It’s cold today. It’s been highs in the mid-80’s all week.. today I woke up and it was 50F with a high of 68 today. I’ve had the window open for the whole morning, and the house is slowly getting chilly. I’m wearing jeans and a sweater and a long sleeved shirt, but I haven’t been reduced to socks yet. I just want to keep the window open so I can smell the breeze. Stump is confused. She’s been in and out of my lap all morning. It’s like she knows it’s cold enough to be in my lap, but it’s still wrong for some reason so she gets up.
My fairytale photos have moved to their own page. I felt like they needed a girly and yet now over-the-top girly place to showcase them. I feel like the page design is great at doing that and really sets off the photos. Check it out here: http://www.fairyography.com/ I’m still having a hard time coming to terms with the Princess Movement. It’s tough for me to really market something so super girly and be such a tomboy myself. There’s a whole culture out there of people who feel that Disney is brainwashing young girls. I’m really really not trying to get into that area, my pictures are just about making magic. For me, for the girl, for the parents, for the world. There’s not enough magic around. I still keep wondering about the backlash. Are there people talking about my photos as if I’m a bad person for even doing this? I’m sure there are people in this city who think “Oh, I’d NEVER let my daughter do anything like that.” as if fairytale photos will immediately turn them into someone that will marry the first guy that comes along. I try to run sessions with the thought and chatter that being smart is far better than being pretty and that being kind is much better than being a bitch. It’s still hard to shake the feeling that some day I’m going to get an army of feminists at my door telling me that I’m helping objectify women.
I haven’t made much progress on crane-folding. I’m still at 150, just a little over a tenth of the way. In two weeks, it’ll be a year to the wedding. It’s not like I don’t have time, but 150 cranes in 8 month kind-of sucks on the 1000 crane folding front here. I’ve been using Pinterest to organize my thoughts on what I’m wanting for wedding things. You can see my wedding board here: http://pinterest.com/heatherannl/i-m-getting-married-fall-birds/ and my wedding photo wishes here: http://pinterest.com/heatherannl/i-want-my-wedding-photos-to-look-like-this/ I’m trying to work back towards a little less formal and still keep it working with my dress. I think it’s pretty funny to look at what I wanted for wedding junk 5-7 years ago vs. now… what changes and what’s stayed the same.
My hummingbirds have almost all left. I had some last year until about now, maybe a week or two longer. Once they get fat enough to go, they sure don’t stick around much, so I think my sausage birds have gone.
I can understand why you worry about the backlash about your princess photos, but speaking as a raving feminist, I don’t think they fit into that creepy, objectifying paradigm at all. When I look at your fairytale pictures, including the princess themed ones, I see them as more aligned with the kind of wild, fey magic that I think is largely associated with feminine power in fiction. You use outdoor settings, organic shapes, and fluid movement that make even the most “princess-y” pictures seem earthy. They remind me of Patricia McKillip’s fantasy worlds (which I think we’ve compared notes about reading before), and that kind of fantasy features strong women and intentional references to women friendly pagan myths. I know some of that may not be what the parents who come to you are thinking, but I suspect it’s part of it for you. I guess my point is, even if someone somewhere looks at one of your pictures and thinks something negative, I would bet someone somewhere else probably looks at them and totally gets where you’re coming from.
Also, I think the new site looks great.