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Submitted by caedes 03/16/09 1:47 AM GMT
In accordance the overwhelming popular opinion, this artist spotlight is for Mimi. Click below to read the entire interview, and don't forget to give her gallery a visit.
I need to begin by stating the intent of the thread I started was to bring the art & the artists who are in the shadows forward so we can get to know them better. I have never, ever felt in the shadows here (& neither has my art...it told me so:). This all feels extremely awkward and even a bit, no actually a whole lot, uncomfortable for me right now. I am honoring my fellow Caedesians request albeit reluctantly.
Mimi is the name my angelic grandchildren call me. My given name is Maureen & my hubby calls me Mo. I answer to all. I am married to my best friend, Rick. We have 6 children (4 boys, 2 girls) and 20 grandchildren, 2 of the boys are first responders. We have a firefighter/paramedic & a policeman. Some nights sleep doesn’t come too easily. My degree is in Radiology and I have worked in health care since I was 14 years old & loved every minute of it. I specialized in trauma & surgery. I am very familiar with developer, fixer, positioning and exposure although through a different type of camera. I used to develop all of my radiographs for a long period of time when working in surgery. I am now retired and truly miss my field.
I shoot a Panasonic Lumix FZ20 camera ~ not a lot of bells nor whistles, no extra lenses and a few dead pixels in it that I have to clone out of my images. But it works well for me. We have been together since 2004 & seem to have a relationship with each other! I had zero interest in photography all of my life and 100% of the shots that I took consisted of the back of people’s heads, people moving away from me or nondescript, vague, faraway suspected objects……never to be identified by anyone in this lifetime. I never dreamed that one day I would look at everything the world had to offer as potential post for a photography site!!! My vision has definitely been broadened and my visual senses awakened since joining here. My cousin has been an Associated Press photographer for 27 years and I had never figured out how he did it until I joined this site! I always thought it was just ‘luck’ or something else equally inane. My bad :-) Hubby had a small Olympus P&S, 2.1MP camera that I took out of town with me and shot some flower pics on my way home at a shopping center. I decided right then that I liked digital photography & that I might want to pursue it further :-) Sun-Kissed was shot with that camera and was my first post to the site.
On Feb. 13th, 2004, our close friend Joe aka jojomercury, came to the house and was telling us about this site where he posted his pictures & how cool it was & world-wide! We played on the computer and after he left, hubby and I joined the site. It was after midnight, so my love affair with caedes.net began, appropriately, on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 2004. Today I am still in a monogamous relationship with this site :-) 5 years later, here I am, having the time of my life with photography!! Time has passed by quickly while I was enjoying the site, learning new things and just having fun. Our grandkids love to come to our house and watch slide shows of images from here. Some even have their favorites! And others ask for images by name!!! One 9 year old boy is in love with a certain “Space” folder that I have for him. What a beautiful education for their incredible minds. They are our future caedesians!
I shoot thousands of pics and post only a few. Why? Because I put one on my desktop for a month or so and look at it. After the emotion of ‘oh, this is so beautiful’ dies down, I am able to be more objective and realize that I was simply caught in the emotion of the moment rather than the quality of the image. If I really like my image after it sits on my desktop forever, then it might get posted. :-) Even that doesn’t guarantee that it is the cream of the crop! I am very inspired and on fire when I see artists changing and growing and stepping out of the box. I love to see a new artist “get it” and begin to compose images and take time and even do a bit of post editing! That tends to jump-start my interests once again into trying something new & different & to challenge myself. I love to follow people on the site as they stick around and I watch their images or creations closely…..and that compels me to either step up & do better, read more, research more or simply don’t do what they are doing. I have learned about composing, lighting, best shooting times, apertures & shutter speeds etc. by reading the artist’s comment about their image in addition to what others have commented on & in serious discussion threads as well as asking questions of others on the site. I read a lot as well. I feel the passion that all of you have for your images and it continues to drives me to want to do better and to be better. I have also done fractals as well as CGI’s. It was great fun and I gained a lot of knowledge as well as tremendous respect for the artists who do that kind of work. I use each and every one of you as my personal professor. I was dumb as a box of rocks when I got here. ppigeon, samatar, mayne, trisbert, philcUK & June are among the ones who helped me so much in the very early days. Many of the women that helped me are no longer here. All of your patience has paid off and I thank you for hanging in there with me! I have just a few very dear friends on the site and that is a gift that comes from our common bond; loving art & the desire to continue to learn & grow together.
I love nature which is why that is what you will find in my gallery. I also love gardening, reading a good novel, crocheting, travel, camping, hiking, mountains, the ocean, my friends, playing with my kitty cats , loving our kids, our grandkids & of course, my hubby.
*caedes very generously serves us, the public, by setting up, maintaining, upgrading & all that “stuff” that he does that through his selfless service. This site has been so instrumental in developing my love for photography, & because others care as well, it has inspired me & taught me how to care enough to create a photographic journal of my life for my grandchildren’s future. They now get to see the places I have been & are being taught the same as I am about composing, lighting, clarity & quality. How? Because they are seeing high quality images every time they are looking at pictures from here. By me having a camera handy most of the time, I am also giving them a journal of memories from their childhood via my pictures that I now know how to shoot, somewhat successfully, thanks to all of you. None of this would have happened if the site wasn’t here & had someone not stayed to show me the way and kept the light on :-).
I cannot thank *caedes enough for what he endures to keep this site up & running & dealing with issues that come up. His devotion & dedication are evident by the clutter-free, care-free site that we are free to use, free of charge!!!
To my fellow Caedesians…please, please hunt out that gallery where the candle is flickering and no one is looking. Let’s start a trend of “Passing it Forward”. What is “it” you ask? “It” is the magic that occurs on this site. Teach others what friendship is…..you have, share it! You get to keep & enhance what you have by sharing it with others.
The Artist Spotlight as it has been known is now coming to an end. We are now doing the “Art Gallery”. I ask that each of you who have read this to go on a mission; find that gallery and their artist that may have been lost in the quagmire of images that sometimes deluge the site. Bring their name forward and PM me with it…..let’s all step out of the box & out of our comfort zone. Sprinkle the site with helpful comments on all those hidden images, as well as newer artists as you go on your search. Let’s all be adventurous and help others grow as we were allowed to grow. If not for others reaching out to me, I definitely would not be writing this to submit today.
((((my fellow Caedesiansi♥))))
