Love Thursday Featured Fotographer: Jenty

 The Kiss -- Jenty

I've mentioned before how much I love images of dads with their kids, and so Father's Day is one of my favourite days to people watch.    For some reason, however, this Father's Day I read more than one blog post lamenting less-than-perfect relationships the authors  had with their dads, and so for this Love Thursday, I decided that I was going to find an image of a father showing unbridaled love.

Luckily, I didn't have to go far:  the lovely Jenty posted the image above in the Shutter Sisters Flickr pool.  I love how she captured a completely unguarded moment of this dad planting a big passionate one on his son.   And, happily for all of us, Jenty has a photoblog -- so if you'd like to see daily pictures of her life in her homeland of South Africa, be sure to check it out.  Thanks for letting me share your art, Jenty!

Happy Love Thursday, everyone.  Please be sure to leave your links to your images of love in the comments below. And may you have a completely unguarded moment of someone planting a big passionate one on you today!

Love Thursday: June 12, 2008

The other day, as I was thinking about what would make a good Love Thursday post, it dawned on me:  I've spoken about parental love, and romantic love; I've written about finding hearts in nature and finding hearts in homes -- but one subject I don't think I've ever written about is friendship.  And this seemed like a glaring omission on my part.

As a child, my family moved around a lot:  my father worked in the energy industry, and about every two years or so, his employer required us to picked up sticks and moved to another home so that my father could take on a different role within the  company.  While I certainly love that my sister and I had the opportunity to experience new places and people, there's a part of me that wishes that I had stayed somewhere long enough to develop some lifelong friendships. 

Luckily, as an adult, I've lived in one city long enough to make two very close friends -- people who I consider immediate family.  The first, my friend Mark, is my closest male friend, a true confidant, and my daughter's godfather.  He lives in England now, so I don't see him as often as I'd like; distance notwithstanding, however, we remain close. 

The second is my friend Trish, who is my closest girlfriend.  Trish and I have been friends for over a decade, and her kids are close in age to my daughter's.  When our families get together, it feels like brothers, sisters, cousins ... family.   The shot above is of my daughter and hers, and if this image is any indication, it appears they're at the beginning of a lifelong friendship of their own.

Happy Love Thursday, everyone.  Please leave links to your images of love in the comments below, and be sure to check out the photographs left by Boho Photography and MaryCalissa in our Flickr pool for inspiration.

 And may you embrace a true friend today.

Love Thursday: June 5, 2008

Something different for Love Thursday this week:  I'm a big fan of the blog by Pia Jane Bijkerk -- her site features beautiful design, thoughtful words, and some stunning images -- some her own, others found in various places around the internet.  As it happens, Pia is currently working on a "collective book project" entitled "My Heart Wanders:  A Collection of Subtle Hearts in Special Places."   Everyone is invited to join this project:  simply submit a photo with a tiny heart shape in an interior setting, and the heart shape must be made or "found" by you.  There is a panel of judges who will choose the photographs to be included in the anthology, and the judges are pretty formidable photographers themselves (click here to see the list, with links to their blogs). 

 The story of how Pia came up with the idea can be found here.

I'd submit this image of the window in our breakfast area, above; however, the heart wasn't actually found by me, since it was a gift from my sister-in-law, and I was the one who decided where it should hang in our home.  Still, I encourage all you great heart-finders to take a look through your archives to see if any of your shots fit the bill -- deadline for the submissions is June 15, 2008.  And of course, I encourage each and all of you even more to add your links of love (of whatever kind) to the comments section below -- and check out the images left by natalamc and lizgrandmaison in our Flickr pool for inspiration. 

 And may you find yourselves in warm spaces filled with love today.

Love Thursday: May 29, 2008

 What with my previous thoughts about hearts found in nature, and Andrea's challenge to find hidden messages all around us, I thought this week I'd share my small collection of found hearts -- heart shaped objects I've found in various places around the world over the past couple of years.

It seems love really is where you find it.

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Happy Love Thursday, everyone.  Please leave your links of love in the comments section below, and be sure to check out the images left by HipMomma and cherryvanillastudios in the Shutter Sisters Flickr Pool for inspiration.

And may you find love all around you today. 

Love Thursday Featured Fotographer: VWC Photography

just like mommy.  -- VWC Photography 

This week's featured photographer is the lovely Valerie of VWC Photography.   Last week, as I was scrolling through the images in the Shutter Sisters Flickr Pool, I came across this image and was struck not just by its beauty, but its familiarity:  I think anyone who has a daughter over the age of, say, 3, has heard little voice ask for some "lickstick," or other variation.  And any woman who fondly reminisces about her childhood probably has a memory of her mom, or a loving aunt, or grandmother, or some other adult woman barely whisking lipstick over her own lips.

Valerie's tagline is "Capturing Moments, Inspiring Memories" -- and one look at her portfolio makes it clear that her mission is definitely accomplished.   Be sure also to check out her blog to see what she's up to from day to day.

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Happy Love Thursday, everyone.  Today I'm off to capture some moments and memories of my own as my husband, daughter and I head to the beach for some concentrated family time.  In the meantime, though, please leave your links to images of love in the comments section below.  And if you would like to be a Love Thursday Featured Fotographer in the future, keep adding your great photos to our Flickr Pool, and you may one day be picked!