For A Moment Photography

Waiting on the Next Jeremy...

 

300 Million guns in US.

 

This morning I was in the kitchen listening to my iPod while making Presley's morning smoothie.  My music was on random because I was bored with my current playlist.  The song, Jeremy by Pearl Jam began playing.  The song hit me in a way it never had before.

The song was released in 1993.  The song was written after Eddie Vedder (lead singer) had read about Jeremy Delle a 15 year old boy from Texas shot and killed himself in front of his English class.  Eddie Vedder stated that when writing the song he also drew from his experience with a boy from his high school that shot up an oceanography room, Vedder was in the halls and recalls hearing the shots.  Vedder had several altercations with the boy...

The video starts out with the words, "an affluent suburb, 64 degrees and cloudy" and ends with those same words.  This is done to represent that nothing changed.  I realize that 20 years later nothing has changed.  Kids are killing themselves, killing others, killing children and nothing has changed.

I'm not here to say that we need to ban ALL guns.  What I am saying is that nothing has been done!  99 gun laws have been passed since 2009 that make owning, buying and carrying a gun easier and harder to track.  I don't give a crap about owning a gun- personally, if you do *great*!  Get a gun!  But obtaining that gun should be becoming harder not easier.  Look at what changes were made in airports after 9.11.  

The Constitution is "a living document", the Founding Fathers knew it would *have* to change with the times.  Article Five of the Constitution reads: "The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses [the House and the Senate] shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution . . ." States were also given a chance to propose changes, or amendments. Three-fourths of the states have to approve the amendment for it to become law.  Hello, they are called *amendments*...  When it was first written only white men over 21 could vote.  So, yeah it can be changed.

The other obvious conponet to this argument is the state of mental health care.  There are a lot of people that need help and aren't getting it?   It's worth figuring out.  If you are holding a glass of water and notice a crack what do you do first?  The easiest fix, put your finger over the break until you can find a better solution.  Slowing down the sale of guns by stricter laws seems like the finger over the break to me.  It won't stop all the water from coming out, but it's a start. 

With Presley starting school this year  I've talked to a lot of parents about education, picking teachers, picking the best schools, the best learning environment and all that "stuff".  What became clear to me was that there are kids in this country that "fall through the cracks".  Maybe they don't have parents (or ones that care), or suffer in social situations, or they are "bad kids", or mental issues but hey, "they aren't my problem".  What struck me is that, they can only be ignored for so long.  They are my problem and your problem because they are a part of our society.

 

"clearly I remember

picking on the boy

seemed a harmless little fuck

  but we unleashed a lion"  

Pearl Jam~ Jeremy 

 

I'm not fearful, I know there is more good than bad in this world.  I care.  I care that our world is changing and our understanding on how to help and protect ourselves and our children isn't  apparent or easy.  

With Sandy Hook, Boston, Tucson, Amish School, Virginia Tech, Columbine, Aurora, Sikh temple, and all the others, there are so so many innocent victims.  There's no telling when or where the next victims will be, but make no mistake there will be more.

Here is a link to the 62 mass killings that have taken place in the US since 1982 2012.  All of 2013 have yet to be added, there has been one mass killing a month (in the US) since 2009.  

 

 

Click on the map to go to the site with the story that goes with the map.

Click on photo to read more.

I've got 99 problems and ...  ;)

 

 

Salt Sugar Fat

 

I got this book on amazon.com.

Over the past few days I've read a book that I haven't been able to put down.  Salt Sugar Fat, How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss.  I heard a little about the book from Michael's press tour and it piqued my interest.  Especially for me, someone who likes to eat clean but still has cravings for "food" that I know is just horrible for me. 

The book is a quick read under 400 pages and I got through it in a few days.  The book starts out talking about the spring of 1999 when the heads of the food giants (Coca-Cola, Nabisco, Kraft, General Mills & Pillsbury etc) all came together for a secret meeting about the national obesity epidemic.  James Behnke a chemist and top official from Pillsbury lead the presentation.  He felt that they were (himself included) responsible for the obesity problem and could no longer turn a blind eye.  By the end of the meeting it was obvious they didn't feel the same, they all walked out.  14 years later the problem has ballooned.

I feel I know a fair bit about the process food industry but I still learned more from this book.  I'm also sure there is plenty they will never share with the public...  I do feel better knowing that the scientists in the beginning (of this era) did not know what adding insane amounts of salt, fat and sugar to our food would do to our health.  They set out trying to solve a problem, moms working outside the home, wanting convenience food and they solved that problem.  In the book all of the scientists interviewed for the book stay away from the very products they created.

Oh man there is so much information in this book I don't know where to start....  After reading this book I will say that I am even more unwilling to depend on the FDA & USDA to protect me and my family's interest.  I now understand my craving more.  Our bodies become addicted to these high salt, sugary, fatty foods and those cravings can be treated with the same drugs used to help heroin addicts with withdraw symptoms and cravings- crazy!  

