Army of Women

I received an email today from my friend, Nancy, who is a breast cancer survivor. She sent me -- and others -- a link to the Army of Women website, a collaboration between Dr. Susan Love and the Avon Foundation, asking us to sign up to be a part of the breast cancer research efforts.
As most of my friends and family know, I don't usually get involved in this sort of thing. Not because I don't care, but because I prefer to remain in my own little world of solitude. Just posting this on my blog is a huge step for me. I just don't like putting myself "out there" for the world to see. But because Nancy has been my dearest friend -- and the one person I truly admire -- for close to 25 years, I decided to join the Army of Women...simply because she rarely asks anything of me, and IS a very dear friend.
I'm not going to tell you that you should join. I don't like it when anyone tells me what I should or should not do, and believe it is definitely a personal choice. But if you would like to participate, please visit the Army of Women website for more information.

Welcome, Seth - Teen Couple (Update)

For those following my (infrequent) updates on Crystalyn and Carl, the teen couple I tried photographing during pregnancy, they are now officially teen parents of a beautiful baby boy. Unfortunately, because Hayley and I have both recently been ill, we were not able to witness Seth's birth. Both mom and son are home and doing well, as are dad and grandma. As soon as I feel it's safe enough to visit them without making any of them sick as well, I will take LOTS of pictures.

New Toy for My New Toy

Received my Sigma 70-300mm f4-5.6 DG Macro lens today. Of course, I had to go out and play with it. So, again before torekimi asks (I'm one step ahead of ya, T. heh heh), here is what it can do:

My Newest (and NEW) Toy

In response to Sarala's question regarding why I've not been posting:

Ummm....'cause I just didn't feel like it.....(Is that good enough reason? No? Damn. I thought not.) Actually, that WAS the reason for a while. Until I got my newest toy (which, by the way, IS actually NEW, not used) -- a Nikon D40 w/ the AF-S DX Zoom - Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G EDII lens (THANKS, HENK!). (Why can't they just call it a "General Purpose Lens 18-55mm One-Billionth-and-Something"? C'mon peoples - make it easier on us beginners, will ya?) Then, of course, I just got plain ol' busy with my playin' around with it. (The camera. Not Henk. Sheesh! Git yer minds outta da gutters.)

And, before torekimi settles herself in long enough to poke her nose into other peoples' blogs and start making demands, here's what it can do:

(Oops. Clicked on the "upload photos" link twice, erasing the 3 links I pasted in, so all you get is this one photo. Check out my Flickr and Aminus3 links for more.)

Just don't you go thinkin' I'll have more to say though. But I'll try to AT LEAST give a little update on what my next newest new toy can do. I'd tell ya what it is, but then I'd have to look it up online and do the copy/paste thing, and THEN shoot you. But I will tell you that it's some sort of Sigma 70-300mm telephoto lens with macro capabilities (Ooo....Aaaah...Ooooh). Of course, that's assuming I ever return to the computer once I've received it.