Eleven years ago I embarked on a project to honour a friend who died of breast cancer. She'd asked me to teach her photography so that her family would be excited to see her vacation shots rather than saying 'Now be polite and watch Aunties vacation show'. And she made a lot of progress in that, too. About eight years after she died, after photographing a mutual friend and listening to NPR on the ride home announcing 'It is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month,' I started thinking about doing a series of portraits of people doing self-exam.

There is a lot of controversy about breast self-examination. By the time lesions are large enough for people to feel, if malignant they are quite along in the process. Mammograms, x-rays, even magnetic resonance imagery are all likely to find cancerous or pre-cancerous lesions much sooner. Self-examination remains, however, both the most likely to keep the awareness that this needs to be a regular thing, this checking for this disease, and the most visual manner of raising that awareness.

There are some slow spots in this project of mine, and others where the energy returns. In the same 11 years, two more friends died of breast cancer, and a multitude more were diagnosed and are survivors. Over time the name I gave to it morphed from a very difficult and long expression to 'Healing Art'. I also learned a good deal about the use of art in healing, in a multitude of means and methods. My concepts for the project started growing, and expanded to ideas which needed survivors and explore the self-image changes, rather than only people doing self-exam.

Any photograph done in the series, all the proceeds go to some one of the various breast cancer research foundations.

This piece is from this year, and explores aspects of digital photography to move into animation. The same model who worked with me to create the Dryad series, and more on the same day we did this work, Chelsea Christian helped with this project. As with everyone else who works with me on this, my directions are simple: Do a self-examination.

( Healing Art: Breast Self Examination. Contains Nudity )

It never ceases to amaze me, the results that simple direction produces. Look again at that piece. Look at her face. Everyone shows that same concentration, the current sensory input being matched against memory from previous self-exams.

I've deliberately left off one word in my title to this post. This month gets a lot of publicity for those words. The thing is, it isn't a one time deal. It is month, after month, after month, for an entire lifetime.

( Arachnoidville )

I reached toward that bit of old hay bale twine on the panel and stopped, because it moved. Looking closer I spied this wee fellow, and made their portrait. I'd say he, or her, or even zie, except I strongly suspect the gender of this wee fellow matters only to another wee fellow of the same genus.

Tired today. Stiff, sore, after yesterday's Stay Late which lasted as long as usual. This week it is not even overtime, because the holiday on Monday means I've only worked 32 hours (plus the Stay Late) and not 40 hours. We don't receive overtime until we've worked 40 hours, even if we work greater than our normal shift hours in a row.

On the other hand, I was off from Hospital on Wednesday, which was my holiday for working on Monday which was the holiday... are you confused yet?

( Portrait of a Woman: monochrome/B&W )

Another portrait re-worked a wee bit for High Key. I've also taken this one to monochrome, so I might have two entries for Colour, and two for Monochrome. As for the 'Creative' category, which is for 'non-photo-realistic work', I am not sure I understand the club stance on this any longer. So I'm just watching that group for a bit.

( Portrait in Red )

I've posted this before I think, however this one is re-worked for the High Key theme next week with Camera Club #1.

( I Was Framed )

Write a haiku to describe the photo.

( Learning Curve )

Other than looks a bit like she's sitting on a cloud... good portrait. Plus, will probably use this one as a 'building block' to illustrate another project.

Stay Late at work yesterday, stayed late, and of course we got a thunderstorm. Houdini proved almost humourous in his greetings when I did get home and wouldn't let me out of his sight. Past few days during work, wearing lead armour because I've been involved in procedures using a lot of flouroscopy. Live real-time x-rays. So my knees are a bit displeased with me. May not need to wear lead tomorrow, then again not working tomorrow daytime. It will be a (Houdini trademarked) BossGoesAwayNight.

He doesn't much like those. He likes the morning after, though.

Just to show you (mostly) what we were up to today.

( Herself's New Cart. Herself doesn't like this picture... a lot )

The cart is for her yard tractor. We could also hook it onto the big tractor. Might look a bit odd though. She's looking forward to scraping out the goat barn now. No, Srsly! All that goat manure = Most Excellent Fertilizer!

( Come Into My Parlour... Not For Arachnophobes! Or maybe... )

This fellow really is not very large, about the size of a US dime. Maybe 1 cm across entire, and tucks legs in under that spiny cover. They very politely mark their webs so we can see them and not walk into them.

Oh, and this early evening while out feeding teh Horses, Kids, and Cows (specifically after feeding Cows and Kids and before Horses because we were extricating Stupid Goats from fence), overhead a cry, looked up, and 18 kites swooped and looped above us. We know there is a pair that nests nearby. We've not seen this many together before.

Welcome to North Central Baja Jorja.

( I Like The Portrait )

The past two days both were much more draining than the previous three, and Wednesday was Stay Late. I am very seriously into Brain Clutch Slippage, where engaging in constructive thought is difficult. Houdini is not too upset about this, as it results in some lounging about, often stretched out on the floor where he is able to provide warm fuzzies. There is a very good beer in the fridge chilling just a bit, and it is 7.5% alcohol by volume. I am so not the designated driver tonight. O. Wayt. Not going anywhere anyway!

Payday today, which included:
- On Call Pay, wasn't on call, however this is something Acting Boss directed Paymaster to do for those who wind up working Nearly a Double on Stay Late days.
- Overtime, 11.5 hours
- Paid Time Off, 8 hours, which is the July 4th Observed holiday, upon which I worked, so also
- Regular Hours, 80 hours.

Hmm. Maybe this explains why so tired. Maybe.

( Headshot. No actual models were injured making this shot. )

Right. Portfolio. I've been working through some plans this afternoon, in between doing some laundry and soothing an anxious Border Collie (thunder about). What with so many options, the primary goal is actually not to become paralyzed by all those options. So I jotted down some notes and moved on from there.

Note the first: if a picture won a place in some showing, then include it in the portfolio. After all, it impressed some judge(s) enough to award that place. This included a whopping two photographs.

Note the second: if a picture sold a print (or more), then include it in the portfolio. Much the same reasoning as before, though in this case they impressed someone enough to part with money. This included a whopping four photographs. (Note to Gentle Readers: HINT! You could influence this one, eh?)

After that it becomes a question of how to measure the qualitative aspects somewhat quantitatively. You may of noticed, following the Pic'o'Day postings, that the host site for those images is Flickr. Flickr thoughtfully provides some statistics for their customers, though the exact manner of that is changing a bit. Still, I've some records from them wherein Flickr indicated to me the Top ## (I usually only kept the top 20 as that conveniently fit into a PDF file) by 'Interestingness', 'Views' (view count), and 'Favourites' (how many people call a photo a Favorite of theirs). This includes a lot more photographs than Criteria #1 and Criteria #2 combined.

So my next level of choice, on that list, will be images that made all three. This provides another half-dozen or so pictures. I expect I'll break it down by making two, and then possibly if a photograph made any list at least once include that. That last criteria isn't as strict as it might sound. On Flickr, I 'filter' for displaying my nude work to people who are registered members, and listed by me to see those photographs. Putting one into a Group allows a slightly wider audience to see them, yet not too much expanded. So some of the nudes may be on only one list.

This does not excuse you, Oh Gentle Viewers/Readers, from yesterday's request to suggest photographs you think should be included in the portfolio. It only buys you some time before I get all emo on you.

Just now, I think I need to pay a bit more attention to that Border Collie...