Way back in high school, I wanted to be a photojournalist when I grew up. I had acquired a copy of LIFE magazine as a Freshman, featuring famous war photographers such as Robert Capa and Margaret Bourke-White and was convinced that’s what I wanted to do. Not sure what was going through my head at the time. Now, I have no desire to document war, and in fact, it’s the farthest thing from a desirable career choice.

I saved up and purchased my first camera, a manual 52mm Nikon FM10, from an older friend of mine who was already into photography. I used it through high school and into college now and then, but gradually, it lost it’s charm and it has sat in my closet since then.

All this to say, I pulled it out and used it on a camping trip Steve and I went on last weekend. The pictures turned out great! I don’t think I’ll be taking it to war anytime soon, but from now on I’m sure I’ll get some good use out of it.

A while back my mom-in-law gave me this art calendar that now sits on my coffee table in the living room. It’s the kind where you move to the next page everyday. It features famous works of fine art. I came across one that I love the other day. It’s a photograph by Man Ray from 1924 called Le Violon d’Ingres (first photograph in the bunch). I thought it was so beautiful, so I looked up more work by Man Ray and now he’s one of my favorites!

Man Ray was born with the name Emmanuel Radnitzky. He was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Although he explored many forms of art such as film, painting, sculpture, collage, assemblage, performance and conceptual art, Man Ray was best known for his avant-garde fashion and portrait photography.

Man Ray (August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976)

On Saturday, my husband, Steve and my sister-in-law, Shalina spent the morning in Martinez, California. Shalina takes awesome photos, so we went out there for a photo shoot. Our little Rosa dog came too. The pictures turned out amazing. Check out www.shalinalives.com to see more of Shalina’s work.