Lighting, Lenses, and the Power of Photoshop | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer

Last Friday I scheduled my first model shoot with someone from model mayhem.  I was pretty excited for the shoot because it was going to give me a chance to really test out the 55-200mm lens for portraits and also to work with someone who wasn't shy in front of the camera and who already had a good idea of posing.  I scheduled the shoot for early morning which meant I'd be able to try some backlit shots and see what I could do with my new reflector.  This model had been working with several different photographers in the area and had some really nice pictures to show for it.  Needless to say, I was looking forward to the shoot.

Well Thursday night she cancelled on me.  That left me with all that gear ready and nobody to take pictures up.  I put out a callout to my Facebook friends in hopes that someone would pose for me and Erika and Aubry stepped up.  We had a lot of fun and now I'm quite glad that I ended up working with them instead of my original model.

It turns out that these two had a lot of the qualities I was hoping for in my model.  It may have taken them a little bit, but by the end of the shoot they seemed very comfortable in front of the camera.  Erika was full of ideas for concepts and poses the photos turned out great because of it.  Aubry was the perfect candidate for close up portraits with her strong facial features and striking eyes.

As this shoot went on I really felt like something clicked for me as a photographer.  I was noticing small details that I haven't in past shoots, I was getting my exposures spot on and I was seeing the lighting situations in a way that I haven't before.  I was able to find the best places in the park to take certain pictures and then get them right within one or two shots.  Of course I had my reflector this time, so that helped a lot too.

When I started editing the pictures, I decided that it was probably time to start figuring out photoshop.  The photos looked good with some basic tweaks in camera raw, but I wanted to be able to make them really pop.  I did some online research and learned about actions, textures, brushes, and where to get them online for free.  Suddenly I have a folder full of 3 gigs of photoshop stuff, and a lot longer editing process on my pictures.  But I've got to say learning about these things really did improve my work.  I learned how to smooth skin (not too much) and really make the eyes pop in portraits as well as how to do some more specialized edits of photos.  I spent about two days editing these photos, but I think I ended up with quite a bit of good stuff for my portfolio.

Tomorrow I have a new 50mm f/1.8 lens coming in the mail and a bunch of ideas for my next shoot. Who wants to be my model?

Putting the Camera Away | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer

Yesterday I brought my camera with me (as always) as we went out on a boat with friends.  The day was destined to be full of wake boarding, smiling friends, and beautiful scenery and I was going to capture it all.  I donned my bikini and my camera strap (a setup for some odd tan lines) and started my day.

We started with tubing and jet skis, just cruising around the ocean.  I had my camera to the eye the entire time and I got some good shots, too. I was enjoying myself, but after a while my husband started to get annoyed with the camera.  I don't blame him, it's been pretty much glued to my eye since I got it. I handed it off long enough to let someone else get some pictures of us tubing, and then it got put away.

Of course, just when my camera went into the bag we arrived at Dafuskie Island, this beautiful place with mossy trees hanging over the ocean, a low-key restaurant with live musicians, and people everywhere.  There was a little kid in american flag swim trunks chasing around a little girl, a rottie that kept getting himself wraped up in his leash, people playing with footballs and frisbees, and so many different picture opportunities.  I went exploring around the place a couple times by myself and ended up coming back and asking Robert to unlock the boat where my camera was.  He said no, and told me to just relax and enjoy the day.  It was harder than it sounds.

I didn't take pictures, but here's what I did do without my camera--

• I watched the lighting throughout the day.  I was out from golden hour to golden hour, and payed close attention to how the different types of lighting affected how people and objects look.
• I looked for interesting composition.  I tried to view the world as it would be seen in the little rectangle of a picture and thought about how I would place things within those limitations.
• I scouted locations.  I don't know the area well, so whenever I set up photos I tend to gravitate towards the same locations.  This gave me a few new ideas.
• I thought about exposures and how to set them up in different lighting conditions.

So even though I didn't technically practice my camera I did prep myself for future shots.  This is my obsessive style of learning.

When I did get my camera back it was perfect golden hour lighting and the tide had gone out leaving a beach full of beautiful cranes next to where we docked the boat.  I decided that to kill some time I was going to chase them around on the beach and try to get some pictures.  What I didn't realize was that the beach that they were on was pure mud and that I would end up ankle deep in an oyster bed if I tried to get to them.  Needless to say, it wasn't such a successful adventure.  I ended up back at the dock feet covered in mud and it wasn't until I rinsed them off that I realized I was bleeding.  A lot.

