Sandals

My mom is a name dropper. She used to tell this story about my older brother's footwear, and how we were so ahead of the times:


"Remember when Jonathan wore sandals, and that was before everyone else was wearing sandals. He was the first. He did it before everyone else wore sandals."


An impressionable youth, six years younger than Jonathan, hearing my mom tell that story many times, I really believed what she was saying. And I felt pride. I would see a guy wearing sandals and I would think, "Oh, but my brother, my family, was the first." [I am not sure if I really think with commas, but using commas makes me feel important.]


This year my wife and I are working on this problem. I want to have conversations without my mentioning that I was the first to do something or that I or my family has a connection to a famous person.


We have come up with a technique: Whenever I mention some connection I have with a famous person, she or I say, "Sandals."


Don't we all know that Pride is a sin? Don't we all know that murder and Pride are not good? It ain't the latest self-help fad, buddy.


It's not that it's a sin, but that it is alienating, it breaks the connection that conversations are, ideally, supposed to create and strengthen. And, it alienates me from myself. When I mention my connection that elevates me, I am not as present. I am less my authentic self, and just a jerk compensating (failing to compensate) for my inadequacies.


Connecting with others feels good. It's the opposite of alienation. When I don't feel connected, name dropping makes it worse, not better.

Help me Stop NameDropping

Just to make sure we are all on the same page: name dropping is mentioning a well-known name in conversation. For example, "I remember when Barack, back when we called him Barry, and I were teenagers and used to get together on Sundays and look for typos in the NY Times."

Or, "Ah, the Prius. You know, back in '62, we were the first ones on the west coast to have a car that didn't use gasoline - it ran on orange peels and shredded clothing. We were the first."

In a word: Pride. The sin of pride. Trying to alleviate anxiety and alienation by self-aggrandizement. I am guilty, extremely guilty.

I don't like myself when I do it, yet it has been a staple of my life. I even namedrop in my own inner monologue (dialog?).

My wife Anne is the opposite. She is humble, self-effacing, a goddamn saint, if you ask me, and her modesty makes it easier to hang out with her - she's not trying to prove how special she is all the time.

In the past few months, we have been working together to stop my namedropping.

Will you help me too?

Much thanks.

ps: note to blogspot.com - Please update spellcheck. Barack is the correct spelling of our next president - ONE R.

The Phone Guy

My wife and I, being dissatisfied Comcast customers, were forced to switch from Good Old Analog Phone Service to Comcast Digital Voice. I want to apologize to Pac Bell (it doesn't exist anymore, right?) for switching to Comcast Phone a few years ago. However, they made it too expensive to switch back, but that's another story.

So, a few weeks ago Comcast came out, in the form of The Phone Guy.

While he was installing the modem, I snapped a few portraits. I sent him some free 8x10 prints - after all, he wasn't really Comcast, just an employee.

Days of Chocolate

Thanks to Rene Bien of Plan B Home Design Company and Renaissance Gift Baskets, I photographed Charles of Charles Chocolate.

Yes, I did eat lots of chocolate over the months Rene and I worked together photographing gift basket items in my studio/office.

My Gulch in Gourmet Ghetto

This is where I shop for cheese and tea, where I have the occasional Chinese lunch. Not shown, the famous Monterey Market.

I encourage couples interested in using my services to visit during the day so they can include a visit to the Hopkins & Monterey shopping area in their Berkeley stay.

I am just two or three blocks from Solano Avenue. I'll either go out and shoot it today, or go through my archives.

Actually, it would be easier to drive two hours, shoot for two hours, and return, rather than search through my files of personal photos.

April 2008 Update

I've been away at an extended dinner, so I have not been blogging.

Actually, I got busy with album production, and just forgot to blog.

Yesterday, April 13, I photographed the Berkeley Opera fundraisers at the Town and Gown club in Berkeley. Helping me out was Casey Cheung" It's fun to hang out with another photographer and and work together.

Wagnerian Soprano Christine Brewer performed, accompanied by my brother, Jonathan.

Work is piling up, so I will try to blog more so that I don't spend too much time working.

Re-weddification? 30th Anniversay

What a pleasure it was to spend the afternoon and evening with Jill and Martin, and their two kids - (I hope I have remembered their names correctly) Sara and Liz. Jill and Martin were celebrating their thirtieth wedding anniversary by having a re-weddification as they called it. One might also call it a renwal of vows.

At my suggestion, we started the photography at their home - just a few blocks from mine in north Berkeley.

Along the way to their house, I passed Jane Hammond working in her garden. I stopped to say hello to Jane, who is one of the Bay Area's top caterers. Her East Bay Office #: 510.528.3530.

Fortunately, Jane new Jill and Martin, and reminded me which house was theirs so that I wouldn't have to search for house numbers.

The bride was still getting ready when I arrived. So, the kids and I created some portraits. In their living room I set up my favorite, The Wall of Light, which was my lighting for almost the entire day, in three additional settings.

The twinkle in the eye, actually the reflection of the light source, is called a catchlight. I'll write about that in another blog entry. You might want to pay attention to it's placement in my portraits.

Here are a few more: