I have not written in a while–life got very busy very quickly. But this has been an exciting past week–I received my first photo credits from a Yoga Championship I went to!

http://www.more.com/2027/9736-unbelievable-yoga-poses#6

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/style/2009/10/you-really-can-win-at-yoga.html

I found an article in Time magazine online about how there is actual physical evidence in the brain that can determine a difference in a honest and dishonest person. It is extremely fascinating. An associate professor at Harvard named Joshua Green conducted an experiment. (You can read about if you follow the link:   http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1911546,00.html)

Long story short, they found that when they took fMRIs of two groups of people–one group suspected of probably lying and the other group suspect of being honest–they found that the “honest” group had relatively less activity going on in their prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that causes decision-making and planning. The “dishonest” group, on the other hand, had vigorous activity in their prefrontal cortexes! On top of that they found that the lying brain looked NO different from the one that was “contemplating to lie” and then decided to be honest!!

Joshua Green argues that being a real honest person means that you do not EXPERIENCE any temptation at all. If you experience temptation, even if you decide to be honest, he argues, you have already  been dishonest.  

 

Throughout our lives we have been told to listen to our conscience, but does that mean the opposite of what we’ve been taught? Have we already been dishonest on some level?

It makes sense. If your prefrontal cortex begins working, it means that you have started weighing the pros and cons… which pawns the question, is this true honesty? Or rational decision-making?

Really interesting to think about.

The Fight Against Conventional Wisdom:  Don’t believe everything you hear; Do not accept your “common knowledge” blindly; Don’t confuse causation with correlation; Don’t take anything at face-value.

If you notice any of these books because they have either been referenced or you’ve read them, you’ve been exposed to the fight: 

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I find this fascinating because I can’t seem to ignore that when I read these books and heard these new unconventional ideas, it happened to be the same time in which Obama was elected, when social media became the new “way” to advertise, when a sale was lost when the shmoozing in a pitch was too obvious, when customer opinions could no longer be silenced due to social networking and the internet, etc. The world started to realize things needed to be done differently.

It makes me wonder what this new trend will mean for us in the future. Or what it will morph into. If right now there is a trend to seek for truth in all things, because we realize that what is happening now is deceitful and manipulative (Bush’s reign, false advertisements, shmoosey salesmen), are all we looking for is something that SEEMS TO BE genuine? Will lies and manipulation become harder to detect?

Yesterday, we woke up early and went to Dockweiler Beach in LA. We set up a tent next to the last available fire-pit on the beach. Usually people are somewhat evenly spread out, but on this beach people were clumped together.  As the day progressed, we were asked several times if we would be willing to share our pit. We ended up getting “adopted” by a large black family who invited us to help ourselves to their food & drinks. They ended up leaving, and a new group of people came by and asked if they could sit with us. We ended up listening to music around a bonfire and talking.

It just made me think–this block of cement, used to contain fire, completely changed the way people interacted with each other. Strangers were talking, sharing, sitting close to one another, and it was all the result of a cement block. 

 

It makes you think that if you want to get certain results (or change behavior), the solution may actually be far more simple than you think.

The first photos I have ever taken in Manual Mode! These are from 2007 in the south of Turkey.

 

 

I spent two weeks going down to the dock an hour before sun set, and practiced. If I didn’t get the picture before the sun went down, I would have to wait for the next day! Wow did I learn patience! One of the most important lessons learned from photography. 

 

Reminds me of a quote from Bridges of Madison County:  ”After twenty intense minutes of the kind understood only by soldiers, surgeons, and photographers…”

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The first 3 photos are the first set of shots I took when I still had no idea how to use my camera, or what I was looking to capture. My boyfriend and I were walking through Paris one evening and found a group of young teens. There were spot-light fixtures on the ground where the teens took turns dancing on. What was amazing about this discovery, and what really grabbed our attention, was that they were all listening to iPods, and only socialized with each other to signal that their song on their iPod had finished, and that it was their turn to dance. I had then witnessed something similar to this in the south of France in Nice.

 

Besides my obvious curiosity of where and how this social trend started, and what it actually meant, I immediately felt something was oddly familiar with the image… it looked just like the Apple Silhouette campaign. 

 

It made me wonder which came first, the chicken or the egg? Was Rocket Studio, the agency who created the idea for the Apple Silhouette campaign, inspired by social trends, or were these teens inspired by the Apple campaign? What is it that these kids think they are representing when they partake in this ritual-like dance-a-thon?

Hey! This is my very first post on my new blog website! Coanphoto.com, as of a few days ago, used to be a photo gallery of pictures I had taken during my time abroad and traveling. Although I loved it, there was something very static and un-inspirational about it.  I am now able to interact with my own photos, my own ideas, and hopefully progress my own thinking, and maybe yours! I hope you join me, and give me all your ideas and thoughts along the way. 

 

I am excited to see what I will force out of myself. Let’s see what happens!

Melissa!