Something Borrowed

I didn't think she needed a veil. It seemed old fashioned. Maybe excessive? When I was in second grade preparing for my First Communion, I remembered shopping with my mother for a pretty white dress to adorn the occassion, settling on a lace bodice with sheer long sleeves and a soft pleated skirt. Feminine, but not frilly. It had to feel like me. "Do you really want a veil?" my mother asked. Yes. Yes, I course I wanted a veil. That was 34 years ago.

So on the day of dress rehearsal for her First Communion in our cozy little Catholic church, my girl snuggled up close to me between instructions to whisper in my ear, "I want a veil." Just two days before we made a mad dash to the mall to find a new dress because the hefty splint on her broken arm had rendered the delicate borrowed dress with slim sleeves no longer borrow-able from one of our closest family friends. Now I had less than eight shopping hours to fulfill the veil request. Two baseball games would consume at least five of those hours. And let's just say access to shopping venues offering child-size veils in my small southern town would be... non-existent. Stumped, I unloaded my woes to a friend in the fellowship hall as she waited for her son, clad in a miniature suit and tie to join us.

"Borrow my daughter's veil!" she insisted. "I still have it from her First Communion eight years ago." Relieved and grateful, I drove all of ten minutes to my friend's house to pick up the veil and fulfill my girl's First Communion fashion statement. Was the veil really necessary? No. Would the day have been as special without the veil? Yes. Was it a memorable site to see my girl adorned in her borrowed veil tread softly down the center of the church toward the alter with a shy grin? Yes, indeed.

I shot this image with my Nikon D3s with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens set at 24mm with f/6.3 aperture setting. ISO was set to 400 and I fired my speedlight. I processed it in Sepia Tone set to .41 intensity to give the image a timeless feel.

Show us something old, something new, something borrowed, or something blue.

signs of summer

Bare feet paddling...one of the details that Summer is here.

Show me today, what is your Summer looking like?

Emotion in Motion

I love capturing motion shots.  To me, nothing shows emotion better than an act or movement caught in the moment.  The kids at my son's school put on huge dance performance every year and my 'job' is to put together a slideshow for their friends and family of the photos I've taken to show just prior to the kids taking stage.  Seeing the kids in motion, the pure joy on their faces, shows everyone just how much fun they had getting ready for the big night. 

Capturing motion shots of all kinds can show an array of emotions from the element of surpise to pure delight to simple childhood fun.  How about you? Show us your motion shots.  Let us see the emotion you've captured.   

From the Sideline

"So when's your next trip?" they ask. For the first time in a long time, I don't have an answer. Yes, of course, there will be another trip and I'm eager for the next international documentary experience, but right now, I'm taking lots of trips to the ballfield, yelling things like "You can do it!" and "Way to hold 'em!" and "Two down, one to go!" and buying corndogs from concession stands.

In high contrast to the frayed craze of a school year winding down to the halt of summer, I must admit, sitting with my feet propped up on the fence around a baseball field watching my son and his best buddies be mobile for the better part of a Saturday and Sunday, chills me out in the best way. I love the rythm of innings, batters, and bases. The chink of a level swing sending a ball into left field and the dull thump of a fielder making the play. Quick steals and dusty slides. The intense focus of my pitcher on the mound. (The baby I hardly recognize in size L pants.) The rapid-fire sweeps on home plate by a man called "Blue." I soak it in from the sideline, feel my heart beat, and wait for what's to come.

What's moving around you these days? Are you in the mix, or soaking it in from the sidelines?

I shot this image with my Nikon D3s and a 55-200mm lens with aperture set to f/5.6. ISO 250. Applied a sepia tone at .35 intensity in Aperture on my Mac.

back in time

Spending Spring Break on the Sea of Cortez means capturing hundreds of photos that boast bright vibrant colors. Shooting my daughters splashing in the shore where impossibly clear blue water meets soft white sand under a cloudless blue sky and full sun offers conditions where the shots come out perfectly, just as they are, straight out of the camera (aka SOOC).

Even still, some moments captured aren't about the color of the landscape. In fact, processing them in a way that dials out all distractions is one way to allow them to say more. About childhood. About simplicity. About a place and time we can all relate to. Whether it's looking back at old vintage photographs or remembering our own retro childhood, some images we capture now can still up those distant memories and remind us of the beauty of the past.

Today, let's be time-travelers. Share with us the shots that take you back in time.