…wearing pj’s and a bike helmet.
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As a kid, when I told my parents I wanted to quit taking piano lessons, in a desperate attempt to keep me interested in music, they said, “We’ll buy you any instrument you want, what do you want to play?”I said, “Drums.”
They said, “Anything but drums.” (And I distinctly remember my dad saying, “You have to have rhythm to play drums.”)
So that was it for me and music.
Tonight HAH went right to the drum set in our friend’s living room, climbed up on the stool, grabbed the brushes and started to play, while also singing “Home on the Range.” And we, as parents, cheered loudly from the couch… I think I was cheering the loudest.
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As much as I hate broken cameras. In the last two days I have sent three cameras in for repair. But going to sleep and broken cameras are a part of our lives, so we better get used to them both. -
New Year’s Resolution #3: Hike up the hill behind our house once a day.
Good thing I didn’t say we couldn’t bring cookies as motivation…
Because hiking with a two-year-old kind of defeats the reason for the resolution.
But five cookies, two tangerines, a handful of almonds and craisins later and…
We finally made it to our goal.
Going home was a much easier sell. 
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Instead of sending out Holiday cards with pictures of my own family…
I sent my friends and family photos of themselves. 
Photos I took of them with one of my medium format film cameras…
And have been hiding all year…
Just so I could send them as holiday cards.
These are a few of my favorites…
It was hard for me to keep them hidden.
So it is a relief to finally let them out in the world,
Now that the holidays are over and the cards have been sent.
But also it is helpful for me to share them all at once, 
Because people ask me all the time what are the differences between film and digital.
I always have a hard time trying to describe the differences in an email. 
So I decided I needed more blog posts that only show examples of film.
Now when people ask what film is like…
I can send them to this blog post…
And they can see that film creates the kind of photos you want to save all year just to give as presents.
(This is also helpful so my friends and family can see that they really should hang out with me at least one time a year 🙂 ) -
Still haven’t gotten the hang of this camera yet. Funny how I want so badly to use a camera that takes photos that are about the equivalent in quality to a camera phone, yet the photos cost ten times the amount and take three times as long to turn in to a digital format. It is worth it. At least I know it will be, when I eventually figure it out.
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New Year’s Resolution #6: I need to be a part of my own life, instead of just documenting others.So, I am going to try a 365 day photo challenge, for the first time ever. Kind of scary, but exciting. I want to be more creative and have more fun with my photography, so maybe this challenge will help.
Arann gave me a Polaroid Automatic 250 Land Camera for Christmas and two boxes of polaroids. I was excited to use it, but scared I would break it because it didn’t come with a manual.
Today my long time friend, and fellow intern veteran (aka photo slave) from the early days, helped me figure out how to use it. One box of polaroids later and I think I am getting the hang of it.
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I am feeling a touch of the end of the year blues this year.
I think that is because if I had to pick one photo to describe 2013, it would be this one…
I definitely bit off way more than I could chew this year…
But 2013 did not always play nice…
No matter how hard I worked…
It seemed like life had some fun new challenge just waiting for me to catch up,
Leaving me just barely treading water.
Rarely did I ever feel like I was leading the family and work dance.
And as a result things suffered…
Such as my social life…
My blog…
And my hard drives, it was a very, very bad year for hard drives… back them up people.
But because I use this time of year to really examine the past year…
To try and measure how much I have grown…
I know it is important for the well-being of 2014 that I dig even deeper…
And filter out the best of 2013 so I can set the bar higher for 2014…
Because despite the technical setbacks and the lack of time… it was an amazing year for photography…
Filled with fun projects…
(Gloria Ferrer)
(Plant Recipe Book with Lila B)
(The Big Flip)Interesting people…
And very special moments.
I feel incredibly humbled each and every time people invite me to document their lives…
Their businesses…
Their art…
Their cause…
And their love…
I still get butterflies before every photo shoot and I hope I always will.
In 2014… I want more of all of it… except for the technical difficulties… I have had plenty of that for a lifetime.
Now that all this looking back is said and done…
It is time to kick out 2013…
And get started on making 2014 awesome.
Happy, happy, happy new year.
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Fibershed is a project that is very close to my heart.
I have been documenting Fibershed since Rebecca Burgess first started her personal challenge in 2010.
I clearly remember the conversation Rebecca and I had in 2009 while we were sitting in the airport waiting to board a plane to one of our Harvesting Color adventures.
She told me she wanted to do so much more than teach people about natural dyes.
She was so deeply concerned about what the fashion industry was doing to the environment and to the people working in the factories that she needed to do something more.
So she decided she wanted to challenge herself for a year to only wear clothes that were created, start to finish, within 150 miles from her home… within her Fibershed.
But she told me how one of our mutual advisers had completely dismissed her idea saying that it would never be of interest to anyone outside of her small community… so Rebecca was feeling very discouraged.
I told Rebecca that she had to do it… at the height of the local and organic food movement, now was the perfect time to bring attention to the fashion industry.
But, I said, she had to make the clothes fashion-forward… otherwise she would be dismissed as just another hippie from Fairfax wearing strange brown clothes.
So we agreed it could be cool… but I don’t think either of us had any idea how cool it would become.
Four years later, Rebecca’s personal challenge has become a full fashion movement that is spreading across the country and internationally.
Rebecca’s vision has evolved in to a non-profit, a Fibershed Marketplace, and most importantly lifelong friendships between farmers and designers.
And at the Fibershed Fashion Gala, on Saturday December 14th, 2013 at Jacuzzi Winery, the “coolness” was unstoppable.
Originally I was supposed to be out-of-town on the 14th… and I was supposed to miss this event.
But my schedule changed at the last-minute allowing me to go… and the moment I walked in to the event space, I knew that there was nowhere else I was supposed to be.
It is so inspiring to see what the passion and determination of one person can lead to.
Rebecca Burgess, I am so incredibly proud of you, and I can not wait to see where Fibershed goes next.
Congratulations to all of the talented designers, the hardworking farmers, the beautiful models and the event planners. It was a fantastic event and I hope I get to work with all of you again in the future.
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It has been so long since I have logged on to my blog that I had to generate a new password.
I used to think in blog posts…. Now I think in facebook captions, although Instagram is slowly creeping up behind.
But I miss my blog, just like… I miss reading books (that are more than 20 pages long and consist of a topic other than cars and trucks,)
I miss seeing friends…
I miss walking my dog…
And I miss going on dates with my husband (damn, I should have put that first.)
Somewhere along the way life got busy and I just don’t have enough time in the day for it anymore, hence I am starting this post at 1:40am.
But, as it turns out, I also need the blog. I get so lost in the forest of making new work that I forget to look back and see which trail I took and how far I have come… And then the insecurity vines creep up and block my path forward.
That is where I was today, lost in an editing forest, until the mail arrived (meaning: Arann walked in my office and flung a Priority Mail envelope at me.) When I opened the envelope, I got to see some of my portrait work in print, in Bike magazine. A magazine that hired me to take one portrait…
(Executive Director of NorCal High School Cycling League, Vanessa Hauswald)And then because they liked that portrait they hired me to take another portrait…
(Strava Co-founder and CEO, Michael Horvath.)And then they hired me to take another portrait…
(The Godfather of mountain biking, Charlie Kelly)
It made me so happy to see photos of PEOPLE published for once that I remembered I had a blog and that I could actually record my excitement in a blog post. While I was digging for photos for that post, I found other portraits that I am proud of…
(Chef and Restaurant Owner, Charlie Hallowell)
and then more portraits that I am proud of…
(Chef and Author, Bryant Terry)…and suddenly the forest was a little bit brighter.
(Co-founder/co-inventor of Twitter and Jelly, Biz Stone)And the path forward was a little more clear.
While I really enjoy all the other side projects I have been so lucky to work on… I really love photographing people the most.
Taking really good portraits of people is very, very hard. And I still have a long way to go.
(Lagunitas Founder, Tony Magee)There are so many things to think about… not only the light, the exposure, the composition, but also making people feel comfortable, especially after they have just finished telling me how much they hate being photographed. (Food never tells me it hates to be photographed. And flowers just beg me not to stop taking photos.)
Photographing people makes me nervous and sweaty… not in a bad lighting-fireworks-illegally-kind-of-way, but in a good exercise-my-brain-kind-of-way.
It means I am being challenged. It means I am doing something I really care about. And that is the goal: Do more projects that challenge me and that I really care about.
My other goal is to hire an office assistant, so that the editing and book-keeping forest do not get over-grown and swallow me whole anymore. And so my blog can once again have a place in my life.
(Publisher: Chris Gruener)So if you know anyone looking for part-time work…
I need a very organized, hardworking, self-motivated, left-brained person (sorry no photographers please) who can help me for 10 hrs per week (hours are flexible) with: data entry, organizing files, returning emails, updating social media etc.
If you are interested, please send me an email detailing your approach to organizing and attach your resume to paige(@)paigegreen.com
somewhere between a handshake and two kisses 