A thought for 2012. I know I’ve posted this quote before, but I think it really bears repeating. May we all have a courageous 2012.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,200 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 53 trips to carry that many people.

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I enjoyed this book written by the father of a son diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
Joel is honest about his love, his angst, his sense of being in over his head in dealing with the demands of being the parent of a special needs child. He whines, sure, but he owns his whining.
In the book he is writing with his son he names the father character Worst-Daddy-Ever. But he is not the worst daddy ever, he is just a human being dealing with a tough situation and seeking an outlet for his worries and frustrations. In a moving moment his son rebels against the Worst-Daddy-Ever name, showing a very deep love for his father in his own way.
We’ve made some progress understanding and dealing with the autism spectrum in the last few decades, although really it hasn’t provided much in terms of answers or solutions. Joel’s book reflects that well, since he is a book reviewer by trade, and takes the time to let us know how he feels about the very well-known auto/biographies about autism that have been written in the last 40 years or so.
Joel himself admits that if you are looking for encouragement and a path to succeeding as a parent of a special needs child this is not the book. He’s not touchy-feely, nor overjoyed by the “gift of being choosen”. He’s sad, angry, and worried. He mourns what they lost when the diagnosis was rendered; but he loves his son very much.
You’ll love his son after reading this book as well. Because really, that’s what this book is about. The love of a father for his son, no matter what challenges they’ll have to face.
I’m not sure even Joel knew that’s what he was writing at the time. And that’s what makes it so authentic.

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I am a huge fan of Dr. Sacks. When you ask me who I would most like to meet if I could meet anyone on this planet, well, Dr. Sacks makes the top 3.
This is the only book of his that I’ve had trouble with, and it was only because I spent 17 years as an educator of young hearing-impaired children. I believe strongly in teaching deaf kids to talk. There are very few children, regardless of their level of deafness, who can’t learn to communicate in this way.
Unfortunately, Dr. Sacks, in his beautiful empathetic way, seemed to me to fall under the spell of the deaf community advocates who feel teaching deaf kids to talk is akin to abuse.
This continued to sadden and frustrate me throughout the book, which dampened my enjoyment.
Regardless of this, I hold Dr. Sacks in high esteem. I just wish he’d come to my school and see my students. Listen to my students. He would find joy in the experience. Especially when they raise their voices in song, proving that music and voice is a gift they relish.

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After snapping these using the Hipstamatic app, I imported them into Lightroom - a photo processing program – and tweaked them to my satisfaction. I really like the finished effect.

There is something predatory in the act of taking a picture. To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them they can never have. It turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed.

Susan Sontag / “On Photography”

A very intriguing, thought-provoking quote. I’m really not sure what I think about the sentiment, but it definitely caused me to stop and think. I love that!

In reality, I believe that this revival of lofi photography is really showing us that indeed, it’s not technology that takes a photo from snapshot to art.

I’ve just stumbled across a great article on pixiq.com showcasing 100 Amazing iPhone Photos which is, as far as I’m concerned, proof that today’s high-megapixel-do-everything-for-you DSLR cameras are not the leveling fields some people think they are.  A couple of thousand dollars will no doubt get you an amazing piece of technology, but it won’t buy you a place on the great photographer’s bench.

In the hands of someone with a gifted eye even a lowly phone, or toy, camera can produce art. And produce is the significant word here. The technology produces the image, but it’s the photographer that creates it. It’s the photographer who turns a portrait into art, and makes a common everyday sight take your breath away. It’s passion and pure human spirit that leaves you speechless when you stare at a great photo, not megapixels.

It’s easy for photographers themselves to get caught up in the geeky high of bigger, better optics, improved sensors, and lightning fast frames-per-seconds. It’s easy for us to think that if we just didn’t have the imitations of our equipment we could capture that sublime memorable image we all long for.

But we are actually the thing that limits us the most. And these noteworthy photos captured by the lowly iPhone camera are a pretty good reminder of that annoying truth.

I love capturing images; it’s a creative rush I’m very addicted to. I think it’s wonderful that my friends love me so much they think my photos are amazing. But I know I have a long way to go before I can call myself an artist.

The technology and the classes help…but they aren’t the key.

So, what is the key?

I guess I’ll just have to let you know when I find it. ::sigh::