the first and last

This is for my sweet J...

She asked, and then shot down every excuse I gave her.

I said I would think about it for awhile because I swore I would never say yes to a wedding.

So, after I awhile I said yes. I said yes because I love her, I wanted to support her in this new chapter, and she swore the wedding would be small.

The day was perfect, the light beautiful, the bride relaxed, the gathering indeed small, the kids adorable (more of them later), and my nerves...well...they did pretty well. Except that I could not sleep that night because I kept taking pictures in my head, hearing the click of the shutter.

I know it's always good to say never say never, so I will allow myself room to change my mind, but this was my first and last wedding. I loved capturing the story of the day and the in between moments, but I have no need to step into this realm of photography. I have many friends who do this for a living and I would humbly and happily be a second shooter, to be the invisible spectator to the blessed event.

So J...these photographs are for you girl. They are just a few of the first I have edited. Just 999 more to go!

Love you.

t

he plays the ukulele

You may remember this dashing young man from a previous post. He was rockin' a black pea coat in some cool black and white photos that, in his father's words, had a flavor of Jason Bourne to them. (Totally! Google an image of "Jason Bourne in a pea coat")  Today, however, let me show you another side......

Girls, he plays the ukulele.

And he played on the varsity football team.
(Get this guy his own television series!)

Aaaaand, he has a girlfriend.

While I was enjoying the backdrop of an awesome blue-tiled gymnasium wall, his girlfriend arrived. 

I totally captured the moment (below) when he spotted her walking towards him. Made me smile.

Isn't that sweet? I offered to take a picture of the two of them but she declined (wearing sweats, no make-up on, you know, totally beautiful, but whatever). So this was the closest thing I could get to a photo of her...

Though I tease, I really enjoyed his good, sweet nature, and the fact that he was willing to stand around and have his picture taken, with Mom and me in the background chatting and making him laugh as if this was what every senior boy did on a Saturday morning. It made the time fly.

I was going to end the post here but then I felt the need to say something about these...

Friends, he showed up to his photo shoot in these slippers. At first I thought... 

Hey, come comfy and ready to roll--I like your style.

But then I was educated. 

This is the new, hip thing to wear, not just with your pj's or sweats at home after work, but also when you leave your home. You guys, this is for real. You wear them all of the time, with whatever you are wearing and wherever you are going.

You get out of bed pull on your pants, slip on your cheap-o Target slips and then cast not one look at your abandoned, lonely shoes in the corner. Shoes are a thing of the past. Now, because your slippers have the seal of approval by the highly influential teenage demographic that has sanctioned these as street and fashion worthy, you can, and you do, wear your slippers to the grocery store, or to the mall, or the football game, or a photo shoot. Then, when you return home, you revel in the fact that you do not have to kick off your shoes, because hey, you don't have your shoes on, you already have your slippers on! And, when they are totally gross with street crud and whatever else they have picked up, you just toss them in the garbage, head on over to Target, and hope they have your size.

Friends, is that convenient or what?

I was so amused I had to grab a shot of them. Because some day I want Mr. Brown to look back and remember his youth. Just like I look back on pictures of myself in high school with sky-high, hair-sprayed bangs. Yeah, I thought they were cool back then too. 

What I want to say to Mr. Brown is...

You cannot go wrong with the classics. Stick with the black pea coat.  

Am I right, or am I right?

the serious side of mr. brown

When I moved away from our mutual home town in 2005 I was left with an image of a young boy, a pastor's kid, following his dad around the church campus, tolerating the pestering of his two younger sisters. 

His mom and I had scheduled these pictures long ago in late summer/early fall and because of life stuff, we just had not been able to connect. So when we finally met up on Saturday, I stepped out of my car and was met with this football-carrying, ukulele-playing, slipper-wearing, high school senior.

Where did time go? Who was this man?

I'm about to gush here (and I feel free to do so because, geez, I am old enough to be his mom) because I feel like you all are thinking it too so I might as well say it...

I think I found the next Calvin Klein model. 

Seriously. Don't mean to embarrass you Mr. Brown but that black pea-coat was a great wardrobe choice if I do say so myself.

I thought I would save the ukulele/slipper pictures for another post because I couldn't stand to take away from this little black and white collection of what I am dubbing, "The Serious Side of Mr. Brown".

And, Mr. Brown,  I know you are thinking about majoring in International Relations but you might want to consider taking a side job and contacting Mr. Klein.

Just throwing that out there. 

If any of you want to chime in and agree with me, feel free to do so.

***

(Special note for Senior Mr. Brown: While editing these pictures I felt like I should be listening to some vintage U2. Second picture up from the bottom....Larry Mullen Jr. in the early days. Yes?)

coming full circle

Five years ago we moved to our new little town. As you can guess, everything was new new new: friends, roads, grocery stores, schools. My son was only five (I know, he's grown so much!) and just beginning his first grade year at school. After leaving his previous wonderful kindergarten class in our old town I was nervous, scared, and emotional about beginning a new school. Note, I was. My projected motherly feelings that I placed on my son were probably not as true to his own but nonetheless, he was a bit nervous as well. On the day of "meet and greet" I held his hand as we walked onto the new school campus and then through the doors of his first grade classroom. Our eyes landed on Mrs. S. She was beautiful, smiley, sweet, welcoming, gentle, and instantly like-able. Her room was colorful, clean, fun, organized.

I burst into tears. I probably ran into in her arms but I was such a mess I don't remember anything else.

So here we are, five years later.
Meet Mrs. S (still beautiful, sweet, and gentle as ever) and her family...

 

We left the house and walked over to a nearby park. 

I had to include this shot below just because I loved Little Guy looking back at me.

These last two pictures were our walk on the way back home. Little Guy insisted on pushing his own car, like-nobody-else-touch-it-or-I-will-have-a-royal-melt-down-if-you-do. 
 Note dad in the picture on the left: What?! I didn't touch it?

 

And that my friends is a brief story of our time together one afternoon, five years after we met.
How fun to capture Mrs. S's Little Guy with his coffee-colored eyes and amazing head of hair, and his big personality. Such a privilege to give back to one of my son's first teachers.
The sweet circle is complete.

Happy Friday!
xoxo