Spending time with Superwoman

It was Martin Luther King day on Monday just gone and many people in the US had a holiday. Ironically, one of the people taking a day off was a people's hero in her own right. That's right, Superwoman was having a day off, and well deserved I might add. Since moving to the US, I have come to be on best friend terms with her. She had agreed to let me photograph her in her private lair!

Even though it was her day off, she warned me that there may be some unavoidable interruption during the shoot. Well she is Superwoman and I suppose, she has to be on call 24/7 really. She said she was expecting the plumber. Ah, some kind of code I expect. Anyway I nodding as if to say "It's okay, I understand - wink, wink".

Many of you reading this may not know that Superwoman used to live in Tottenham. She was Supergirl back then, innit. But I was living in London too at that time and had no idea that someone I might have passed as an anonymous face in the metropolis of London was this amazing person who would become such a dear friend to me here in the US.

The shoot went really well and we had fun. I captured shots of her flying and she even let me have one of her using her heat vision. I enjoy comics occasionally but don't have a deep knowledge of the genre, although I do love super action heroes. Superwoman told me about someone who is truly knowledgeable on the subject of comics and I would recommend that you go here and get yourself an education.

I packed up my camera and my lights and then we had a cup of tea together before I left to get back to my office and the excitement of processing pictures of Superwoman.

The plumber did show. She went to the door and was gone for all of 5 seconds, but ... well she is Superwoman, isn't she!

Wondering About Weather

When I lived in the UK, I had in my mind that one day I would like to live somewhere with better weather. Some may say I've achieved this since I now live in California. But what is better weather? I often meet people who live in predominantly hot climates who talk of cooler climates being "better" or people who live in very dry areas who say wetter climates are "better". Immediately we can see that better weather is very subjective.

"Oh no it's raining" is often uttered as an inconvenience. And yet, one of the most important elements of our planet and our individual bodies is water! So shouldn't rain be hailed and worship equally like the sun?

A couple of days ago the weather in San Francisco became relatively cold and many conversations were filled with how awful and how cold it was. I admit that it wasn't hot, but from my experience of living, it wasn't truly cold enough to be an inconvenience. Speaking with my father, who lives in a tropical country on one of these 'cold' days was odd since he was saying how hot he was and was looking forward to some rain to cool things down. Meanwhile my brother expressed his jealousy of the 'cold' weather in San Francisco sounding positively tropical to the snow, frozen lakes and ice the was being experienced where he was in the UK.

Last week I was sitting in my office when I felt an earthquake that made the building ripple. It was a 4.1 at it's epicenter some miles away but it was enough to move a few small items around in my home. Even though tremors and quakes are regular occurrences in California, the significant shocks dominate conversations for a day or two following. Any inconvenience we may have felt from the quake or from the fact that it looks like rain is coming our way, is suddenly trivia when we look at the devastation in the Haiti earthquake.

Pole Position

As I strolled through the streets of San Francisco, I was drawn to a young man who was making use of one of the city's erected poles, purely for artistic purposes. And if you saw the whole photoset I think you'd agree with me that this guy is an artiste indeed. He had style and flair, a certain "je ne sais quoi" - but whatever it was, he really knew how to work it.

It's the first working Monday of 2010 and here was a sign for me that people on the whole have become a whole lot more resourceful over the past few months. Could it be that more of us are going to free ourselves from following processes and filling out spreadsheets and once again play with the quirky ingenuities that our brains are capable of coming up with? Are we ready to accept that our computers are our tools and not our masters?

Artistic creativity has to some extent been relegated to the locker room to make space for aggressive, rapid, dollar-farming. The exit strategies for many companies has become the focal point. Businesses come and then are gone tomorrow without a trace - except for the misery of some of the masses that bought into a longer term dream which turned out to be glass beads to distract the natives.

Many people through necessity have found that it is actually ok to walk anti-clockwise. Imagine life is a circular path, you'll still get to where you're going. Not too long ago, Justin Timberlake announced to us all that he was bringing sexy back. Could this be the year the world's populations decide it's time to be bringing fun back...

Contrary to popular convention, you can never have too much fun!

An even start to 2010

Happy New Year to you all!