Super 8

"Getting lost in your loving is your first mistake" to quote Gordon Lightfoot in is ever-famous song Sundown.  I am not quite sure how I view this saying, because I love getting lost in loving. It's like getting lost in art. We lose and find ourselves when we create. My Dad just returned from California, and while he was gone, not that it was a good thing that he was gone (I MISSED HIM!!!), I began to find myself within my own art and independence. As I was finding myself in this world, I stumbled upon a beautiful 8 mm Tower: Triple-lens video camera from the sixties or seventies. I call my photo Super 8 because it's the same camera they used in that movie to film the horrific train wreck that they accidentally encounter while filming a movie. As a movie nut, I appreciate video cameras as well. Here it is. All rights reserved:

Oh yes. $5.45 at Salvation Army. People don't realize what they're shoving into the back of the glass counter case. These aren't worth that much, but still, it runs like a top. It just needs a film roll and maybe a tripod and I would be so set to go. :)

Have any of you ever seen What's Eating Gilbert Grape? Well, if you haven't you're in for a treat, all of you lonesome artists out there will really grow to appreciate this film. I decided to pop it in last night and just swim in its simplicity as I was in a very good mood, and I am now. Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) is stuck in his world with a mentally ill brother, Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio), who demands his attention. He works a job, takes care of his brother and corrupted family, and lives in a small desolate town known as Endora. So he's pretty much caged in. But he meets his new life when someone comes to town. That is all I will tell you. But what does that have to do with photography? Well, as photographers we often feel that things must be presented to us in a certain way, and that's often what stops us from taking a picture. You must grab the bull by the horns. We can't be limited by the setting. Just grab your camera and hold it while you watch a movie or something and then you will look over somewhere and see the simplest photo-op. And you'll be like: That was there all this time? 

Do any of you have a dream destination for your photos? I certainly do. Arabia, Paris, Morocco, New York, Canada, Norway, Egypt, Kilimanjaro, Ngong Hills, Canyon De Chelly, and many other endless places. I could go on for eons about certain places I want to photograph.

Try it. Go outside. Walk around your neighborhood in your favorite pair of shoes. (And sunglasses ;) ).

I am often too dreamy for this world. I fantasize too much. But what is life without metaphysical principles that we all know we obtain and abstain from others because we are too chicken to present our ideas? I have grown against that. I have decided to be kind over clever, to seek what is beautiful and true, and to be educated in the highest way, and in every way, to the best of my ability. I have these friends who think that people who are unable to take risks once and a while are quote-on-quote "weenie" and I disagree. And it kind of pisses me off to think that my own friends think those things. People just aren't ready. Give them time. Life is short, but it is full. Nothing should be done in haste when it doesn't have to be. Some things are essential to be done in haste if you want them badly enough. Catch my drift? This a clip from one of my all time favorite films Lawrence of Arabia, and it tells the true story of one of my biggest role models, T.E. Lawrence. Lawrence is an example of someone who takes advantage and finds joy in every situation of life, even pain. He has learned many a language, traveled far, and done courageous things that most of us wouldn't dare do. I WOULD LOVE TO DO WHAT HE DID! I want to marry someone like him. Haha. He has just taken advantage of life in full bloom, no matter the situation. He sees everyone as equal, and he must help those who have fallen. He speaks Arabic too. I will be going into Middle Eastern studies in college, hoping to learn Arabic so he has a had a very large influence on my life, just like Isak Dinesen. He is one of the few people that has lived in this world that really keeps me going. Here is a clip. Enjoy his simple magic trick: 

This is Camille Elaine Craig, signing off and flying out.

"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible." -T.E. Lawrence

I'm in love with these sorts of people. They are the reason we live and love it.

P.S. Peter O'Toole is the bomb. :D