Create the Life You Wan't to Live

Change Your Life 

As a kid you dream of your perfect life, maybe its money or fame, possibly just having your dream job. Then growing up gets in the way and we throw away all those dreams and just get by with a job we don't like and a life we don't want to wake up to. Huffington Post writes "1 in 3 Americans are not happy with there life"(Gregoire) I myself am guilty of not being happy just like everyone is. Why does everyone do this? Jack Canfield writes that "the real truth is that there is only one person responsible for the quality of the life you live. That person is you"(Canfield). This is true, only you can change your life and create what you want. You are responsible for choosing the job you hate or going and getting a job you want to wake up and go to every day. You are responsible for the people in your life choose who you want. People create excuse to why they have to stay in a job or a relationship or even a place they live. Just start small look at what you have in your life that you like. Maybe you have an amazing family, create your life around that. If you want to travel go on vacations with your family. There are ways to get your ideal life and think of reality. One step he write about  is to believe it is possible to achieve what you want. If you don't actually believe you can do something then it won't happen. He writes how scientist are "learning that instead we respond to what the brain, based on previous experience, expects to happen next. In fact, the mind is such a powerful instrument, it can deliver literally everything you want. But you have to believe that what you want is possible"(Canfield). We base our new experiences that already happened. Every opportunity is new and with different people so the outcome couldn't possibly be the same. Don't keep doing the same thing expecting a different outcome. If you change your thinking you can change your life. If you would like to learn and implement some Canfeild steps click here. 

http://jackcanfield.com/blog/7-steps-for-creating-the-life-you-want/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alysonkrueger/2014/06/14/how-to-create-the-exact-life-you-want/#586c252c78ce
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/01/happiness-index-only-1-in_n_3354524.html

Pet over Population

         

Saturday March 18th the community of Tri-cities came together to support Pet Over Population Prevention's 5k run. Tons of furry friends and families gathered to run enjoying Spudnut donuts and Starbucks coffee that were kindly there to support this event. All profits from this event went to Pet Over Population Prevention(POPP) here in Tri-
cities. I had the opportunity to photograph this event. Even 
though I was in dog heaven shooting all the images below, this 5K did make me think about the true meaning of this event and what the POPP does for the community.

 Many animals are left on the streets because of people not properly not taking care of their pets. POPP's mission is "to promote responsible pet care through educating the public on the importance of spaying and neutering their cats and dogs, as well as providing spay and neuter assistance"(POPP2017) with the number of cats and dogs born being 70,000 a day, this means almost 3,000 an hour. A lot of these animals are left on the streets, in neglectful homes,and even taken to a shelter to be euthanized. If people got there pets spayed and neutered this number would go down incredibly. Only 15% of animal owners in a survey said they got there pet from an animal shelter. This means many animals are going in to the animal shelters but not
 coming out. The number of animals euthanized in the U.S is 3-
million. With the help of things like no kill shelters and POPP many animals can be saved. If more pet owners spayed and neutered their pets this would leave more room in shelters for animals that have been left or in neglectful homes to be saved. More people should adopt or donate to no kill shelters and POPP organizations. Our furry friends have feelings and a voice they just cant talk to you. Things like the Pooch and Pal 5K gives a voice and spread the word of pet overpopulation that needs to be heard. To donate or adopt from POPP click here. If you dont have the ability to pay for a procedure there are ways to have it done for free or even on a payment program your way. More information and another place to donate in this video. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PekkOefSu-c
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pet_overpopulation/
http://oxfordpets.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61
http://www.popptricities.org/
www.ashbyphotography.com

Woman of War

The book A Long Way Gone tells the story of  a young boy going to war in Sierra Leone, showing the tribulations and losses he went through. Kid soldiers were the army's main source of man power and is incredibly sad, but I would like to talk about the women and young girls in this war and tell some of their stories. I feel there isn't enough focus on the women and what they went through along what

happened to their lives after.

At first the women were not treated any different then men because the Rebels just needed man power, this why children were used. After a couple years of war they realized that women were better for cooking, cleaning and keeping the houses nice.

I feel these women don't get recognized for what happened to them. They became slaves to men. There to cook and be a sex object for any man. The women had children to men they didn't love and didn't know the father because of the amount of sexual abuse. Laura Conteh was taken at 12 by the rebels, her family didn't know they were coming and had no time to pack or anything they just ran. Laura got separated from her family and got captured. For the next three years she was apart a group of men that she didn't even know their names. She was sexually abused my many men and one man described her as his "bush wife," but this didn't stop others at all.  Her son now 18 was born during this war. Laura heard many stories of other women like "one women in Binkolo recount. ‘I was raped by 10 men on the first day,’ Fatsmata Koroma, a husky-voiced former combatant, said. Fatsmata thinks she was 11 at the time. She added, ‘They took turns with me and then left me lying there" (Friedman-Rudovsky2013).  Laura also said "You just wished you weren’t beautiful because they didn’t let the beautiful ones do anything or go anywhere, even to fetch water. You were guarded day and night because they really didn’t want you to escape" (Friedman-Rudovsky2013). If you tried to escape they would flog you. (beat someone with a stick) Also if you showed you were homesick or cried because of someone else getting punished they would beat you or kill you. Other punishments were squatting for multiple hours and spending the day in the toilet. Nobody really fought the sexual abuse, Laura states "you just get use to it (Friedman-Rudovsky2013). 
These women's hard times were not over when the war was over. One woman Janet Masaray came back to her family pregnant and was unwelcome by her father. She says "‘He was ashamed of me. He and a lot of others here thought we weren’t fit to live with our families any more because we had been with the rebels.’ This was the norm. ‘People would say to me and the other girls, you are rebels – you don’t belong here"(Friedman-Rudovsky2013).  Some beliefs from the war was that the woman didn't try to escape because they were enjoying a life of sex and stealing. These women were unwanted by men because they were disgrace to families and were undesirable. These women have lived through hard times during the war and even after the war ends they still have to fight for respect. More information straight from the woman in this video here. 


http://i1.wp.com/globaltableadventure.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/woman-and-children-in-Sierra-Leone.jpg
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/sierraleone/10450619/The-women-who-bear-the-scars-of-Sierra-Leones-civil-war.html  
https://vimeo.com/84057158

Real or Fake

Photo Manipulation 

The first photo you see above is obviously fake but what about the one under it. The top one was made in photoshop the bottom photo was made in camera with a long shutter speed no editing required. These are examples of photo manipulation, a way for photographers to create art with their skills of technology. This topic on if photographers should or shouldn't manipulate images has been talked about for years. Rules that are possible on how much a photographer should "fake" an image have been discussed but none have been set in place. 

As a photographer, the one that took both images above I believe that there shouldn't be rules on what a photographer can create. Are there rules on artist on what they can draw, paint or sculpt? No, society needs to realize that not everything you see is reality, this is true in everything not just photography. Why should photographers have a limitation and not film makers. Most of the TV, movies, and advertising people see are fake and edited. Some photographers use photoshop to create an image that is from their imagination, an example being land floating above a canyon(Image1). Others use skills in a camera to manipulate light, where no photoshop was used(Image2).  Photography its self is manipulation not just the crazy edits you see online. A photographer uses different setting in a camera to manipulate the light to their personal liking. Making it where no manipulation could happen would completly wipe out photography in general. A question that has been asked around is "how strict can the rules be." Are photographers just banned from creating art in photoshop or are they banned from creating art in camera? Each rule gets rid artistic freedom. Not knowing how strict the rules should be is just another reason why they shouldn't be in place.

Matt Brandon asks "Were photographers ever meant to capture only reality?"(Brandon2012). I think this is a great question because a camera was created to capture a moment but as anything it starts to evolve. Matt Brandon used and example of a carpenter. "carpenters are meant only to build houses. Of course, this is silly. Carpenters can do anything with their trade and craft from building a house to a beautiful wooden statue or a gorgeous boat to sail the ocean. Traditionally, carpenters are meant to build things out of wood. The only limitation is that it needs to be wood. To relegate carpenters to do one thing would be stifling"(Brandon2012). The only limitation a photographer has is that their art has to use a camera.So why shouldn't they be able to create a image of land floating just as a carpenter is able to bulid a statue. They both use their mediums.The photographer uses the same camera that captures real moments as the carpenter uses the same wood that builds a house. Art is created to show the view of the world and the situations in it so why should someone be limited on how they do just that. No matter the medium used there should be no limits put on art.  

http://thedigitaltrekker.com/2012/04/photography-whats-real-whats-not-and-does-it-matter
https://luminous-landscape.com/the-very-old-debate-of-image-manipulation/
Images: http://www.ashbyphotography.net/fullscreen-page/comp-iy4ujjzq/5220cd5e-6684-4530-b8df-02a99397bb65/1/%3Fi%3D1%26p%3Dlm54d%26s%3Dstyle-iyyr8skf (my own website for my images)
https://aphotoeditor.com/2009/09/18/is-photo-manipulation-bad-for-photography/

9/11 Controversial Photograph

Thomas Hoepker Controversial Photograph

Photographers, have to make some tough decisions in their career. Right before they click the button that freezes time for eternity, thousands of thoughts are running through their minds. Do they take the shot or lose an opportunity and how many people will be affected by this photo. A photographer thinks about every opinion a person could have about the photograph before it is even taken. On one of the most important days in history, one of the most iconic photos was taken of 9/11 by Thomas Hoepker.

In Thomas's Hopeker photograph above it shows New Yorkers relaxing in the sun as the cloud of smoke rises from the twin towers. Hopeker didn't publish this photo until 2006 because of it's possible opinions. He states " I felt, was ambiguous and confusing: Publishing it might distort the reality as we had felt it on that historic day"(Hopeker2006). I believe Hopeker was right about this, people were not ready for the possible metaphor of this photo. Its a disturbing idea that these people could just being sitting in the sun with what looks like no care about what is going on behind them. There were many thoughts about this photo one thought being by Frank Rich, from New York Times wrote "He saw in this undeniably troubling picture an allegory of America's failure to learn any deep lessons from that tragic day, to change or reform as a nation: "The young people in Mr Hoepker's photo aren't necessarily callous. They're just American.""(Jones2011). There was also another thought about how a photograph doesn't show what they say, the people could be talking about 9/11. When Rich says "they are just Americans," I think it is true. America is the place to be and a place some strive to get to because of its endless possibilities. I believe America has a stigma around it that makes it where nothing bad happens, America is the place of moving on. When something bad happens we rush to fix it creating a imaginary perfect world. This photo has sadly become one of the most iconic photos from 9/11 surpassing some of the more horrific photographs. I think this is because nobody wants to forget what happened that day but they want to remember it in a nicer way. People don't want to come to the realization of a situation, they just want to live and have it as a memory.  As Jones says in his article "life does not stop dead because a battle or an act of terror is happening nearby"(Jones2011).  Events become memories, the lives lost become memorials and the people that lived through the event become quite about it. The people in this photograph just represent the culture of Americans, we experience something then change the subject to something lighter.

Sited
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/sep/02/911-photo-thomas-hoepker-meaning
https://wevelostcontrol.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/thomas-hoepker-9-11.jpg
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2006/09/i_took_that_911_photo.html