The Dirty Dozen

According to the Environmental Working Group, following are the 12 most pesticide-laden conventionally grown fruits and vegetables.  When ever I can I choose to buy organic of, at the very least, these 12 items.  

Peaches

Apples

Sweet bell peppers

Celery

Nectarines

Strawberries

Cherries

Pears

Grapes (imported)

Spinach

Lettuce

Potatoes

I know this because I, (actually me representing my business, Synergy Images),  am a member of Green America and I read it in one of their newsletters.  Green America, (formerly Coop America), is a fantastic organization whose mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.

Deer Alert

Seen lurking around my yard on Saturna Island this morning!!!

Health & Fitness

I love training, working out, running and being active in general so much that sometimes I wonder why I didn't choose a career as an athlete of some sort rather than as an artist. (Oh yea, maybe it's cuz I'm not that great at any one sport!!) That reality aside....

I was totally inspired by an article in the Health section of the LA Times yesterday about the original owner of Bally Total Fitness who is 76 and still in GREAT shape and kicking butt in all kinds of athletic endeavours. Read the inspirational article here. He works out with professional athletes half his age like Laird Hamilton (surfer) and Detroit Red Wings star Chris Chelios. AMAZING!!!

What I found most encouraging about the article was his assertion that:

"Strength helps cardio. As you get older, the fall-off in strength is greater than the decline in VO2 max [oxygen uptake] -- unless you fight it."

As a 44 yr old perimenopausal woman who has just returned to strength training in the last 8 months, I find this incredibly encouraging. I had noticed a dramatic decrease in my personal strength which was actually affecting my job and my personal life. As a photographer I couldn't risk having sore shoulders or injuring my back or shoulders after a day of carrying equipment. I hated being so exhausted after a shoot. And don't even talk to me about how it felt to have to ask a man to hang my bike from the ceiling hooks in the garage because I no longer had the strength to lift the bike over my head.

I actually LOVE weight training and plyometrics and all kinds of odd jumping and balancing exercises so the return to the gym wasn't a big stretch for me. I work out at Fitness Together in Huntington Beach with either Julie the owner, or Becky. Becky and I laugh that we love to work out so hard that we come close to vomitting. I know most people aren't this fanatical about their work outs, but I'm hoping that when I'm 76, I'm even half as fit as Don Wildman.

All photos copyright Al Sieb/Los Angeles Time 2009

A Close Call

I LOVE my job but sometimes I'm reminded of the risks associated with photographing live action.
YUP.... I felt this ball graze the hairs on my right arm as I shot batting practice in Angels Stadium on the weekend.

Better Late than Never

I realize I haven't blogged in forever... It seems to correspond almost exactly with the time I joined Facebook. Could there be an inverse ratio of increased time spent on Facebook to decreased time ... for anything else in life?!?!?! I don't sound bitter do I ??? But I digress....

Just wanted to say, I do have some images to post, and comments to articulate on my blog and I will do my best to get to them in the next few weeks. Here are a few teasers: trip to Ottawa, (Canada's capitol), Eco- Challenge shoots for Edison in Big Creek and Catalina, Synergy Images Newsletter coming soon, Fine Art images up for sale, fine art card series available this summer, fine art images for sale on Smug Mug VERY SOON!!! there are gardening updates and I'm sure I'll think of something else as soon as this posts. :-)

Thanks for reading - drop me a line anytime.

Destination Art

I have the best partner in the world!! When I got home from Ottawa on Monday night, Bruce had an article from the LA Times sitting on my desk. On the article was a post-it that said: Let's find a weekend and GO!!

Turns out San Francisco MOMA is showing "Looking In: Robert Frank's "The American's". Robert Frank is one of my FAV artists, and San Fran is one of my FAV cities!!! And Bruce is by far my FAV husband!!

we're talking clean laundry here...

More great work about laundry... Check out Clothesline For My Mothership

mom's clothsline by C. Flower

I'm a Contender!!!

Well, actually my laundry series is a contender in the Hey Hot Shot Contest, 2009.  Check out the post about my work on the Hey Hot Shot Blog here.  And then wish me luck, cross your fingers, send me good vibes - I'll take any good karma anyone wishes to send my way.  

Eating lower on the food chain has reached the mainstream!

Interesting to see this article in a mainstream publication like USA Today.... This is actually why I became a vegetarian almost 20 years ago. I was learning about eating lower on the food chain for environmental efficiency. It was a fairly radical idea to most people in 1990 but now it seems to be seeping into a mainstream audience and that makes me really happy - makes me feel like we are getting somewhere with the environmental movement.

I'm a Composting Fool

I got a composter about a month ago and I got to tell ya... I'm lovin' it!!! As you know from reading this blog I love to cook (& eat!) and I'm concerned about the environment & I love to garden so... it was a perfect symbiosis of all my interests.

Until last month there was substantial food waste going *literally* down the drain in my Garburator. (american translation = in sink garbage disposal).   Yes, in Canada we actually call them Garburators.   I had tried a worm composter a few years ago but it didn't work for my urban situation.



This composter is in the garage, easily accessible to both my kitchen for depositing food waste, and to my back yard patio plants for applying the dark rich compost to once it has cured in the machine.