It turns out one of the oyster shells had put a pretty deep slice into my pinky toe.  I also learned that oyster cuts are the worst when it comes to infection.  My plan was to clean it out and super glue it, but the hubby had more sense than I did on the matter.  We spent the rest of the evening in the emergency room, where they wouldn't even give me stitches due to the risk of infection.

We got home late- tired, covered in salt and mud and hungry, and I came out of this whole thing with two important lessons:

1. Don't walk in oyster beds.  I don't care how careful I think I'll be, just no.
2. It's good to put away the camera sometimes.  So next time I won't fight it so much.  I won't stop learning the craft, I'll just do it without the camera.

I suppose I could add a lesson #3 in there that said something about listening to the advice of my husband more often, but no, I think that might be taking it just a little too far, even if he turned out to be right this time.

Sunset at the Lake | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer

I caught the most beautiful sunset at the lake near my house a couple evenings ago.  It happened by chance, really.  I was mad because nobody wanted to go walk the dogs with me and I was having one of those nights where I couldn't stand to be in the house.  It was too nice outside so, after a few minutes of sulking, I decided that, hell, I'd just go by myself and take some pictures.  I picked a perfect night to do so.

When I got there the sky was still a vibrant blue with the sun about to set and rays of sunlight slicing their way through the sky.  It reminded me of something you'd seen in religious art, or maybe on the cover of a bible.  It's like looking into heaven a woman I met later that evening told me.

I found myself a spot on the dock and messed around with my lenses and filters as the first hint of pink started to seep into the sky.  I tried all different combinations of angles and lenses and was on my belly leaning halfway off the dock when a couple came out to join me.

The woman sat down right next to me, introduced herself, and then began to talk to me about everything she could think of.  The man she was with was her fiancé and they had come to watch the sunset and find shapes in the clouds together. In fact, that was her first question for me-- Do you ever find things in the clouds? 

She found all kinds of creatures up there-- some that I completely missed.  You have to be quick, she told me, they go away in seconds.

I clicked away at the camera and listened to her for the duration of the sunset.  She was completely captivated by the beauty before us and I admired her ability to see.  In my very first creative writing class, my professor told us that in order to be a great writer (or a creative person in general) you have to be able to think and see like a child. It's some of the best advice I've been given and this woman reminded me of that forgotten lesson.

Her fiance was getting bored so eventually they left me to my peaceful place on the dock.  As she was leaving, she asked me to take pictures of her low-key wedding that would be happening a month later in the same location.  I left her my information in hopes that she'd take a look at my work and call me.  Who knows, this could be a real opportunity on the horizon for my photography.

But even if I don't hear from her, I'll always appreciate this woman for the insights on life that evening, and the beautiful sunset that she helped me photograph.

Street Photography | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer

Camera in hand, I took to the streets of Savannah yesterday morning with one goal- Street photography.  A friend of mine loaned me her old nikon 50-200 mm lens that she doesn't use.  With that and some inspiration stemming from an engagement photo shoot with my brother in law and his fiancé last weekend, my mind was firmly planted in photography. Out of shyness, I started my adventure with the sniper method of street photography.  A 200mm lens allowed for nice, sharp pictures from a distance, but made me feel like a bit of a creeper in the process.  That said, I did get some good pictures that way.

But by the end of my day I had become more comfortable and was interacting with the people in my pictures.  I met a band who plays the streets at night (and had the cutest puppy) along with many other interesting people. But out of all of them, there was one interaction that especially struck me.

I met Earl as I was taking pictures of the fountain in Forsyth Park.  He saw me snapping shot after shot and asked if I'd like him to take one with me in the picture.  I thanked him, told him that no I was working on a Street Photography project, and asked if I could take his picture instead. He was happy to oblige, as long as I let him pose with his book. When I asked him how to get in touch so that I could send him his picture, he told me that he is homeless.  He asked me, very nicely, if I could spare a couple dollars, but I didn't have any cash on me.  I did want to do something though, and so I offered to send him a print of the picture, since I wouldn't be able to email it. He gave me his address at the homeless shelter and, first thing monday, I plan to get a print made and send it to him.

