During my Tulsa trip, one of my dearest high school friends and I were able to get together after many years apart.  She has a four year old son who is so perfectly cute, I wanted to pack him up in my bag and take him home with me.  We met at Woodward park in Tulsa and she brought along her niece Madison.  It was a beautiful warm day.  I hadn’t been to Woodward park in at least 15 years, I had forgotten how beautiful it is.  Kerri had asked me if I would be willing to get some photo’s of her son and his cousin together.  They live four hours apart from each other and so I was very happy to do this for her and her family.

In the mean time, I’ve been exploring myself within the context of music.  I am a music fan.  Most people are.  I’ve never met a person who didn’t love music of some form.  Music is the universal language of emotion, passion, creativity, and freedom.    I’ve heard time and time again that in order to become a better artist that sometimes one must cross into an area that they do not necessarily excel in.  Much like with exercise, cross-training advances you in the endeavor of your preferred sport by helping to make you a more rounded athlete.  So it is with art.   I started as a writer, mostly a memoirist, and then I crossed over into photography.  My focus the past couple of years has been mainly photography which has pushed my writing to a far away back seat.  I struggle to write, as of late.  That muscle seems to have atrophied.  Not really what I wanted to happen.  One of the areas I’ve always wanted to try is songwriting.  I’ve always been amazed at this ability, feeling as though there was no hope for me to be able to write a story from beginning to end within three minutes.  I don’t even know the basic foundational set up of a song.  Does it need to rhyme?  Make sense?

I’m such a detail oriented person, I feel like I need to say a lot to say a little.  That is a problem.  I need to say a little to say a lot.  Oh the fine art of it all.  I am a fan of great songwriting.  I am amazed by the very process of words put to music put to voice.  I’ve never delved into this area because of being intimidated by my lack of knowledge and understanding.  I’ve also been avoiding the challenge due to just not being talented or gifted enough with the ability.  Like sometimes you think, you must flow in a thing to be good at it.  I forget that practice is a very major predictor of greatness.  I have a dear friend who is a songwriter.  It’s her thing.  I’ve always been respectful of her thing.  She is good at it and  has been doing it for years and years.  She’s a musician and a teacher of music here in our community.  She and her husband have recently started an event called Collision Night.  Singers and songwriters come together every Tuesday night to share new music and take part in songwriting challenges.  Somewhere in my brain, “that’s her thing.”  I sort of get caught in that.  But last night I went and found such inspiration to write again.  I was amazed at the local talent involved and the sheer number of participants, 29 to be exact.  And what was really interesting was the demographic.  Mostly teens, but also some local adult musicians who play out with their band.

I decided to participate in the songwriting challenge where each person/team/band is given a theme to write about, the time limit is 10 minutes.  My theme was: What are you waiting for about living life now.  I laughed when I got this challenge which was chosen by a blind number pick.  How appropriate for me.

Anyway, I’ve never written a song before…I think my words are more poetic than song, but anything can be put into a song.  I had to go onstage and share it, and because it was my first time I got to sign the stage.  It was a very encouraging night and everyone there was open to share and be vulnerable.  It is a great environment to explore yourself in.  So I wanna say thanks to my dear friends Gina and Lonnie for being great mentors to a host of creative, passionate, and hungry musicians.

Here is my first “song”…

“Praying for a change but the evening grows dim.

Praying away a life that always seems too grim.

‘Cause fear is a like a thief, and a thief wants all the gold.

Ya gotta live this life before you get too old.

Normal is a virus that screams satisfy.

The comfort zone of easy is like a simple lie.

Nothing comes from sitting, except a numbing mellow way–

Break from the middle–break it, bend the wave.”  ~Cindy Knull

Collision Night is every Tuesday evening.  Visit the link for more info.

In my previous life I worked in Tulsa radio.  One of the best people I met in that career is Dick Loftin.  I was working my first radio gig at a country station that merged with the legendary KVOO.  Dick Loftin was on air right across the hall from me.  For a while, I did the 7-midnight slot and when D, as I like to call him, finished his on air show, he would come over and visit me.  We’ve known each other since the early nineties.

Dick and his wife, Ruby, married for eight years, asked me to come do portraits of them during my visit home and I was more than happy to oblige, plus I got a great lunch out of it at a local tex mex favorite, Chimi’s.

Here are a few images of my great friends Dick and Ruby…

At the zoo with friends.

I was invited out to the Becker home this past weekend to shoot family portraits.  I have a lot to say about the Becker family as they are a testament to the spiritual gift of Faith.  I know that when a person struggles through something it is very difficult to see the good in it.  An unfortunate twist in our economy left Joe out of work, couple that with the geographic location of where they live and to say that it’s been a struggle is an understatement.  Trying to sell their home has been challenging but they’ve managed to find enough work to keep them afloat through all the changes.  The Beckers are a family of ten and Kara homeschools all of them.  When I see the the decisions they’ve made to do things THEIR way, I stand back in awe.  Because their decisions are not based out of fear, but by faith.  The faith that although things may be hard and the outcome is uncertain, they believe with their whole hearts that God will come through for them in the end.  I think some people are meant to live lives this way to show the rest of us just how amazing God is.    The home will finally be sold and they will be free to, as they say, move about the country.  You can visit them at http://jokars.com/ They are just getting started!!

Who are the people in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood, in your neigh-bor-hoooood?  Starting a series this week of people in my neighborhood.  The challenge will be to get people to do it.  HA HA!  And have them not become self conscious.  Hmmm….

Yesterday, while my daughter was working on her rollerblading skills, it seemed to spark a frenzy of attention with the kids who live on my street.  Suddenly there were rollerblades and bicycles and ripsticks all up and down the sidewalk in front of my house.  And I love being the house the kids come to.  When kids are free to be, anything can happen!

This is my 100th image post for Project 365…as if you hadn’t figured it out yet.  I am dedicating this day’s post to my long time radio friend Bill “Doogie” Hauser.  Doogie was part of the morning show for a radio station in Tulsa, that I later interned and eventually had a weekend gig with.  We have known each other since the early nineties.  I recently mentioned that I was about to post my 100th image for Project 365 and Doogie gave me a wonderful idea.  So, Doogie, this one’s for you!   P.S.  You’ll never know how much I had to pay my husband to do this for me.. oh, and P.S.S   I was listening to Boot Scootin Boogie while coloring your signs.

Isn’t Autumn the best?  I love the golds, yellows and reds of Fall!

This past Sunday,  I had the opportunity to photograph a dear friend.  She’s a singer/songwriter and needed some fun promo shots and album cover images (can I still call it an album?).  Here are a few of my favorites:

Here are just a few from her session we did recently.