ilike my things in order. My binder, folders, room...all clutter-free. Maybe my mom would beg to differ about my room, buuuut when you have an insane week with region choir & papers due (Honors English, German II, Health, and Child Development, anyone?), it's quite difficult to keep a room clean when you don't even go in until 10:30PM for bed. Other than that, life is good. ;)

I'm lovin' this time of year though. The summer sun is starting to set later; did I mention that lovely glow it's making? Golden light heaven. Creamy as butter. Mmm, I need a spoon! All the new growth in nature (boy, the weeds are ah-growing here in Utah!) is inspiring me to renew everything about what I do. It's a great time to reevaluate every little thing in my business plans.

Yesterday I went to art insights with my mom at Southern Utah University where Carol Panaro-Smith & James Hajicek, photogenic artists from Pheonix, were speaking. Even though most of the speakers aren't photographers, I absolutely love hearing other artists talk about art & their medium of specialty.

Thursday was the first day I actually heard about photogenic drawing, invented by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1834. My favorite thing about photogenic drawing is probably that it really is a fine art form. It is SO beautiful; you've got to check out some of Carol Panaro-Smith & James Hajicek's work. It's raw, organic, and real beauty portraying nature. It doesn't try to show nature as glamous and fake, but as exactly how it is.

And this brings me back to these photos I took. Just gray & white. A brick wall with cement. Some harsh light making a shadow from the fence sheeting. Throw in some weeds too.

Last year at this time, I was immersing myself in photography books galore from our public library. There weren't many, but I devoured them all. I took pictures of every little thing. I was reading everything I could about composition, exposure, graphic design...and when I look back at just one year ago I feel like I've come so far. And yet I'm still doing exactly what I was doing one year ago: reading books galore, soaking up information like a sponge, shooting everyday, learning more & more about light, making old things look new.

And that's what got me into photography -- making old things look new. Now the architecture I used to pass everyday looked like a potential shooting location. I began to see the artistic beauty in simple things that people see everyday but don't notice.

And I never want to lose that quality of looking at life -- remembering the little things.