This blog was born from my inability to express myself through anything besides the things I create with my hands. From baking to writing, I love expressing myself, and maybe even teaching and inspiring other people to do so along the way.
Today, instead of showing you how to create something, or even showing you one of my own creations, I'm going to try to get some beautiful tarantula photography some exposure.
"Invertery Box"
As a tarantula enthusiast, I see picture after picture, photo after photo, of tarantula owners taking pictures of their beautiful pets in unflattering scenery: Their own cage. It's not that cages are particularly ugly, or that tarantula owners have ugly cages FOR their pets, it's that it doesn't do the animal justice. If you were a model, would you have all your photoshoots in your room?
"Statues"
AshLee is fearless. She takes her tarantulas (Fair Tease, Creech and Midreavus the Misfortunate are some of her favorite models), out and about into the world, on people, and in strange and beautiful items (A typewriter, large yellow flowers, and in mouths are just a few of her choices for locations), and does a magnificent job positioning them in beautiful and graceful ways. Where many tarantula owners are possibly nervous or worried about handling their spiders, or having something happen to them, she is very experienced and knowledgeable about their behavior and personalities.
"Five Records"
So maybe she has that advantage over everyone else. I have two tarantulas, one of whom is supposed to be 'tame' but tries to bite everything, whether it's alive or not, and the other one is so fast I am scared it's going to run off into the sunset like a racehorse. I am aware that I am not capable of handling my tarantulas, especially multiple ones at once, so I don't. I suggest you all do the same, unless you really know what you are doing.
"Wind Chimes"
A lot of people are frightened of spiders, tarantulas especially. I, personally, am not sure why anybody is afraid of them. Most of them are too scared to even come near a person, and those who are brave enough hardly ever think about biting them. Maybe they look scary, but with photography like this, how could anyone even think that? Ashlee captures personality, and gives people just one less reason to be afraid of these animals. She injects grace and beauty into a subject where those attributes were already overflowing, and she just happens to find a way to help everyone else see it.
"Old Fashioned"
So maybe tarantulas are scary. Maybe they are the things of your nightmares, and your greatest fear, but I think AshLee's photography is just another reason why that's not true. As a tarantula, and all-around spider, enthusiast I can tell you there's absolutely nothing to be afraid of when it comes to spiders, and there are pictures like this in the world that reinforce those feelings and thoughts. Beauty is present in all sorts of animals, even those we tend to find frightening or worrisome, and it truly shines in Ashlee's photography how incredibly elegant and gorgeous tarantulas really are.
"Bluemore"
For all of AshLee Loverin's photography, please visit her DeviantArt. She has many, many more tarantula pictures, as well as photography of other subjects.
I guess I'd never really considered myself a photographer. In high school while my friends were all taking photography classes, I never had any desire. After high school, I never had the money for a digital camera, while everyone else seemed to be getting better and better ones every 6 months, and I was grateful to even have my 1.3 megapixel camera on my phone.
Last April, a wonderful friend of mine gave me her digital camera. Yup. Just gave it to me (did I mention that she is a WONDERFUL friend?). I was actually kind of intimidated, because I'd never taken any pictures. And on top of that, most of my friends had been taking photos for years, so I felt like I had a ton to live up to. I felt like I wasn't -allowed- to take pictures. I was doing all this other stuff: writing novels, making duct tape artwork, watercolor painting...and I was scared they were thinking "and now she's going to take photography? That's MY thing!"
I loved it right away. I even thought some of my stuff was...y'know...good. I went on more walks, looked at things more, took pictures of beautiful, colorful, astounding, perfect things. I remember the first time photography really had it's grip on my me. I was working third shift, and I had taken pictures of things in the house that night (plant vases, lights, doors, random stuff), but I never got the photo that I really wanted, so at 7:00 AM when I got off my shift, I drove to a nearby park and took photos until 8:30 in the morning.
Photography stayed incredibly important to me for nearly a year. Then, one day, I went down to the Madison capital to participate in the rallies, and when I pulled my camera out of my purse, the screen was completely blank. It was just white with a big crack down the middle.
No, no, no, no, no!
It hit me, at that very moment, how important it had become to me. How many things revolved around photos. I never would have been able to take pictures of my tarantula molting, or any of my artwork. Not only that, but it was another way to express myself, and I need that. I need to express myself every way I can, or I feel like I will burst at times.
That week I got paid, and that week I bought a new camera. I had discussed with Gabe (the boyfriend) the possibility of going on Craigslist to get a super cheap, super low quality camera, just to have something on hand. But all logic flew out the window I needed something wonderful, and beautiful, and powerful, and able to take pictures of everything I wanted to take pictures of.
That was when I finally decided I felt...kind of like a photographer. I mean, maybe not completely, but I was able to show off my photos, that was the first time I uploaded photos to DeviantArt in the Photography category. I may not be a 'photographer', but I can do photography. And that's enough, right?
