- Jun 13, 2025
"Photography insists that you see our world in a different way. The most simple thing can transform into a meaningful image." Vickie Ransbottom
My first camera was a Polaroid Swinger. It produced instant wallet sized photos. I can still smell the chemicals that you had to sponge onto the print. My two best friends (twins) and I, all three, got ones for Christmas. I have gone through many cameras since the 1970’s. I was first interested in photography when I realized that there were hardly any photographs of my family.
Once I graduated from school and started working, I bought my first Single Lens Reflex Camera (SLR). The ones with inter-changeable lenses that gave you the ability to control scenes. I took a local class and learned a few things. Then, HE came along and I married and had two children and my time and interests went in a different direction.
Fast forward to becoming an empty nester and I needed something to fill my time. I joined the world of digital photography and started taking a few classes, joined photography clubs, went on local and travel workshops and found a new engaging and creative hobby. Some of my favorite workshops are photographing horses on the beach in St. Augustine (above) and wild horses in Utah (below and on cover). Both satisfy my love of horses and fill the void of never having one of my own! In my next life I am planning on being a barrel rider!
A workshop in Wyoming gave me the opportunity to photograph the famous Grand Teton’s Grizzly Bear 399 and her four cubs. What a treat! Another Teton workshop found me snowed in at a Ranch during a historic storm with historic FAR below zero temperatures and some white knuckle driving. Yellowstone in the snow is beyond stunning!
Eight of us flew into Las Vegas for a Route 66 photography trip through Arizona. We were strangers to begin with and great friends still today. Being with like-minded people is very gratifying.
Another fun way to discover things to photograph is to do a Photo Walk. Walk your neighborhood, a park, a small town. You will be surprised what you find when you take the time to simply walk and look. Photography is something you can do alone, with friends or total strangers!
I’ve been fortunate to see all 50 of our beautiful states. There is something to love, appreciate and photograph in each one. Seeing all 50 was never a goal until I realized I was almost there and then I got serious about it! I’m pretty certain that pieces of my heart are scattered through our western states, particularly those with stunning red rocks.
I’m not even close to being a great Photographer, but I sure have a heck of a lot of fun. That works for me. I also craft…greeting cards, elaborate gift wrapping, etc. (I’ll save those for another day!)
My motto is: I like to know a little about a lot of things and not a lot about any one thing!
If you would like to view my photography, you can do so on the Flickr website using this link:
- Feb 20, 2018
Former journalist Bill Moyers is credited with saying, “Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.” Steven Jobs, the late CEO of Apple, put another spin on it when he said, "Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something.”
Here’s my take on it: I love connecting things! It can energize me…or calm me. Certainly it provides me with a sense of well-being and personal growth. One of the favorite parts of my job as a nonprofit fundraiser is the connective aspect of sharing client stories in ways that I hope can resonate with potential funders.
Yet more and more, today’s funders want data and logic models and indicators and evaluation plans. The work world of the new millennium is focused on improving processes—and being able to prove it with data. Quality improvement … Lean … Six Sigma. These are data-driven processes for organizations to attain a measure of quality near perfection. There’s that word again: data. Apparently data matters.
The artist Picasso is attributed with saying, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” Boy, do I feel that! Especially in this world of data-mining. I feel the creative aspects of my day job being squeezed out constantly to make room for easier-to-measure data and metrics. Lucky for me I can choose how I spend my time outside work to pursue whatever creative outlets I’d like. Our children, though, do not have that choice. I worry for them. In these test-centric, extracurricular-crammed times, when’s a kid supposed to get creative?
Sir Kenneth Robinson raises this question more eloquently and with the data to back him. He’s written books about how creativity is undervalued and ignored in Western culture and our educational systems. Sir Ken’s talk entitled "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" has become the most watched TED talk of all time.
His concerns are backed by scientific studies. Dr. Kyung Hee Kim with William and Mary has been studying the decline in creativity in U.S. children for years. Her research links to studies surrounding the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), an evidence-based, science-driven assessment created in the 1950s. Close to 3,000 individuals—or “Torrance kids”—have been part of the TTCT studies tracking creativity in the U.S. from the 1960s to the present.
And guess what? While America's IQ scores are on the rise, the country's scores on creative thinking have been declining since 1990. This is especially evident in younger children from kindergarten through sixth grade. Seems our ability to recite facts may be at an all-time high. But what about our passion and ability to ponder original ideas and make connections?
Creativity matters. But it involves taking risks. How different would today’s world be without the creative tenacity of Galileo, who was condemned for sharing astronomical findings that went against Catholic theology of the time? Or Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis, who was fired for raising the notion that infections could be spread by germs on doctors’ hands? Or philosopher Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake for daring to propose that the universe might be infinite.
So here’s my wish for today’s children. May you continue to study your science and do your math, read your literature and mine that data. BUT…may you NEVER stop thinking differently out of fear of being ridiculed. May you NEVER lose your curiosity because you’re too busy being “taught to the tests” in school. And may you NEVER, EVER stop piercing the mundane to find the marvelous!
