What is it about taking photos?

What is it about taking photos that I love so much? I've thought about it, and I can't tell you for sure. I went to a convention in Greensboro, North Carolina, last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I'd left my camera at the hotel on Day 1, and that was fine. I was absorbing the scene and a headful of information. On Friday I brought my camera. I'd been taking photos all morning from my bleacher seat, and had gone out for a bit. On the way back in, I passed Lisa, who said, "You look HAPPY!" I realized I was grinning from ear to ear and feeling almost ecstatic. I don't think it was simply the up mood of the convention, because I was clearly feeling different than I had on Thursday. I was holding the camera. I'd been taking photos. What is it?

I LOVE it. I love writing, I love art, I love a lot of things, but taking pictures simply makes me happy. Some people say that when you're taking pictures, you're avoiding the experience of the moment or avoiding connection with people around you. Maybe. And I realize I'm more visual than social. When I look at something with a camera in hand, I see more. And I see differently. Even when I don't have a camera in hand, I'm usually looking for the invisible frame. The frozen moment of shape and color. Again, I see more, not less, I think.

And perhaps it's the sense that the moment can be re-lived. Or the image can be re-lived. Maybe the image is, often times, even stronger than the moment. It should go without staying that there are many moments that fall outside this scenario, such as moments between two people, and on and on, but there is something magical about crawling back inside a slide with a loop, or these days, more often inside a bunch of pixels on the hard drive.

I am not a great photographer, although I often think I'd like to learn. But I don't pursue it. It's not about that kind of professional-quality accomplishment. Images conjure atmospheres. And atmospheres, such as immersion in a theatre piece, or stepping into a centuries-old cathedral, connect with deep emotions. I guess we each have ways in which we plug into a well of satisfaction within ourselves, and images are one of the primary things that do this for me. They inform a connection to something desirable and not quite tangible. Maybe it's that simple.

Breakfast at Coffee Girl

This is one of my all-time favorite places for coffee and breakfast, or just for coffee and relaxing. I didn't take any view photos today, but the windows look out on the river. The shop is at the end of Pier 39, so it's entirely over the water. It's the location and the actual counter where the women would get coffee on their breaks at the Bumblebee tuna cannery when it was in operation. More photos of the location and view to come at some other time. Today Lee and I had breakfast with Laurel and James, and just enjoyed the company and enjoyed relaxing. Lee had the beautiful bagel and lox you see here with the artistic mocha. I had a granola, fruit, yogurt parfait with my usual decaf extra wet cappuccino. Mine had a heart on the top.

Working on two new Web sites

Yep! That's what I'm doing today. I'm working on a couple of Web sites, actually. I've put some new items on the animal pin site, which you can read more about on the gift shop blog if you're so inclined. I've also taken this basic format and am just starting to put together something I've been wanting to do for a number of years now - create a site just for our imported hand-crafted arts from Latin America. It's not up yet, but I'll keep you posted. You can see a few of the items on Tapir and Friends. I thought the cultural crafts from Latin America needed their own site for a number of reasons. We get them in small numbers, and it's just not cost-effective to put them on our existing site - i.e., it's so labor-intensive that they don't get posted. The new site makes it so much easier! Also, the crafts are not always easy to find in animal themes. There are so many wonderfully beautiful products made in Latin America that I wanted a place to show them where the theme is not limited. I'm hoping to launch the new site within the next couple of weeks. If you have thoughts about what you'd like to see, please send e-mail! In any event, the new site as well as the site for painted pins will benefit tapirs, because that's what we do here! Thanks for your support. Talk to you soon! ~ Sheryl

Color at the Silver Salmon

Just a bit of color outside the back door of the Silver Salmon restaurant in Astoria.

An afternoon with pigs and sheep: The Clatsop County Fair, Astoria, Oregon

Outside there was the usual stuff. I liked the neon fish in the window. We've been eating healthy food lately, and, sadly, there wasn't much of that around. We went next door and had German sausage (more like a hotdog) and saurkraut. It tasted good, and I threw away most of the bun, so it wasn't so junky after all. I didn't get bloated.

Here's the fish. There are a lot of fish themes locally. I like that about living on the river.

Indoors, there were displays of food, hand-made clothing, art, photography, and some nice quilts. I liked these two especially. There were sooooooooo many blue ribbons around.


And then we went to see the animals. Here's a friendly pig. Lee and I were being nuzzled and licked. Later one nibbled at my knee.

Almost every sheep was shorn already. Some wore colorful get-up, apparently to keep warm.

More colors. I didn't enjoy looking at the rabbits and chickens so much. I like the animals, but it was hard to see them through the narrow wire cages.
Here's nice duck. It's the only one that would hold still enough for me in the low light of the barn.

This has to be one of the stupidest looking animals you'd want to see - a poodle-cut llama (or related animal) with an orange lei around its neck. I'm sure it was a nice llama, but hey. . . .

Here the two winners had just shaken hands. I missed that shot by a second, but they were smiling and happy. I had never noticed before that sheep and goats are handled without bridles, but merely held by the head and they follow. Try that with a tapir. I don't think so!

I've always liked cow faces, and not to mention, they remind me of my Lab-chow mix, wonderful Leila, who I had for awhile in Colorado.

This was another nice pig. Posing. You can see it's sitting like a dog. After I pointed out to Lee that cows and sheep stand up and "sit" down with the front legs going up or down first, and that tapirs, horses, and rhinos are opposite, I couldn't remember how pigs performed this feat, so we went back and looked at the pigs, who were happy to oblige by standing and sitting just as we arrived back at their pens.

We'd been talking about how pigs were supposed to be smart, and this one obliged us by demonstrating why its owners had wired the latch shut. Piggy seems to have figured it out.

This pig, on the left, had no food in its stall and wanted the neighbor's dish.

Don't ask me why, but I have a thing about animal tongues. This pretty horse kept sticking its tongue out, but in 6 or 7 shots, did I ever get one with the tongue extended? No, I didn't. I tried to anticipate, but it didn't work. My camera is pretty fast, but it still has that microsecond of a lag between the shutter button and the click.

Nice horses. The winners are prancing out of line toward the judge.

This is one part of the fair I never bother with, but I took the photo just to complete the theme.