I Love L.A.

I am a born and bred Southern California girl and have lived in the suburbs of Los Angeles my whole life. Where else on the same day can you go surfing in the morning and then skiing in the afternoon? Within a 90 minute drive I can be in Santa Barbara, Palm Springs or Mexico. While there are things I definitely do not love about living here (smog, traffic, prices), there are so many things I would never see or do if I lived anywhere else.  

When I heard the Endeavour space shuttle would be making it's final flight over L.A. before landing here for good, I knew there was no way I was going to miss this historic event.  The list of places that she (yes, in my mind, the Endeavor is a girl!) would be doing flyovers were many and I was close to all of them. Heck, all I had to do was stand outside my front door and I would have seen her but I wanted a bird's eyeview.  The flight would be low, only 1500 feet.  Griffith Park Observatory, which was on her list to fly by, is at 1100 feet. At only 400 feet above me head, I could almost reach out and touch her!

I expected a crowd to show up so I planned accordingly.  We left the house at 7:30 a.m. and 90 minutes later we exited the freeway.  What is usually a 10 minute drive up to the observatory took almost 90 more minutes.  When we finally got to the top of the hill with what felt like the entire population of Los Angeles, the excitement was palpable. 

Eyes turned to the sky for what seemed like forever, when first one person called out and than another. "There it is! There it is!".  There was a dot on the horizon that slowly grew larger and as she got closer, the crowd grew louder.  Hundreds (probably a thousand, easily) of cameras and cell phones pointed to the sky, awaiting for that one moment in time that would never repeat again.  When the moment finally arrived and she flew over, the jet engines so loud that you couldn't hear anything else,  it took my breath away.  I suddenly became emotional at the thought that a part of history was coming to an end.  There was cheering and clapping and the crowd began to chant "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!".  That glorious piece of machinery gave us a show and flew over and around us 3 times.  It was magical, awe-inspiring, amazing and I would do it all over again.  I mean, really, only in L.A. are you going to see a space ship right above the Hollywood sign and never think it's an odd sight at all.  I love L.A., I really do.  :)

How about you?  Everyone has something they love about where they live.  Today, share with us what that is. 

stolen moments

Just when I thought my night was ready to wind down, my son tells me he has nothing for breakfast the next morning and that we're out of bread to make sandwiches for his school lunch.  To say that I was not pleased about having to go the store at 9 p.m. is an understatement.  I grabbed my keys and purse and stomped out of the house while grumbling all the way to the car. 

Once I arrived at the store, I grabbed a basket and continude my grumbling as I headed out for the items I needed.  Of course the items I need are on both ends of the store.  First I grabbed a loaf of bread on one side and then stomped my way to the other side of the store to the cereal aisle.  I located the requested box of Fruity Pebbles and tossed the box into my cart.  As I prepared to move on, in front of me was a couple, both easily in their 80s.  With their basket sitting in the middle of the aisle, they stood there arguing about which cereal to get and just listening to them made me smile.  

Now I have tell you, I have a thing for the elderly.  I mean, I really do.  If I had a choice of sitting in a room of my peers or a room of senior citizens, seniors win, hands down.  I want to sit with them and soak in as many life lessons from them as I can.  I miss my grandparents tremendously which is why I think I tend to gravitate to seniors so much.  Being near this couple made me miss them even more.   

As I stood there in the company of this sweet couple, my irritation instantly disappeared.  I grabbed my phone and took this photo as they finally decided on their cereal choice and made their way slowly down the aisle. It was my little gift to myself, a stolen moment just for me and I reminded myself that life is too short to sweat the small stuff, fruity pebbles and all.

Today, share your photos of stolen moment with us and let us have a peek inside, too. 

Life Through My Lens

The word trickled through my core group of girlfriends, my tribe, that there was a diagnosis of breast cancer.  We have all been friends since high school, some of us even longer, and the majority of us are still here in California while our sweet friend who had just been diagnosed lives out of state. When something like this happens, the first people you want and need is your family. Like most of us, her family is here in California as well.  We knew that even though she was trying to be brave, she needed them. The decision to fly her in to be with her family was a simple one, so we put her on a plane and brought her home.

