The Best of 2010 : January

I wasn't sure about this one when I first took it. I didn't like that the bird wasn't centered in the frame. But, the more that I looked at it, the more I liked the empty expanse in contrast to the delicateness of its wing. Considering how high and fast it was going, it's not too bad.

The official 4-Year portrait.

We always see lots of fishing boats off the coast. This day was gray and cold and all of the boats had their lights on. I have no idea how far off shore they actually are. Out on the horizon line is all I can tell. I really never thought this would work, but it did. I'm blowing it up for the wall.

I never ask anyone to smile, not even kids. Parents do. All the time. "Come on. Smile!" This is exactly why I don't. The quiet expressions can speak volumes.

As I was setting this up, someone saw me. Turning bottles so the labels were all facing the same direction. Lining them up just so. "Hey, you guys. Look at what Lisa's doing." "Stop!" I told them. "Don't watch me!" They all laughed and made fun of me for not wanting to "@!#* up the magic".....

He must have jumped off that log 100 times. My being able to capture his joy in doing so was just a bonus...

After I took this, I flipped that sand dollar over and took it again. Didn't look nearly as natural.

We went to a party and when I saw this woman's necklace, I knew I wanted to photograph it. The contrast of it against her skin and the line of her shirt was great. The slight raise of her hand made the picture. It was so much more interesting than the others where her hands were in her lap.

I honestly couldn't have told you whether J.D. Salinger was alive or dead, but when I heard of his death, I ran down to the bookshelf and grabbed my copy of his most famous work. I've had it since I was in high school. I used to carry it around in my purse and read it whenever I had to wait somewhere. I could open it up to any point and know exactly what was going on. It remains, to this day, the best book that I've ever read and my very favorite of all time.

A quick trip through Pike Place Market for a location scout. We were on our way back to the car, when I remembered I wanted to get a shot of the sign. I ran back to the corner and got this.

Judgement Day

I've had a lot of conversations over the last week about judgment. Being judged. Feeling judged. Using your best judgment. That was always the rule when I worked at Nordstrom. They printed it in every handbook. They talked about it at every training. Aside from the whole customer service thing, it was their mantra. Just use your best judgment. And I always tried, but sometimes my best judgment didn't get me to the place that I wanted to be. Did that mean the place that I wanted to be was wrong? Was what I wanted to do not the best? Who decided that? Somebody older? Somebody wiser, with a bigger office and a bigger paycheck than I had? Perhaps somebody with more at stake. And what's the difference between good judgment, better judgment and best judgment? What is the line between them? Is there a point when a good decision becomes a better decision? If that's possible, then wouldn't the opposite also be possible? Couldn't the best decision turn into a good one and then on into a bad one? How do I know I'm going the right way? I use what I know to make my decisions. All of my experience and education comes in to play when I'm weighing the options. But, what if what I know isn't enough? How do I know that my best decision wouldn't be considered by someone else to be a bad choice? How do you know if your best judgment is wrong?

I took a series of photographs recently of a woman that I know very well. They were intimate images of a beautiful time in her life. I was proud of them. She was proud of them. They were delicate and artistic. A true celebration of her experience. Exactly what we both had wanted them to be. I posted them for everyone to see, and people loved them. "She's beautiful." "She's glowing." "They're amazing." And then someone said, "Wow. That's pretty risque. You might not like having that up there." And someone else said, "Did you know there's a naked picture of her on the internet?" All of the sudden, my judgment in showing them off was called into question, if by no one other than myself. Are you sure you want to do that? Is that really the best thing? I don't know. I thought so. Had I been wrong? It was beautiful. It was tasteful. It was artistic. Those are good things. Those are the best things. Those things aren't wrong. Why do you think they're wrong?........Because every action is subjective. Everything we do has two sides. And every person we know has an opinion about it. Whether we ask for it or not, judgment exists. Both ours and that of others. If we use our experience to make a judgment call, good, better or otherwise, then can we not assume that everyone else does the same? If our choices are truly our own, if our opinions are based out of our knowledge, is it fair to say that someone else doing the same thing is wrong? My experience as a photographer tells me that it's beautiful. Your experience as an administrator tells you that it's objectionable. Who's right? How do we decide?

