Melanie Segalla: June 2012

Early in their career,

every Dr. will kill a patient.

every judge will wrongfully send someone to death row.

every bus driver will run over a homeless man.

every teacher will derail a brilliant student.

every chef will slice off one of their fingers.

And every (recent history as in digital) photographer will discover Adobe Photoshop.

And use it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much.

Maybe some of these aren't always true.

Except for the photographer one.

I just meant, when you are passionate about something

(yes, even bus drivers. Go out there and talk to them. A lotta them LOVE IT.)

you make a lot of mistakes in the beginning, you just do.

And every Photographer who discovers Photoshop gorges on it.

Until they wake up and realize they've gotten photoshop fat and just want organic food again.

That's where I am.

Back to FEELING the photo.

READING the photo.

WHY did I take this photo?

WHAT IS THE POINT of it?

WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE?

And that's what you focus on. Slightly enhancing that bit.

Slightly.

Each situation has a different question. A different reason to take a photo.

In National Geographic world, you want to perfectly capture everything in THAT MOMENT you are standing in. No editing. Well, you "sweep the dust" off it, but that's it.

You want the blood. You want the dust. The sweat and fear and love and life and EVERYTHING.

Man I wish I worked for them.

Conversely, a portrait. Do you want zits?

Do you want snot hanging six feet off your baby's nose?

What about those yellow teeth?

Nope.

You want your PORTRAIT (there is a difference between portrait and just getting pre-weight loss surgery Uncle Arnold belly flopping into the pool)

to match the wonderfulness of your memory.

Yes, zits are part of teenagerhood.

Snot is part of babyhood.

Those of us who haven't paid for perfection (most of us) have yellow teeth.

But you don't want to remember those things.

Did you take the picture for the architectural detail?

Did you like the color?

What was the point of this photo?

And direct your....what do you call people who look at your photos? For authors its readers, for movie stars its audience, for doctors its patients, for bus drivers its passengers....

...your lookers. Yes, you direct your Lookers eyes to that thing that made you take the picture.

(Looker rhymes with hooker)

And you emphasize it a little.

The End.

Do as I say, not as I do.

'Cuz I'm still in Photoshop Rehab.

Moving right along........

This is Angel.

I say this with the same reverence as I would draw back the curtains and say,

This is Elvis.

(I don't really like Elvis. Let's try this again.)

I say this with the same reverence as I would draw back the curtains and say,

This is Sinead O'Connor.

(My favorite singer of all time. Bald? Hater of The Pope? Yeah, that one : )

One day she (Angel, not Sinead, though I kind of think that about Sinead as well) will be a famous professor.

One day this boy will be The President of The United States

and an apostle (someone high up in our LDS church)

Twin 1 will cure cancer.

Twin 2 will discover a free and limitless transportation energy solution.

And you know what all three will say?

"I owe it all to my mother."

Truer words never spoken.

I, unlike every other teenager out there, had a difficult adolescence.

Then I became a lame-o twenty something.

I have a lot of...energy.

And like a blazing forest fire in Yellowstone, it's not always good.

But this lady right here.

She's always listened to me, and offered THE MOST BRILLANT ADVICE EVER

and helped me,

and loved me

and is my sister Shannon's best friend

and is a member of our family as sure as anyone else.

Here are some more pictures of this wonderful lady person and her sweet as Indian candy

(try some, you'll have 8 cavities within three days,

and that's candy from India, not candy from South Dakota)

chitlins.

The green of the grass. The smile. The babies. That's why I took the photo.

I love the crying. This, unlike zits, is something to remember fondly. (kind of : ) I left the red in on purpose. The red really drives that screaming home. I love this baby.