I have always had a distrust/dislike towards companies trying to gain personal information for marketing purposes.  Which is ironic because I got my degree in Marketing.  After reading this book I know I'm right in my distrust, they use the information we give them to zero in on ways *not* to help us, but they exploit our weaknesses.  Mom's looking for a quick healthy (guilt free) snack, boom "Carpri-Sun, Made with real fruit juice"--  100% not true.  The fruit is put through a process where everything nutritious is removed and all that's left is high levels of sugar (they have since changed the wording).  But that doesn't matter because they already got kids hooked. 

 Every food product made is introduced, then if it takes off it is always reformulated to cost less to increase profits.  Lunchables contain no real foods, meat flavor, cheese flavor.  It has been said the most nutritious thing in the lunch is the napkin, that has been removed (it cost $.01).  With annual sales of a *billion*, that penny adds up fast.  The amount of sugar in that is equal to a 12 ounce can of coke.  Sodium in these is almost a third of a days recommended maximum.  As of 2009, 1 in 4 American kids are on the verge of developing type 2 diabetes or already have it.

How do we (Kraft) get more Americans to eat more Philadelphia Cream Cheese (sales are declining)?  Let's have Paula Deen run a contest with "real women" creating their own recipes and send those in with a chance to win $25,000.  It worked, sales went up and in three months they (real women) came up with 5,000 recipes to use cream cheese in comparison to Kraft's test kitchen that took a decade to come up with 500.  And Kraft got us to eat more cream cheese, giving them a part of the $7.3 billion shoppers where spending on fat-laden additives such as, sour cream, shredded cheese and sauces.  Paula Deen was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.  Hmmm....  

A section of this book speaks about Coca-Cola's CEO and his experience at Coke (my soft spot).  He spend a good part of his life there, his father invented "entertainment advertising" and Jeffrey Dunn followed in his fathers footsteps.  Until, he went to Brazil, a place where opportunity was knocking.  Coke had planned on going to barrios (where many Brazilians live) sell small sodas, 6.7 ounces so they are more affordable...  As Jeffrey Dunn walked through "an impoverished barrios in Rio de Janeiro, he had an epiphany...  These people needed a lot of things, but they don't need a Coke. I almost threw up."  ...  Jeffery was later fired from Coke and is now doing work to "makeup for all the bad karma".  He recently introduce the packaging and selling of "snack size baby carrots" to our grocery stores.

This sounds crazy but it's true, think of a convenient store as a drug dealer or more importantly your child's drug dealer.  They are set up to grab your kids get them hooked on the big three, Salt, Sugar & Fat.  Our children are known to be more important to their business than any adult walking in their door.  The more they eat the more they want and the point in all the food mixtures.  Cheetos are a prime example of, "vanishing caloric density" a food that melts in your mouth telling your brain their are no calories and it needs more a never ending of more. 

I could go on and on...  It's a great book, it covers our body's natural reaction, government intervention, food science, sales (at all costs), obesity and our LOVE of cheap food. Even if it doesn't change your eating habits overnight, it's worth knowing about and understanding how our bodies react.  For me realizing that the salt, sugar and fat in a lot of foods isn't in them to help with flavoring or naturally occurring in foods, like when I cook from scratch.  The big three are included to manipulate our bodies to wanting more, therefore buying more and driving up prices- at any cost.  I think after you read this book like many of the scientists in the book, you can't unknow something.  Knowledge is king.  If there is anything you walk away with, know that the food on the shelf today is 100% not the food we were raised on.

Opening My Eyes to the Possibilities...

I'm lucky I have so many great clients to work with.  This past week I did some photos with a client that were a bit more playful and more glamorous than I usually do.  My client is gorgeous, outgoing and very willing to collaborate with me on our photos together.  We did the traditional head shot photos that she needed for work but we also created these simple yet alluring photos of her.

I have to admit in the beginning of my business I didn't always like "head shot" photography.  I have to say I thought it was a bit boring.  There is nothing like the rewarding feeling I get when I give a family a photo of their child that never sits still or smiles for their camera.  Or a tender moment caught between a new parent and their new born baby.  I couldn't see how having an adult sit, pose, smile could be at all fulfilling as a photographer.  

What I realize now is that I had a limited view of what I thought this photography was.  That was based on the stodgy photos I had seen so much of (realtor photos).  Now when I do what I call, portfolio photography I let the clients know if they are looking for that type of photo- I am not the right photographer for them.  My photos will have a business head shot or two but they will also have a few with a bit more flare and less corporate look.  Since my mind has shifted I'd had so much more of this type of work and I've loved it.  My clients have sent me clients and I have not had to do anything to market myself in this area.  My work and clients speak for me...  Now that I'm not in my own way.