Are you talented enough?

Doesn’t matter.

Do it anyway. Take the next step.

Do it because it’s fun. Do it because the world needs more beauty. Do it because your inner voice is too loud and you can’t get to sleep.

Act before you’re ready because regret sucks.

Link: Digital Photography School

Day 86 – Woman without a home

Taslima Nasrin spoke at the Reason Rally and again yesterday at the American Atheists national convention. She spoke of her exile from her home for the crime of nonbelief and having the audacity to speak out on behalf of those who are oppressed by religion. In a moving conclusion, she told us though she is a woman without her home, she now counted us as her family. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house.

As imperfect as this photo is, I wanted her portrait to be my photo of the day.

Day 84 – Reason Rally, Washington, DC

I took many photos at the Reason Rally today, but when I saw this one I knew it was my photo of the day. More photos from the rally at my other blog Blue Lyon

Gentleman in a Fedora

I may have mentioned before that my lighting instructor is an award-winning photographer. His bread and butter is commercial photography, but his photography goes far beyond. On the first day of class he showed us some of his work, and later we learned more of the back story to many of his shots through this program, The Work of Art, produced by KNPB. I highly recommend watching it and it will give you a great idea of who Jeff Ross is as an artist and a human being.

I had a routine visit with my cardiologist today. Actually, it wasn’t that routine as my regular EP, Dr. Dhir, has left the practice and I was seeing a “new” doctor today: Dr. Letitia Anderson. The last time I’d seen Dr. Anderson was in November 2009 when I was in the emergency room at Renown prior to being admitted for four days of observation. I liked her then, and today’s visit confirmed that I made the right choice in requesting her after Dr. Dhir’s departure.

Yes…there is a connection here. Patience!

Dr. Anderson wanted me to get my pacemaker read and as I was heading into the waiting area I saw an elderly black man checking in with the receptionist. I immediately recognized him as the gentleman in this photo. A super-sized version of this photo hangs in Jeff’s studio in Reno and it moves me very much.

And there he was, looking just as he did in the photograph. Same hat, same expression, same demeanor.

At first I wasn’t going to say anything to Mr. Marks, but I felt drawn to him. I wanted him to know I knew who he was, and so I walked up to him and said, “I know you from your photograph.” We chatted briefly; I told him how much I loved Jeff’s photograph of him. He remembered Jeff and the photo. I touched the sleeve of his trench coat with my left hand, and he reached for my right hand to hold it. I told him that I would tell Jeff tonight that I’d seen him. We said good-bye.

And then he smiled at me and kissed my hand.

Cross-posted at Blue Lyon

Inspiration: Max S. Gerber

I was introduced to Max Gerber at the Adult Congenital Heart Association conference last year. ACHA is an organization specifically established to serve as advocates for those of us who were born with heart defects (and the variety of them is staggering), and to make sure that we all realize that surgery isn’t the end of our journey, but just a part of it. We all need life-long care, but that doesn’t mean life-long disability. Far from it. The ACHA conference was one of the most inspiring events I’ve ever attended. Heart patients, their families, physicians, nurses, etc, all rubbing shoulders and united in common cause. For me, however, it was being surrounded by my CHD peeps that made the event memorable. Never in my life had I met another congenital heart patient and now here I was, surrounded by a ballroom full of them proudly showing off their scars and sharing their stories. I still get choked up thinking about it.

Max is a professional portrait photographer and author. I love his work.

He is also a congenital heart patient.

Max was given an area at the ACHA conference where he would shoot, for free, anyone who wished to be photographed. Here are a few of them. I recognize many of them and in particular, Gwen, with whom I shared a lively lunch, and Shirley, who was in the ASD (Atrial Septal Defect) breakout session I attended. The photos Max took of me didn’t make his website, but I did receive them.

Be sure to check out his portfolio and projects. Close to my heart are his photographs of evolutionists, and I was particularly delighted to see Eugenie Scott in the mix. She is a very special hero of mine.

Farewell

“I look for a sense of reality with everything I did,” she once said. “I didn’t work in a studio, I didn’t light anything. I found a way of working which pleased me because I didn’t have to frighten people with heavy equipment, it was that little black box and me”

Eve Arnold: 21 April 1912 – 4 January 2012