this calls for a toast...

(more re-do's...)

well, i got the volunteer position i really wanted. it was competitive! background checks, references called, interviews and competition--but it was worth the month of effort. i'm one of three photographers signed on with the local publication, Rainbow Rumpus. it's a online/print publication/magazine designed for kids, and primarily by kids with glbt parents. there's just a handful of women making it a reality and i feel really honored to be a part of it. (seven, eight of us maybe??) i am in the first batch of photographers ever be 'signed' on and i feel like i really have a voice with my work and how it gets to where it needs to go. i feel incredibly honored that i get to use my camera to capture an incredibly underrepresented group of children within our society and within the media itself.

i love kids. i love families. i love having a gift that i can share. and i love seeing people passionate about what they believe in. this embodies all of that...

i hate seeing children who are made to feel as if they don't count in their own life...because the life they were blessed with isn't wholly accepted by all of the country that they were born in. makes no sense to me. i want to give them some sort of a voice and photography gives a voice. it makes people feel like they belong somehow--if it didn't, photography wouldn't be what it is today... (have ya seen this? these are old photos taken when photography was brand new. after a loved one died...families panicked due to having no remembrance of them--so the dead family member was 'posed', and often times things like eyes and 'color' were edited in after the fact--long before the days of photoshop, of course. proof positive, the power of the portrait...)

my job with the publication will be to attend to events and take family portraits as well as photograph the event itself. the job will be to make the website and magazine colorful and representative of the folks who read it. i'm excited for the challenge, as i feel like i'm stepping into a whole new world on so many levels...