A Camera Is a Fun Toy.........

I just found some old photos from the Amanda archives

from the California days I enjoyed photo shoots with aspiring photographers..

Just for the pure joy of living.

 I think everyone should enjoy a photo shoot day.

Even if you aren't a supermodel.

I most certainly am not.

I have curves all over my body in places that I can't even control.

A chicken pox scar above my eyebrow.

A bump on my nose that I inherited from my grandfather.

A crooked smile kinda like Drew Barrymore, but I am not Drew Barrymore!

That is because I am me!

The things that I have sometimes hated..

are the things that many have swooned over.

It is time to give up on the stereotypical beauty..

and embrace your every little labeled "flaw"
for that is what might just make you fabulous!

The camera smiles at imperfections.

Those imperfections suddenly express you.

And you have something beautiful within

that the camera lens refuses to ignore.



"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius,
and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than
absolutely boring."
~Marilyn Monroe.


I like to bring my friends because we are so vibrant and colorful together.
Any camera will do.
Even a cell phone camera.
People always laugh at me because my little digital cameras always get banged up.
I tell them it's because my camera has visited other countries, cities, states and met so many beautiful faces.

"I had never been on a date where I went to a movie with a girl and her apartment after to drink wine, dress up in crazy wigs, and take pictures.  That is what made me see that you were different than other girls.  You were fun, and I could tell you loved life.  I knew I could fall in love with you that very moment."

-a quote about my first date with my love, Dan Eberhardt.

The not-so-deep thing about pictures..
is that the more you take..
even if they are self photos..
they document a part of your life.

You can remember where you were,
what time of the year it was,
who you were with,
what you were feeling right then,
and maybe even what you did before .. or after.

"She glances at the photo, and the pilot light of memory flickers in her eyes."



One of those unexpected, "please don't take my photo"

moments might end up naturally pretty.

Don't fight your true beauty.

Even if it is the very next day,
it is so fun to find photographs..
To remember what your memory couldn't possibly envision without them.

"Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving.
What you have caught on film is captured forever.
It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything."