Gator Girl: Left vs. Right

Did you ever take one of those questionnaires back in middle school that were supposed to figure out if you were left- or right-brained? I remember doing one the first day of 6th grade. When we were finished, we were told to line up along the wall in descending order. 10 at one end, 1 at the other. I'm pretty sure my score was about a 9.97342, give or take. Needless to say, I was at one end of the line and my best friend was on the other. I was totally mortified as everyone looked from one polar end to the other. Who would want to draw unwanted attention to themselves on the first day of middle school? Isn't that place already awkward enough?!

After this awful display, our teacher explained what the scores meant and what they said about you. It turns out my score was indicative of left-brainedness. A left-brained person is logical, objective, and rational. Right-brained people, on the other hand, were supposed to be creative, intuitive, and holistic. Right, like I knew what that word meant.

I was so traumatized by that little experiment that I have been working on "getting in touch" with my right-brainedness ever since. I try to be artsy and fartsy but it's hard. Sometimes I just can't wrap my brain around those types of things.

Like photography. I'm way too analytical about it. I catch myself asking questions like I'm following the freaking scientific method. What defines a good picture? Is it off-centered? Is it a portrait? Is it black-and-white? Is it in focus? I'm always looking for a way to simplify the process and create one universal rule for a great picture.

But this is what I've figured out: it doesn't exist! The more and more photography I look at, the more things I like. I could never incorporate them all into a single photo. How would a sepia and black-and-white picture with boosted colors of an off-centered profile shot, an athlete mid-run, and a baby's big, shiny eyes all against a sunset with silhouettes look? Ridiculous.

Lately, I've been working on my photography. Well, more editing pictures through picnik.com. Whenever I have some spare time (read: procrastinate doing homework), I picnik. I've already edited some of my favorite pictures to try to enhance them. I'm really diggin' the Cross-Process and 1960's effects. They look super awesome if you layer them, too! Here are a couple of my faves so far.