American Idol

Well...I think the winner has made himself known on Idol!

That David Archuleta gave me goose bumps last night.

I'm not sure he is a modest as he acts. He must have been hearing for years and years how talented he is....

But, he is really good and I like his new haircut, a lot!!!


Paula seemed clearer and more articulate last night....

Until she said to David,

"I want to squish you, squeeze your head off and dangle you from my rear-view mirror."

That is just creepy and very odd.



Here is a clip of David singing Imagine last night AND about three years ago on a Utah television show.

He has been working on his singing career for a long time even tho he is only 17.

David Archuleta



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Control, perfection and the digital camera.

Before digital cameras, before photoshop, life was easy-breezy.

You went on a vacation and took two rolls of film, came home and dropped them off at Walgreens or Osco or Walmart.

A day later or even an hour later, the photos were ready and you opened them up in the car.
It was a total surprise what would be in your little packet of pictures.
There they were, they were what they were...and you were happy or sad depending on the outcome.

But usually you were happy. You had your memories.


Now, with digital cameras, you can see what you are getting as you go along by checking your LCD monitor. (That screen on the back of the camera)

You know right away if you got the shot. This is good. This is a total benefit to digital.

But the rest of it has made photography very complicated....if you are picky.

When I first got my camera, I was disappointed with the processing from Walgreens, etc.

Golly, I thought, the pictures should be fabulous with this wonderful camera. But the pictures from Walgreens etc. were never quite as nice as they looked on the computer screen.

And so the journey begin.....

It is now possible to be your own editor, it is possible to fix almost anything, and in my case....

I had to do it. There was no choice for me, I had to learn to make the pictures look their best.

I am not a perfectionist AT ALL. But for some reason, with photography, the perfectionist tendencies emerged.

So I spend hours editing pictures. I love the art of it, the challenge of it, the fun of it.

But sometimes I wish they just came out of the camera perfect, and printed perfectly. Voila. All done.

And maybe it is because I am still learning, every day, new things, and in a year from now I will be speedy and quick and the editing process won't take as long as it does now.

But, I also want to learn to use my camera so well that the pictures come out as close to perfect as can be...
and I won't have to work so hard at fixing them up.


Just don't you dare have a poppy seed muffin before your photoshoot....cause I won't notice it until it is on my computer screen.




Last night I worked on this picture of Emma. I thought it was just right.

This morning it looks a tad light.

I could fix it. But I will try not to obsess.


She's fierce.


A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault. ~John Henry Newman


Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best. ~Henry van Dyke

Striving to better, oft we mar what's well. ~William Shakespeare, King Lear, 1605

When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target. ~George Fisher

(I think I have just learned this :o)

I cling to my imperfection, as the very essence of my being. ~Anatole France (Jacques Anatole François Thibault), The Garden of Epicurus, 1894


Encourage one another,
Donna

Do you aim for or struggle with perfectionism?

In all areas or in just one?