A smile on my face

Sofía Oportot.
Originally uploaded by _eraserhead

So as Ann Arbor slowly morphs into a grayer and more desolate version of hell, with the winds howling like injured wolves thrown fresh meat and the roads covered in swirls of ever moving snow, moving in slow motion patterns of spellbinding beauty I decide to venture outside. You see I have given in. I am going to Target.

There is a reason for this surrender. The pale Californian who seems immune to our impatience (our photography teacher) has asked that next week we all bring in two 8*10 pics for a critique class. I've looked through my Flickr pics and despaired that it's been months since I took a good pic. Then that it's been months since I've dared take a camera outside for fear of it shattering like fruit in liquid nitrogen.

But I've found some pics. 14 of them that I liked. That seemed to follow some of his rules of composition and exposure and that aren't 'pornographic or Gory'.

* When I told Judith these rules she suggested that I take a photoshopped image of an Al Gore look-a-like balls deep in a mountain gorilla... pornographic and Gore-y.*

So I looked at my printing options and the best one seemed to be to buy online and pic up the next day at Target. Hence the trip.

So after a journey during which my traction control displays lit up like Vanessa Feltz's brain in a cupcake store I made it to target only to be faced by a stern looking woman.

"Are these internet pics?" she asked

"Well they're my pics, they just happen to be stored online"

"You took these pics?"

"Yup"

"You're sure?"

"Unless I've been in an ambien induced coma and dreamed I took them, yes"

"Because they're very good pics"

"Well thank you"

"And if you didn't take them we can't give them to you, you're infringing copyright"

"No they are mine."

"Then you're very good at taking pictures" she said and handed them over.

There was even a sticker that said. "Possible professional pics. Question customer and explain the law"

I can't remember the last time I was as happy.

They look great too....