Thursday Challenge Interviews...

Tell us what your favorite food is (to eat, make or both). What makes it your favorite?

Kraft brand Macaroni and Cheese. It's not fancy so it definitely is a comfort-food thing. I can remember eating it as a young child so there is a history there for me. It's easy to make, one of the first things I learned to cook. It really is the cheesiest. None of the imitators come close. Add a couple of hot dogs and this is my perfect meal.

Give us any quote (from a book, movie, etc.) that you like and tell us why you like it.

I don't know if it can be attributed to any one person, but it's this phrase: If I had my life to live again. I like it because if I think about it often enough (I don't), I spend more time enjoying the little moments in life rather than devoting all my energy to attaining the big moments.

If you could have a one month long vacation in the next year anywhere on the planet where would you go and what would you do?

I believe I would like to go to Australia. Aside from the fantastic photo opportunities you find there, it appeals to all the things I like to do for fun. I love spending time lazing on a sandy beach or floating in the warm ocean. I like getting away from it all and there are some pretty remote places there, but if I wanted people and cities I could find that too. I would try to spend a month doing as little as possible since my stay-at-home-mom job consumes me 24/7.

Tell us about the strangest (or most interesting) thing that you have taken a picture of.

Strangest thing would be a shotgun that was vandalized. I needed to send the pictures to a gunsmith in another state so I could get a repair estimate. His email wouldn't accept pictures so I made a web page he could look at and a friend of mine got very upset and said to remove the pictures immediately as they could get me in trouble with the law. The stock and barrel had been sawn off the gun making it very illegal and he thought I would be arrested at any moment because, you know, the government has time to look at every single thing that gets put on the internet.

In your opinion, what is the most challenging type of photograph to take? What about it makes it challenging?

Taking pictures of people is challenging to me. I'm not good at it technically so when one of my shots of a friend or family member comes out good I am always surprised. I think I just need to practice it more. Take a lot of shots of the same person and look at what works and try to figure out what it was about THAT shot that made it work so I can do it again.

What do you enjoy taking pictures of the most? Why?

I just love my animals who never complain about me sticking a camera in their face all the time and darn it, they just do the cutest things.