Comments on:

by: Annie

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:38:18 +0000

I really like what you’re saying about divorce from physicality and feeling grounded sexually/mentally–I find that I feel like a big strong powerful girl who should have tattoos and take over the world whenever I bike around NYC…but not so much toward the end of the winter when I’ve put my bike away for the past couple of months. Also there are all those cars.

Man, I want to visit Seattle.

by: Pony

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:34:18 +0000

I have that book! It was a present from a kid about many years ago. I could never live up to anybody in there Heather. But if I think I’m coming to the coast, I’ll take a swing down to see your studio. It won’t be this year. It would be fun. Having been on the ‘other’ end of the camera, I have no shyness or fears or discomfort. I’maham.

by: Pony

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:31:29 +0000

Body image. Hmmm. I’m wondering if I should have a series done by you Heather. I don’t see a representation of the over 60 female body.

by: Pony

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:29:17 +0000

Heh heh. Penis-car analogy. You bet. I’ve seen news photogs make all kinds of excuses for why they have to hang onto that 300 /2.8 Canon. Sure it has uses, but that’s not WHY they drag it around.

by: Dee

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 19:26:02 +0000

You’ve got such a healthy approach to body image. I’ve put on some happy relationship weight recently too, and I go between being annoyed about it and feeling very sensual and grounded. It’s interesting how being bigger is, in reality, a mixed bag rather than bad, bad, bad.

by: tg

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 15:51:24 +0000

I love what you are saying about the relationship between nature and bodies. A month ago it was below zero for the weekend, and my partner and I decided that if evolution over a hundred thousand years of living in cold regions meant that our bodies expected to stay put, snuggle, sleep, and get round on days this short and cold, well, that’s what we were going to do for a few weeks. Once it got above zero, we started walking the 15 minutes to the grocery and back again. And now it’s going to get up to 50F, and we’ll start bicycling and going for the longer walks by the river and trees again.

by: lisa

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 04:23:41 +0000

Hee- I love the penis car analogy with SLR cameras- you are so right with some of those. I use an SLR because I like to be able to futter with aperture and shutter and change lenses and whatnot, but sometimes it really is too much camera. I bought a little Canon point and click that I can use for more spontaneous/sneaky work. One of these days I’d like to get a second SLR body to use for working shoots, and many of the bodies are just too big for my small hands, and also so heavy. There has been a movement toward smaller bodies- the Nikon D40, for example, however it’s not one of their “pro” models- read: it’s marketed toward soccer moms, whereas all the “pro” bodies are built like brick shithouses. Interesting message the manufacturers are sending, huumm? So much in the photography industry is so male centered anyway- it can be quite annoying!

Anyway- sorry to be a camera busybody, but since I work at a camera shop as one of my many jobs, I have an insider’s view of some things. Isn’t your old beloved camera a Canon? Canon is one of the best companies about repairs- you might know this, but you can send your camera back to Canon for repair even when it is out of warranty, and they can usually fix whatever is broken, even if the model is a few years old. I’ve been impressed with their service- most of the other manufacturers are not nearly as good. Plus, I’ve never seen a repair cost more than $200, and usually it isn’t even quite that much.

by: JayDee

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 01:43:21 +0000

Spot on, as always. Your post brought back memories of living in remote Alaska, where gender equity wasn’t a topic of debate, it was a fact of life and survival in the wild. Couch potatos and Divas didn’t last long. And since we all had “Arctic Tans” and hair where hair grows, we didn’t have many issues with body image. Not implying that we had it all right- but we were less obsessed than what I see going on these days.

Ouch! I guess I’ll have to Neuter my Nikon D50! Next thing you know, I’ll be driving a Corvette and wearing a toupee!!

by: Irmelin

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 06:51:45 +0000

It’s interesting to talk about bodies being something that change according to what we do when what so many women “do” is careering their sexual appeal to men.

by: lisa

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 03:51:14 +0000

I’ve found myself in the same boat lately- wanting to take some self portraits but not being able to find the time. I haven’t done a real study in self-portraiture since I finished grad school almost 6 years ago- I miss that sometimes.

Sorry to hear you and the new camera don’t mesh. If it any consolation, I don’t like those Olympus SLRs either. Have you seen the Canon G7? It’s not an SLR, but it’s got a ton of functionality and the quality of it is amazing. The big photo trade show is going on in a few days, and usually after that happens prices drop on many models. The shop I work for has it on sale for something like $530, I think.