life on the half shell

The playwright formerly known as Mr. Marilyn Monroe once said: "The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it's so accidental.  It's so much like life."


Just like photography.

Some shots are framed.  Some just happen.  The photograph above is one of the latter.

I was on my way back to the hotel after the bloggers' conference sessions on Saturday.  In front of one of the local churches stood a bride.  All alone.  Waiting for her cue to start changing her name.

In attempting to capture a candid shot of her, I instead caught a shot of a young man walking by -- whose eyes were caught by the beauty in the plaza.  The irony, of course, is that we chuckle at him for doing exactly what I am doing by taking her photograph.

It is such slices of life that brought the Latin America bloggers together for this weekend's conference.  To discuss why we do what we do.  And to learn better ways of doing it.

We are a social lot -- a lesson we have learned in our adventures in Mexico.  So, we met at 9; not for business, but for coffee and treats.

Mexican at heart, we may be, but we have enough American and Canadian training to know that other people's time is precious.  We were scheduled to start at 10, and start we did.

Three bloggers volunteered to lecture (with audience participation) on: "Keeping Your Blog's Focus," "Internet Ethics and Copyright Law," and "Supporting Your Blog With Photographs."


Our mistress of focus was none other than Theresa of ¿What do I do all day?  We all know the problem.  Blogs that seem to have no purpose.  And, because they don't, they tend to run amok -- losing the interest of most readers.


To prove her point, she asked each of us to describe why we blogged.  And then asked whether we really focused on that purpose when we write.  It was a particularly valuable exercise.  Especially for me, whose focus has wandered during the past seven months.


We then heard from some self-important overweight retired attorney who no longer looks like his blog photograph -- on copyright law.  Not as an expert, which he is not.  But as a consciousness-raising exercise.  The bottom line: Keep your hands off other people's property -- unless they let you use it.


Marc Olson of An Alaskan in Yucatan was a new name (and new blog) for me.  A former photojournalist, he has a great eye for spotting narrative in photographs.  He shared a few tips with us to help us have a positive impact with the photographs we use. 


I have been working on improving my photography skills for the past year, and his advice rang true -- even though the photograph at the top of this post violates at least seven of his tips.


After lunch, Johanna of Writing from Merida gave us some extremely interesting writing tips.  Most we knew.  But knowing and doing is two separate things.  And it is always good to double check old habits.


We then split into two discussions groups: Blogger users (led by Debi of Debi in Merida) and WordPress users (led by Jonna of blah...blah...blah... Ginger!).  This turned out to be one of the highlights of the conference.  We have all struggled with our blogger software.  But we were able to find some solutions merely by sharing with one another.


To top the evening off, Islagringo and I joined several fellow bloggers at the premier of the Merida Theater Group.  As they style themselves: English-speakers "who enjoy the theater and miss the opportunity and pleasure of experiencing English language theater."


They did well.  Putting together a series of costumed readings under the umbrella "Life is --," they played to a sold out audience.


It was a full day.  Informative.  Social.  Entertaining.


But a day full of life.