We can't. That's the point. You have to do what you think is right. Not because someone else's experience tells you that is, but because yours tells you that it is. And sometimes listening to their experience is enough to make you more aware of yourself. More aware of your choice. Sometimes it's not. Good judgment, better judgment, best judgment. It's all subjective. It's all up for scrutiny. And, it all comes from the same place. What that place is is entirely up to you. Hopefully, it's a place that allows you to learn from what you've done. To open yourself up to the wisdom of awareness. To do better because you know better. Because, if it truly comes from that place, it will never be wrong.

Sunlight Session

Every year I take portraits of my kids. Usually right around their birthday. I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with what I wanted to do with my daughter this year. We've done the princess thing, and the butterfly thing. Although, were it up to her (and...really, it should be), not only would we revisit that theme, but she would live her entire life as a butterfly princess. So, for this year, I wanted to do something that spoke a slightly different language. But, what? Something with balloons? Balloons in the sand dunes at our beach house? It's winter. How cute would it be to be flying balloons on the shore dressed in boots, a parka, gloves, a scarf and a hat? Not exactly the image I had in mind. And then, the sunlight came through the window into our living room. Just regular old Wednesday afternoon, middle of winter sunshine. It lit up the curls in her hair like magic, and just like that, we had our portraits.










Just as we finished up, she wanted to take one together....

I'm a PC, and this is my prize....

So, a little over a year ago, Chris brought home a laptop. I used it to keep track of the household things...and...you know...internet surf and stuff. It was always the first thing I could see when I came in the house. Sitting on the kitchen counter, it was right in line with the front door. If I could see it when I came in, I knew that no one had been in our home while I was gone. Until a couple of months ago. I opened the door to an empty kitchen counter. A quick 45 minute trip to Target turned into a month and a half of constant worry. Was someone in our house? Did they take anything? Because they only take the good stuff. Are they still there? Are they going to jump out at me when I open the door? Around and around until I thought my peace of mind would explode. We had security cameras installed, and there's a direct link from our home to the police department now, but no camera or alarm system would bring back what was taken. And then there was a contest. A silly, Facebook, RitzPix, Home for the Holidays photo contest and the first prize was a laptop. Um....Sure, I have a holiday picture. Here, I'll throw my lens in the ring. Why not? What could happen?............I could win. I am too new at this craft to ever consider myself a masterful photographer or even a great photographer. Good photographer I might go for, but that's about it. I follow several photographers whose work is far better than mine. Photographers who have studied and worked and experienced a lot more with their lenses than I have. But they didn't enter the contest, and I did. Their friends didn't vote for them, and mine did. I'm a PC, and this is my prize.....

Through The Lens: The First of Double L Photography

I originally published this collection as the “Best of Double L Photography Vol. I”, with the intention of putting together Volume II for the end of the year. However, in going through the thousands and thousands of images that were taken this past year, I realized something. The “best” images weren’t necessarily those with the big smiles or the beautiful eyes or the picturesque landscapes. They weren’t the ones with the porcelain skin or the ones that had been worked to within an inch of their life in the digital darkroom. Don’t get me wrong, those were great pictures, but they were just that: pictures. Magazine covers. Nothing real. No truth. No emotion. Nothing from within the soul of the subject. No…the best moments happen when you get to see something for what it truly is, not just the mask in front of the camera. The best moments take you from somewhere ordinary into a viewpoint you never even knew existed. The best moments are those that everyone can see, but no one knows are there. They are moments filled with truth and emotion and soul. These are my moments. The ‘best’ that I have seen from the past year. They are the reason that I am continually intoxicated by looking at life through the lens.