life