{"id":19930,"date":"2018-11-01T20:16:33","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T03:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=19930"},"modified":"2018-11-02T05:23:35","modified_gmt":"2018-11-02T12:23:35","slug":"a-star-is-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-star-is-born\/","title":{"rendered":"A Star Is Born…."},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve always found photography to be fascinating.\u00a0 Now, believe me, it\u2019s not because I am a photographer by any sense of the term.\u00a0 I am the person who always catches my \u2018photo models\u2019 in awkward poses and with frightening looks on their faces.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, I\u2019ve decapitated family and friends more than once with my photography skills.\u00a0 So, I am definitely not a pro \u2013 or even a novice.\u00a0 I am basically a \u2018photographer loser.\u2019<\/p>\n

That being said, I haven\u2019t stopped trying!\u00a0\u00a0 I am following the ranks of some specular people who have failed \u2013 before succeeding!<\/p>\n

J.K Rowling \u2013 12 major publishers rejected Harry Potter before a small publishing company picked it up. \u00a0 \u00a0 Today, Rowling is a lowly billionaire with the sale of over 400 million books to date.<\/p>\n

Bill Gates \u2013 designed a machine to process data, which flopped practically before it started.\u00a0 But practice makes perfect and Gates is now known as a computer genius.<\/p>\n

Colonel Sanders \u2013 at the ripe old age of 50, he created a finger lickin\u2019 good chicken recipe, which he sold for $2 million in 1964 at the age of 74.\u00a0 Certainly nothing to cluck at!<\/p>\n

So, with these successes to consider, I decided that it\u2019s never too late and that maybe I could make a go at photography \u2013 even after 40+ years of failure.\u00a0 So, with grandmunchkins in mind, I decided to become their professional photographer.\u00a0 My son and daughter-in-law were so thrilled and couldn\u2019t wait for the outcome.\u00a0 It was an exciting adventure \u2013 catching my grandkids in the most perfect of unplanned poses.\u00a0 I knew that my photographer-gifting would emerge, and I would definitely become a photo genius!<\/p>\n

A famous quote from Richelle Goodrich, author of Smile Away<\/em>, states: \u201cYou may be the only person left who believes in you, but it\u2019s enough.\u00a0 It takes just one start to pierce a universe of darkness.\u00a0 Never give up.\u201d\u00a0 <\/strong>I knew it was time to give it a try, because I was ready for stardom!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Well, it didn’t quite work as I had hoped.\u00a0 (I think maybe I was supposed to wash faces first before doing the professional photography.)\u00a0 So many things to think about as a pro\u2026<\/p>\n

According to the SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods, visual ethnography uses photography, motion pictures, hypermedia, the web, interactive CD\u2019s, CD-ROMS, and virtual reality as ways of capturing and expressing perceptions and social realities of people.<\/p>\n

So, to say it mildly, after my failed endeavors at photography, I appreciated Pink\u2019s book, Doing Visual Ethnography.\u00a0 <\/em>Pink explained that \u201cimages are everywhere\u201d and bring value to our lives.\u00a0 \u00a0Pink noted: \u201cWhen ethnographers produce photographs or video, these visual texts, as well as the experience of producing them and discussing them, become a part of their ethnographic knowledge.\u201d[1]<\/a> \u00a0<\/em>This is a powerful explanation of the importance of integrating visual ethnography into our lives \u2013 good or not so good.\u00a0 The author shared that \u201cethnography images are as inevitable as sounds, smells, textures and tastes, words or other aspects of culture and society.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

I especially appreciated Part 3 \u2013 Visual Images and Technologies.\u00a0 Pink explained that \u201cwhen a photograph is situated in the present tense and is treated as a realist representation, a particular relationship between the text, the image and the ethnographic context is constructed.\u201d\u00a0 The author went on to explain: \u201cIt becomes a photograph that could be taken any time, a generalized representation of an activity or type of person.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 I completely agree with this.\u00a0 As a Hospice Chaplain, I always ask that family members bring in photos of the patient who is at the end of their life.\u00a0 I have found that photos from the past help to bring a patient \u2018alive in the present\u2019 versus seeing only an elderly person lying in bed as their life seeps away.\u00a0 There is a great power in pictures from the past!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, although I may never become a great photographer, I certainly value imagery and the power it holds. \u00a0The author shared that when an old photo is brought to the present, the past is forgotten.\u00a0 \u201cThe specificity of the photographic moment, set in the past, is lost and instead the photograph is situated in the continuous present.\u201d[4]<\/a> I believe that this is the power of photographs.\u00a0 It is not the time period that it was taken that makes it important.\u00a0 What makes it important is that it brings the past into the present.<\/p>\n

And, because of that, I will continue to utilize photography as a means of visual ethnology.\u00a0 And, with that in mind, I present myself to you as a PHOTOGRAPHY STAR!\u00a0 (NOT!<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Sarah Pink, Doing Visual Ethnography <\/em>(London: Sage Publications, 2013), 21.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid, 22.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid, 150.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid, 151.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve always found photography to be fascinating.\u00a0 Now, believe me, it\u2019s not because I am a photographer by any sense of the term.\u00a0 I am the person who always catches my \u2018photo models\u2019 in awkward poses and with frightening looks on their faces.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, I\u2019ve decapitated family and friends more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1386,279],"class_list":["post-19930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lpg-9","tag-pink","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19930"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19946,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19930\/revisions\/19946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}