It may not be much, and it may not have monetary value, but I feel that by giving him his portrait I can give this man a very meaningful gift.  It is a slice of his life, a moment that he will always remember.  It may not technically be the best picture I've ever taken, but it has meaning for me now and I hope that Earl will feel the same way when he receives that package in the mail.

For anyone who is interested, you can see the rest of this set at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shulearue/sets/72157634989391640/

Also, I started a Facebook page for my photography in hopes of getting more into the business of things.  You can find it at

https://www.facebook.com/mikaelajoyphotos

Winter Hair

I worked the morning shift today and, up until I was trying to leave, work was incredibly slow. After running out of ways to keep myself busy I decided to do some writing.  It's awfully peaceful in the mornings at Sam's when two or three members straggle through the store.  Anyway, along with a page or two for a piece of fiction that I'm working on, this is what I came up with.  It's a little out of season, but being in Georgia has deprived me of my winters, so I'll write about them year round. So here it is:

 

Winter Hair

The tips of her trembling toes entice me, peeking from beneath the fire-soaked wool of her blanket.  “The winter’s

too cold,” she says ,”Let’s migrate south like the geese where I’ll never have to bother with icicles again.   But I like

the goosebumps forming on her freckled forearm as she clutches the blanket tighter to her chest. “Come,” she says, “Hold me close,” and I know

the sweet scent of home lies in her cold, winter hair.

Bedtime Poetry

I find it with my hand along the curve of your waist, sensing in slow seconds the tilt of the milky way.

-Arthur Sze, The String Diamond  

Today is just a quick post that comes from reading some poetry before bed. This book The Redshifting Web has been sitting on my bookshelf unread, a remnant of one of my poetry classes. To be honest, I don't understand most of what Sze is doing in his poems which is why this book stayed unread for so long. But its always good to challenge myself to try, especially when I am rewarded by gorgeous lines like this one.

Improvisation and Getting Comfortable in the Kitchen

I have today off of work, so instead of staring at the TV all day I'm making an attempt to be productive.  By that I mean I am spending all day in the kitchen. I'm currently reading Cooked the new book by Michael Pollan and finding it very interesting.  I finished the section on whole hog barbecue last night which fueled a craving for barbecue.  Of course I don't exactly have the setup, funds, or people to feed for a whole hog to be a viable option so that one is a no go.  And I'm not exactly comfortable on the grill even to do something smaller.

Where I am comfortable is the kitchen (and if just about any of my friends are reading this, this is where the sexist jokes come in-- yes I am barefoot).  Well the kitchen happens to be the setting for the next section of the book and a new inspiration for me.  Although it gives a pretty general description of roasting just about kind of meat, there is a small place where it talks about making maiale al latte which is pork braised in milk.  Pollan gave a really simple run down of how to cook it and a detailed and delicious description of the flavor.  Reading it made me hungry, so I decided to give it a try.

Since we are in the age of the internet, I consulted Google for a more specific recipe. There were quite a few, and each one called for a pork tenderloin or something along those lines. This is where I ran into the first problem-- I only have pork chops.  The second problem is that each recipe calls for different cooking times and temps, some in the oven and some on stovetop.  How do I know which one to choose that will give me the results I'm looking for?

The way I made that decision was pretty simple-- Screw it, I'm going to improvise.  Pollan describes cooking this dish as

Brown chunks of pork in butter; add some milk, a few cloves of garlic, a handful of sage leaves, and the juice (and peel) of a lemon; simmer for several hours.

So that's exactly what I did.

I threw some pork chops in my trusty cast iron dutch oven along with herbs, spices, and milk and, well, we will see what happens.

In the spirit of improvisation I did some other cooking today too.  I pulled out the food processor and made red-pepper and jalapeño hummus (the ingredients fully determined by what looked good in the grocery store) and some salsa (which didn't turn out quite like I planned).

What I'm realizing is that the only way to get good at this whole cooking thing is to say screw the recipe and give it a try sometimes.  At the worst I'll have to throw out some pork chops, but then again, I could end up with something amazing.

A Food Obsession

I've found a new obsession. That may be somewhat apparent by the lack of blogging that I've been doing lately.  I've never been much of a multi-tasker (I am working on it).  That said, my latest obsession is food.