After we picked her up at the airport, we took her to lunch where we talked about high school and old crushes and who was still married and who had divorced.  And we laughed.  A lot.  Then finally, in a quiet and safe moment, her eyes filled with tears.  Letting go of the false bravado, she let all of her fears come to the surface and spill over while us, her tribe, did what we do best: we surrounded her with all the love, faith and hope we could give her.  It was at that moment that I picked up my camera and took this photo. 

I've taken hundreds of those happy photos we all take of babies and families and people.  I'm a photographer.  It's what I do.  But life is so much more than that, and that's what I tend to photograph: life in all it's glorious, raw beauty.  It's also what I tend to do when I can't really put what I'm feeling into words so I let my camera do the speaking for me.  When my grandma was at the end of her days, I documented it with my camera.  When my son was critically ill and there was nothing I could do but wait and hope and pray, my camera was my saving grace.  So while this photo isn't your basic posed and happy photo, the love in that photo is undeniable and that, my friends, is everything.  It's what life is all about.

Share with us today your photos depicting life. Tell us a story. We're listening.

Strangers Only for a Moment

 I stood in the crowd taking pictures of Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland while my husband and kids took off to go on their favorite rides. In typical Disney fashion, loud Christmas music filled the park around me.  To my right, as I had my eye to the viewfinder on my camera, I heard a melodic male voice softly singing along to the Christmas music.   I turned my head to see a lone gentleman on a park bench who instantly reminded me of my grandfather.  I'm a sucker for the older generation.  I gravitate to them, always have, so I made my way over to the park bench and took a seat.  More importantly, I wanted to photograph him and I knew before my time was up on that bench, I would.

He smiled at me as I sat down and I complimented him on his singing voice.  In his broken english, he told me that Christmas was his favorite time of year.  I told him it was my favorite time, too, especially the music.  Now I have to tell you, I have no problem talking to perfect strangers.  Ask my husband and he'll tell you it can be a curse or a blessing, but in instances like these, I consider it a blessing.  Everyone has a story, everyone, and I want to know them.  I just knew this man sitting next to me, who I wanted to photograph and who was singing Christmas carols in his sweet, broken english, had a story. I continued the conversation by asking if he was a local or visiting from out of town and over the next hour I got my story, the story of a man who fell in love with his wife when she was 14 and he was 15 in their small village in Italy and who married young and came to our country 28 years ago to start a new life; about how his wife became a teacher because she loved children and how they raised children of their own and now have many grand children; about why his kids brought him to Disneyland with them because they didn't want him to be alone after his wife had passed away a year ago and how he was quite content to just sit on that park bench and people watch all day long.  He grew quiet for a moment and then in his broken english he said with a smile, I'm 80 and life is good, and once again he began to hum to the music.  It was then that I asked him if I could take his picture.  When he hesitated, I explained how he reminded me of my grandfather and how I missed him.  With a dismissive wave of his hand he said, Sure, why not?  He didn't seem to want to look at the camera so I took a profile shot.  He wanted to see his picture and when I showed him he asked, You like?  I do, I said. He seemed pleased with my answer and giving my hand a quick pat, he went back to people watching.

How about you? Have you ever seen someone you didn't know, wondered what their story was and thought, I would love to take a photo of that person.  If you have, share your photos with us.  If you haven't and have always wanted to, try stepping out of your comfort zone and do it. Ask, and I bet they'll have a story to share, too. 

Life in Black and White

Rain earlier in the week made way for a beautiful, warm Southern California weekend for a volunteer beach cleanup that my husband, son and myself participated in.  Well, actually, I just followed along with my camera, but atleast I was there!  The sun was high and bright in a gorgeous blue sky but when I saw this picture I knew it would tell the story so much better in black and white.  With no color to distract,  it was just my husband and son walking side-by-side as if they were the only two on that beach. 

Today, show us your black and white photos and let them tell us their stories.