The Hunt Is On

Today I was called downstairs to witness a visitor to our small, urban, backyard. Throw out a little bird seed on our first, cold and snowy morning, and look what kind of dinner guest you can attract!

When I rounded the corner in the house, to see what all the fuss was about, our English Pointer was on point, nose to the glass and shaking like a 5.0 earthquake! "Good girl," I thought, as I raced for my camera body with the 70-200mm lens. She's only experienced grouse and pheasant twice in her life and low and behold, she's on full point on a hawk! If a gun went off, all bets are off, however. She's gun shy.

My neighbor had told me that a hawk was in the neighborhood. I had shared with her two places where I've seen them nesting this year. Both sites are within a 1/4 mile of our house; a tree at the end of the street and in Lake Park. Just check out the ravine on the north side of the lighthouse. This summer I heard them learning how to fly in the ravine while walking the dog, so there was lots of chatter from mom.

This Cooper's Hawk flew down to the ground and searched amongst the grasses and berry brambles. That's where the rabbits like to go. Funny, I'd never seen a hawk hunting along the ground before. I usually spot them along the interstate, perched up high to pounce upon voles and mice. So it was fun to have a little natural history lesson in my urban backyard. I think I'll keep feeding the birds!

Twins Keep You Hopping

This Fall I was asked to photograph 2 high school seniors that are fraternal twins. Having working with identical twins, I was excited to photograph Jenny and Don. We had planned on an indoor session, as the weather was turning cold and cloudy. However, on the day of their Creative Session, temps. were in the 50's, some yellow foliage remained and the sun was out.

They were game when I suggested that we change course and head outside, so off to nearby Lake Park we went. Dad left us alone to work our magic together and right away the atmosphere was conducive to great images. Jenny and Don's personalities started to be show through; one being quiet; one quieter.

As I photograph, I'm always trying to do multiple things at once. One is keep my intuition open to changing light that I see and listen to that little voice that says, "try this." It's imperative that I try new things and follow that inner voice! It's never steered me wrong. The other side of my brain keeps a little banter going about all the technological considerations I need to make with my equipment: shutter speed, f-stop, lighting with wireless flashes, positioning, etc. and then blend that together with what I want to convey about the subject before me. So with two of them, I was working in overdrive.

My work must simply be true to the person I photograph. Their image has to blend the technical with the intuitive, so that I can convey something authentic about the person before me. When parents tell me that I've really captured their personalities, then I know that the multi-tasking during the Creative Session was worth it!

So enough about the 'how' of images of twins. Today, while I was working on this image of the two of them, a feeling inside me, an awareness of truth, started to well up and it landed as a well balanced weight within. This image was true to them, and then I remembered how Jenny gushed about this image when she saw it in the View and Choose session. Don, he just smiled and shook his head 'yes.'

It will now be a 24 x 16 Metallic print to hang in my Gallery. Every time I look at it, I'll feel that same weight in my belly that says, "true." I hope they do too!

The Miracle of Life

Thanksgiving makes us think about what we're thankful for and is a time to reflect upon the goodness that comes to us everyday. In addition, I enjoy the daily practice of being grateful, usually when I'm walking the dogs and my mind can relax, or my first or last waking moments of the day. It simply grounds me and makes me more resilient for when things don't go so smoothly.

So over the last two weeks, I've had the opportunity to photograph someone else's bundle of gratitude - 2 newborn girls! One is my nephew's second child, Kylie, who possesses the fullest cheeks for a 3 month old, and a client's daughter, Sophia, who is now welcomed by 3 other brothers and sisters.

Yesterday, while photographing Sophia, a beautiful 10 day old baby, I had sometime to just reflect upon the joy that these babies bring to their families and i imagined how thankful they must be for these gifts, close to Thanksgiving. Now of course, I don't have to deal with the feedings, diaper changes, and unconsolable cries in the middle of the night, but in the time I spent with Sophia and Kylie, I could drink in the simple beauty of their tiny ears, teeny toes, button noses, and wispy hair. In those moments I was grateful for the miracle of life and felt a sense of awe and wonderment of the life before me.