It all started a couple of months ago when I got a new cell phone.  It's a windows 8 phone (I know, I was skeptical too but I absolutely love it) and the first thing I did after getting it, aside from figuring out how to use the thing, was downloading apps.  Sort of by accident I found a calorie counter app called myfitnesspal and decided to give it a try.  I've been interested in food and getting healthy for a while now, but, aside from a plan of eat more vegetables, never really knew what I was doing.  I started logging my food mostly out of curiosity to see how well I was doing.

Well that one little free app made me realize just how often I get "too busy" for food and end up with hamburger helper and pizza.  I realized that I was often eating double the portion size that I should have been and that my lazy eating was affecting my waistline and how I felt about myself.

At first I ate the same foods as always, just less of them.  From a weight loss standpoint, that worked.  I lost about five pounds in the first two weeks.  But that was hard to maintain.  My daily calorie goal (which is relatively high compared to many other app users) seemed impossibly small.  It wasn't until I spent a lazy day on the couch watching food movies and documentaries on netflix that something clicked.  I realized exactly why my getting healthy plan wasn't working quite like I wanted.

As of today I am approximately 20 pounds and 2 jean sizes down.  I feel great, am full of energy and my calorie goals are easy to meet.  So what miracle secret did I tap into on the couch that day?

The answer is cooking. In the past few months I've spent more time and money at the grocery stores and farmers markets than ever before.  I'm buying eggplants and beets and kale--things I've never bought before.  I'm spending hours in the kitchen watching cooking shows, reading food blogs, and eating fresher, better-tasting, and healthier food than I ever have before.

I'm lucky enough that I enjoy cooking.  If I didn't this would be an impossible change.  There is just something so great about picking out ingredients, prepping them, and putting them together into something handmade, beautiful and unique.  I get a huge sense of accomplishment from each loaf of bread or ricotta that I make and share.  Putting work into my food makes me savor each flavor and appreciate my food instead of sitting on the couch eating chips and hardly paying attention.

I should probably mention that my diet solution doesn't consist of flavorless diet foods.  I'm eating full fat milk, cheese, and sour cream.  I'll even have some ice cream sometimes.  But I'm have smaller portions and everything I buy is good quality. I'm buying more organic foods, tons of farmers market vegetables, and becoming aware of every ingredient in every meal that I prepare.  My bank account is taking a toll with the new grocery bills (maybe my next obsession should be couponing to support this habit) but I'm eating great food, losing weight, and having so much fun doing it.  That right there is definitely worth the price tag.

Recipe-- Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

This week I have basically the perfect schedule at work.  I spend the early mornings working and then have the entire rest of the day to do whatever I want. I decided to spend today in the kitchen making one of my favorite comfort foods– Homemade chicken noodle soup. The recipe is pretty simple and the ingredients are mostly lined up in the picture, but here’s the rundown on how it is made:

First you need some chicken stock.  You can buy it from the store, but I would highly recommend making your own.  It is easy, healthier, and saves you money if you use leftovers to make it.  I like to make a whole chicken in the oven the night before (maybe I’ll do a post on that another time) and then use the leftovers for soup the next day.

All I do is take the leftover carcass (after picking as much meat off as I can) and throw it in a  stock pot and cover it with water.  Then I add whatever veggies I can find in my fridge (usually celery, carrots, a slice of onion, garlic) along with some herbs (usually just a bay leaf or two) and simmer it for a few hours (4-6).  The longer the simmer the more concentrated it gets, so the amount of time all depends on how strong of a flavor you want.  I add a little salt at then end of cooking time, to taste. During cooking the salt gets more concentrated, so adding at the end gives me a little more control of the flavor.  During the simmer sometimes I cover the pot and sometimes I don’t.  It doesn’t seem to change anything too much.

For making the stock, that is it! Talk about easy.  And if you don’t have a whole chicken to use, just roast some drumsticks and thighs in the oven and use them the same way.  I wouldn’t recommend using breast meat because you will come up with some very bland broth.

So once the broth is done I just strain out all of the bones and veggies and put the liquid back in the pot.  The steps for making the soup are basically the same as making the broth.  Cut up some carrots and celery and whatever other veggies in the fridge look good and throw them in.  Let the whole thing simmer for another hour or so (until the veggies are tender). When it’s done, add the leftover chicken meat back in along with some already cooked noodles, and there you have it– Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup!

