Dear Ann:

Has someone pulled the Ann Landers act on you lately? Huh? Who is Ann Landers? What is she doing on my blog?

I'll tell you! Ann Landers is one smart cookie. Sadly, she passed away in 2002 but her legacy lives on. She had the gift of senisibility and shared it via the newspaper for many years.

The Ann Landers gig is when a stranger hears your problem and makes complete sense out of it. They solve your business in layman's terms.

Picture this: you blab on and on about a ridiculous thing that NO ONE wants to hear about and frankly doesn't give a shit. But you continue to blab until you become obsessed. You begin to lose sleep. You think about it constantly. On the toilet, in the shower, on the road, on the phone it stays in the shadows but never solves itself. Tired of no helpful responses from the homies, you take the obsession to a new audience. The new set of ears immediately understands the crux. They ungarble your thoughts, spread it out nice and easy and serve it back to you like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich after school.

I'd like to share my little Ann Landers scoop for Thursday.

WHAT is the garbled mess you ask? the struggle of perfectionism: how do we succeed on the days where we don't feel at our best and nothing less than the best is expected? What should we do as photographers when our passion for shooting STILL can't achieve the amazing dreamy shots we want to provide? How can we pull through it? Is it acceptable?

Alex Hayden pulled an Ann Landers on me today. Go figure!!! A talented commercial big-wig photographer known all over Seattle and beyond, whom I hardly know, just gets it.

His 2 cents: you have to work towards your goal all the time. Some days your photography is sublime. Other days your photography is merely average. The key? Ensure your 'average' is far better than everyone else's 'sublime' and you'll be fine. Sounds like someone needs to start a column!

ann landers-isms:

• Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them.
• Class is the sure-footedness that comes with having proved you can meet life.
• Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.
• The Lord gave us two ends - one to sit on and the other to think with. Success depends on which one we use the most.”
• Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.
• Nobody ever drowned in his own sweat.

Whopper of the day: Too many people today know the price of everything and the value of nothing.