Can I brag?

Ah heck it's my blog, of course I can!
My boy received student of the month this month for his first/second grade class!
But wait there's more....
During this weeks parent teacher conference I learned that he tested at a third grade level in math!
But the very best part is that he tested at a fourth grade reading level!
He's in the first grade and reading chapter books.
I don't know about you but I only remember learning my alphabet and numbers in first grade.
Either I was in the special class and don't remember it or holy cow they teach kids a lot more these days. But don't you worry my head deflated when later that day he made a huge mess of his room and I noticed he used a stick to poke holes in the canopy on his play structure, completely destroying it. Kids, they seem to know how to balance things out.

Somethings got me a bit prickly

So I thought I'd blog about it. It's been a few ... OK several months since I've set foot in this blog. The only thing that brought me back was a rampant fad that I've found going on over on Facebook.
I started bitching and complaining in my mind about it and then tada! Light bulb moment, this would really be a good blog post!
The fad isn't one that most people would think, it's not status shuffle or farmville.
It's people starting their own Photography business.
After about the fourth or fifth "Come be my photography business fan" request and the twelve thousandth time I've looked at other starting photographers Facebook sites. It dawned on me, a love of photography does not a good photographer make.
Sure some, actually a very small percentage, no make that maybe 1% of the ones that I've looked at lately are NOT GOOD. They do all the amateur photographer mistakes, over lightening in photoshop making the picture look grainy due to their inadequate skills using lighting. Heavy vignettes trying to make a so so picture look OK. It pains me so much to think that people are actually paying for these.
But then there is a flip side to all of this. Those friends of mine who really are totally awesome photographers. Those blogs that I frequent of amature master photographers. To these people starting a buisness makes them take pause. They have such great talent and yet they slowly and methodically take their time to start a business or they don't at all. They remain happy just doing this hobby and creating their art. True artists aren't in it for the money, they're in it for the love of it. Oh how I love these photographers.
In the mean time if you are in the market for a professional photographer, look at their work and compare it to others. Don't just hire anyone with a digital SLR and a willingness to take your money... please!

p.s. The photo above was taken during a cold snap. It's prickly ice on my bob wire fence.