Once you try this, I can almost guarantee you will never want to eat the stuff out of the can again. It’s got no creepy mystery meat, no chemicals and preservatives, just pure flavor. And there’s something about making a meal completely from scratch that just feels great.

When I make this recipe I usually make a lot.  It freezes very well (just leave out the noodles when you freeze) and makes for a quick easy dinner on those nights that I don’t have all this motivation to cook.

So that’s that.  I’m not going to post a cut and dry recipe of this, because this isn’t that kind of cooking.  Recipes are great, but it’s good to be flexible with the ingredients sometimes.  This isn’t an exact science, so put what you think sounds good into the pot and give it a try, you’ll most likely end up with something wonderful.

New Camera

This blog is looking a little wordy, don't you think?  Well lucky for us I got my first SLR camera yesterday.  I've got a lot of photography in my future!  Now I'm new to the whole photography thing so bear with me, but they can only get better right?  Here's a few favorites from my first few (hundred) shots with my new camera.

Living Alone

I could have been happy alone. A lot of people can't handle that, but me, I'd have been fine. I would have lived in a small apartment with minimal stuff and a cat or two. I would have made exactly the food I wanted every night and drank a lot of wine and I would have been perfectly fine. That makes me wonder why I, of all people, was lucky enough to find love early in life. There are so many people I know who are so focused on finding love, so set on marriage. To them, being alone is the worst possible thing. For me, marriage wasn't even on my radar. It just happened.

I think my marriage works because we both still get alone time. I work completely different hours than my husband does which means that I get to spend a few days with the house to myself, doing all the things I'd do if I lived alone. Its not that I don't love being married--I absolutely do, I just need my own space sometimes. I'm sure my husband feels that way too.

I think that is probably the thing that scares me the most about the prospect of having a baby--the idea that I would never again, or at least rarely for 18 or so years, have time to myself. When I need a break from the dogs on my "me days" I put them in their kennels for a bit. You can't exactly do that with a baby.

But, like with the dogs who drive me crazy half the time, I do know that it will be worth it. Ultimately I'd rather have love than be alone--love for my husband, love for a baby, and even for my pets.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I want to be alone. I'm just saying that I would have been better at it than most.

Waiting on My Hubby's New Eyes

I'm sitting in the hospital today waiting for my husband to get corrective eye surgery. I'm equipped with a whole cocktail of pain killers and eye drops to get him through the recovery period, as well as a pair of sunglasses that he'll have to wear at all times for the next month (I believe). But after today he will never have to wear glasses again. Isn't it crazy what people can do, what technology we've created? It used to be that people with bad vision had to just deal with it, but then someone thought, hey, what if we put lenses in front of our eyes, and glasses were born. But it didn't stop there. Someone else thought glasses got in the way and developed contacts--lenses that go directly on the eye and are nearly invisible. And then Lasik was developed to where a laser can correct vision and eliminate the need for either glasses or contacts. This is a surgery that can literally change the way a person sees the world, and the technology is only getting better.

On one hand I'm very jealous of my husband. After just a couple months of recovery, he will wake up to a clear picture of his surroundings. I only started wearing glasses a couple of years ago and still remember what that feels like. He, on the other hand, has been wearing glasses since he was a kid. I guess its only fair he gets to experience that again.

But I also find the whole thing terrifying. They are going to use a device much like an electric toothbrush to sand down a few layers of his eyeballs and the burn away some of the tissue with a laser, all while he is awake. Everything about that statement makes me cringe. I don't even like touching my eyeballs to put contacts in.

They say this is a very safe and easy surgery and I am sure that my fears are completely irrational. Its just that even a 0.0001% chance (I made that up, I don't know what the actual chances are) of my vision being worsened by surgery is enough to make me second guess the idea. I guess I'll see how this goes for Robert and that's how I'll decide if its something I ever want to do. After all, I think I wear my glasses quite well.

On a semi-unrelated final note, I'm sitting in a room full of army wives waiting on their husbands to get this surgery and I overheard a conversation that made me giggle. It went like this:

Her: So where do I meet you when you are done? Him: I'll just walk out here, its not like I'm getting open heart surgery. Her: I'm sure that you'll act like it though.

It looks like I'm not the only one dreading these next few days.

