quotable photable

We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.

Stephen Hawking (1942 - ), Der Spiegel, 1989

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This isn't necessarily a call for monkeys, although monkeys are welcome.

This is a call for wonderment. Gaping, gobsmacked, anything-but-average wonderment -- the kind that makes us something very special.

inanimate

Nest offerings, untouched.

I blink once and they squirm. I blink again and they’re weeping, then again and they’re metaphor, then again and they’re a collection of minute particles and who’s to say they're not looking back at me?

It’s seven minutes to midnight. It’s acceptable to be either asleep or pushing an elephant of a deadline up the stairs but I’m here with you contemplating how it’s possible for yarn to hold a twist and saying isn’t that something, when you see a story where you might otherwise not?

And you might cock your head just that way, or furrow your brow and say yes, isn’t that something and you might smile and right there, you and me together have generated electricity, an addictive current as real and as humming as red.

I blink one more time and they’re twists that wait to be useful. A photo of the pact of readiness.

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This first Monday, show me something inanimate that speaks to you. Or perhaps suggest your local Shady Acres, or a stronger drink. Or a weaker one.

with love from nina & tom

Today's giveaway is for a $25.00 gift certificate from the fabulously hip Nina & Tom Family Fashion, whose Peace Dove Snapee/T-shirt Ben wears above.

We also love their famed I'm This Many Birthday T-shirt (Ben's got one of those too, and Evan as well), and the I'm The Big Brother (or Sister) T-shirt that Evan received for the day Ben finally came home and promptly went from two-pound otherworldly visitor to the fridge-raiding, lego-chucking, gloriously grinning maniac he is today.

Thanks, Nina & Tom, for being as cool as our kids.

when the water is warm

On this day a ball ran away, first with intention and then with current, and I dove into the ocean after it fully clothed, up to my neck in the salt of July. For the rest of the day and until we sailed home I festered in the sun, my shirt crispening and stinking of seaweed, but oh, the rightness. There's something rare and delicious about being wet and dressed.

Tonight, the land is tucked in for winter along with the sailboat and the beach, and the sea is a determined grey, and thanks to your encouragement I am set to keep my photo-mojo from going into hibernation.

Can I tell you something? You're all glorious, a kick in the pants in the most excellent way. I visit the flickr pool and see this and this and this and think my god, how can I presume to post in company like this? You are teacher, mentor, muse.

Thanks for being here, shutter sisters. Thanks for being that runaway ball for me, for each other, for saying jump the heck in.

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In grand celebration of our sisterhood here, we are giving away a coveted Flash Bulb Necklace (as seen above) to a lucky reader.  You must comment on this post today to be included in the random drawing. It seemed like the perfect way to jump start the December festivities here at Shutter Sisters. What December festivities you ask? We thought you'd never ask. All month long we are hosting A Giveaway a Day and just as the name promises, each and every day this month we will be giving something fabulous away to one of you. It's just a little way to show our gratitude. Click over and comment each day for your chance to win something wonderful just in time for the holidays. Be sure to invite your friends! The more the merrier we like to say.

Updated 12/2...and the winner is Lilia (aka Pumpkinoodle)at Babymoon Photography. Thanks everyone for your comments! 

hibernation

It is the dull light's season in this landscape of bleak, crunchy brown--the precursor to snow and the highly functional but totally non-adorable outerwear that accompanies it.

What you see here is the very last of beach, squeezed out in complete denial from a pancake-flat tube.

I'm already yawning with the touchdown of my annual photographic hibernation. Each year I try, head full of visions of crystalline flakes and brilliant sun on white. Each year I mourn my mojo.

So tell me, fellow shut-ins and winter-bounds: how do you keep your shutter spirit intact from now through May? What do you see through your lens that redeems this season of exhaust-spattered slushpiles and day after day of stay-puft marshmallow boys?*

*Texans, Trinidadians and Californians: tread CAREFULLY, sisters. Poke not this sleepy bear.