Nostalgia

You were a warm whisper in my ear and you said, "Lets be dancers or pilots or weathermen. We will walk the beaches barefoot in February and fly on planes until the ground feels unstable. We can be anything, anything but alone." That was four years ago when we moved our tassels to the left and grinned into that warm June breeze, four years since we walked away from our tiny, stale town and our friends still trapped inside. We never looked back.

I'm so happy we got away, but sometimes I miss that school. I miss the bench atop that sloping hallway, a collection of names carved into the wood. But I only miss it because you were the one who sat there next to me, laughing at something nobody else would get. I also miss your beat up powder blue Toyota pickup, country music blaring from the left speaker only. Four of us would cram ourselves into that truck, amidst piles of textbooks and clothes, for the two hour drive to the movies and we would sing Gavin Degraw at the top of our lungs.

I used to know everything that happened to you, from your latest boy-toy to what you had for breakfast. Every morning we talked about our lives while putting on our makeup and ignoring our teachers. So much has changed since then.

You are a country away from me now. I think of you often, as I am sure you think of me, but our lives are no longer interdependent.  It used to be that whenever something went wrong you were there  You could get me through anything, and I'd do the same for you.

But here I am trying to make this into something long and complicated when it's not.  All I'm trying to say is this: I miss you.

Taking a Step Forward

After posting on this blog for the first time yesterday I was feeling pretty inspired to do something but didn't quite know what to do with that inspiration.  I read my book for a little while (I'm re-reading Lolita--what could possibly be more inspiring than the prose of Nabokov) and then I did something really big. For the first time ever, I submitted some of my poetry to a literary journal, Tin House.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't have any delusions of grandeur that my poems will be accepted to one of the top literary magazines out there first try.  I'm probably not there yet.  But now that I've submitted somewhere I think it will be easier for me to press that send button or put that letter in the mail again.  My plan is to put a few submissions into a few different magazines every day in hopes that while wading through pile of rejection letters, one of them might be a yes.  At this point I don't even care if I get paid for my work, I just want to be a published author.

This may sound a little depressing and like I don't have faith in my talents.  It's not that, I'm just trying to be realistic.  Some of the best authors in the world faced a long string of rejections before finally becoming as famous as they are today.  So, without getting my hopes way up, I'm trying to take that first step.  Because if it takes being told no 20 or 50 times before I get a yes, then I guess I better start now.

Why Write?

This is a question that I've been thinking a lot about lately.  Why do I write?  Out of the numerous things that I could do in a day, why do I always try to take a moment to stop and put some words on paper?  It's certainly not for money or fame.  I am 20,000 dollars in debt for my degree and haven't been paid a cent for my writing.  And it's not because I have a strong desire to be heard.  Most of my writing is in notebooks and journals scattered throughout junk drawers around my house, never seen by anyone but me.  I don't write to prove my talent or make a difference.  I write for the sake of it, because there are words bouncing around my head that need some sort of release. Now don't get me wrong, I would love to be paid for my work and for the whole world to read and love my poetry.  I'm not denying the value of that by any means, but it isn't why. When I graduated from high school I needed to pick a major and all I knew was that I wanted to write.  I chose journalism thinking, well, I want to write and I want to get paid for it.  But that was not a match for me at all.  Journalists need a passion for news and a need to find and share information.  I never had that.  Sure, I could write a good article no problem, but I didn't enjoy it and I didn't care enough to do it with the intensity that it takes to have a successful career in journalism.  When I switched my degree to Creative Writing I knew I was taking a risk.  I knew that the choice would not make it easy for me to find a high-paying job out of college, and I was right.  But despite working at Sam's club, despite the fact that my work is still confined to journals for the time being, I don't regret it.  In the first class I took I was introduced to modern poetry and I discovered that passion that I lacked in journalism.  Writing an article was never fulfilling the way that writing a poem or a piece of fiction is for me.  And so I finished my degree, and I wrote, and I write still.

Although writing in a journal is good for me, I recognize that I can do more.  Writing in a journal is like talking to myself.  It may make a difference to me, but why stick to that when I can do something bigger, better.  So this blog is my first step in making my writing more public.  I'd be lying if I told you I will write every day and that everything I write will be life-changing.  But my goal is to write every week and to get my voice out there, if only to a few occasional readers who happen to stumble past my work.  This is just my beginning, and I can only hope that it will lead somewhere wonderful.