For A Moment Photography

You're Always Welcome Home

From our walk in the woods in AZ.

I usually make it a habit to stay off of my blog and social media when I'm in a bad mood/funky mood...  But it's 1:30am (NY time) I've been on the road for 4 days and my house is 80 degrees.  Who's going to argue with me?...  Agh, I love Arizona...  I do.  It's just that I've come to realize for the first time this summer New York has become my home as well and I hate to leave it- unlike AZ in June.

When I leave for NY in June, I'm ready to leave Arizona.  I've already had several weeks of triple digit tempertures and the idea of the east in the 70's sound perfect.  However, the east right now is perfect.  It's cool in the morning, warm during the day and I'm wearing a sweat shirt at night.  It's hard to leave knowing I'l be right back in the heat.

Now when I talk about New York (for those of you who don't know) the place I call home is very different then NYC.  I love that it's (NYC) close but it's in no way anything close to that life style...  I've fallen in love with Lake George, Ticonderoga and this year Silver Bay.  I'm lucky to say I've made great friends and met good people (hey, we can't all be friends).  It's here I've found a great community and a pace of life that agrees with me (sometimes)...

Now I'm back in AZ.  I already have my schedule planned, Mac Store, pedicure, lunch date, play date, dance class, gym, hair appointment, camera appointment and shopping...  I'm not going to lie all those things excite me too!  But I find it funny that for two point five months it didn't cross my mind to get my toes done and I haven't been here 4 hours and I feel I "have to" have them done...

Ugh, I feel better (my house is cooler too)...  I do miss my AZ family, friends and Core CrossFit family.  I think they missed me too...  I don't like to complain...  I just realized today that I love, love AZ (9 months a year) and I love, love NY (3 months a year)...  I will have to commit to writing about how much I love AZ when it's the dead of winter in NY and there's a 70 plus degree temperture difference!..  What I really should of talked about is how lucky I am to have two very special places to call home...  But it's late and I'm grumpy, remember?

 

Like You See in the Movies...

Rain drops on windows, wood floors & plaid on my shoes make me happy.

 

I literally poured rain out of my shoes.

The weather is starting to change here in Silver Bay, NY.  The mornings are crisp (for me) and the evenings are as well.  I don't mind it, it's just a little reminder that it's for sure the end of summer and fall is on it's way.  It's hard to think about heading back to Arizona and deal with triple digit tempetures for a few months...  I've really enjoyed my time here and did most of the things I had hope to do...  I wish I had blogged more about my time here...  So I'm going to do a quick "cram" blog session about a few of the things I love here...

 I love the rainy days here.  I see more rain here in the 2.5 months I'm here then I do the rest of the year in Arizona (yeah, it's a desert- I know)...  The rain storms here are like the kind you see in the movies.  It can rain for hours, days or drop buckets in just a few minutes.  I never believed it really rained like that until I traveled east in college...  Anyway, I'll miss the rain... 

 

I found a photo, that kind of looks pretty.  See the white flower/catkin?

There are these huge old eastern cottonwood trees sitting right on the waters edge of the lake (I love them).  These two or three trees have flowers that they drop, but they are so light so the wind carries them through out the campus.  It's sort of this dreamy, beautiful thing that happens and it reminds me of a movie effect.

I don't know if other people notice it or enjoy it like I do...  They must, it's nothing I've talked about, I just quietly enjoyed it...  And so did Presley.  I tried to photograph them flying (several times), they were too small for my camera to pick up in the air.  And they don't look that pretty once they hit the ground or while on the tree...  It's just something you really have to see to appricate I guess.  Which is ok...   

 

Jump Right In!

I love her dress detail.  

 

My days in New York are coming to an end and I'm running around trying to get the most of out the days I have left.  This means last minute photo sessions!  We (me and my wedding couple) decided last night we were going to meet today to figure out if we could pull off a quick session.  We met at 10:00am (not dressed for photos) and by 11:00am we were snapping photos.

The good thing about a session like this is I had no time worry about weather, lighting, props etc.  The bad thing was I had no time to worry about weather, lighting and props (laughter)...  Usually it all works out but I am a stickler with coming to a session with a plan.  It's just my nature and I think I work best with a plan/direction in mind. 

I left the session thinking to myself about all the shots I "missed"...  I'm glad we did the session and I'll just focus on the ones we got!  My couple left to Vermont hours later, we very easily could of skipped the session all together.  So glad we didn't.    

 

Time to get Arrested

What a stroke of luck tonight.  We are hanging out just me and Presley with plans of staying in going to bed early.  Then the next thing you know Presley runs outside and starts talking to our neighbors.  I go out chat with them a little bit and they tell me they are going to the lecture tonight.  I'm really out of the loop, anyway it turns out that Bill McKibben is speaking about global warming.  20 minutes later Presley is with the sitter and I'm sitting second row listening to Mr. McKibben speak about his plans of getting arrested in less then two weeks.

His lecture was an hour long and spoke about his books, the state of our planet and the need to act and act now.  I try very hard to be "green" but have really ~done~ nothing, taken no action.  So after his talk I gave him my card and said to him, "I'd like to go to Washington D.C and get arrest with you, if you'd like to have a photo journalist (I'm taking some liberties here) on staff".  Now I don't want it to sound like I don't want to get arrested if I can't take photos.  I still might, it's just that I know with my photos I could relay the story to others.  When he created 350.org it was a small grassroots effort (Bill plus 7 grads from Middlebury college).  I'm not sure of it's true size now, I guess I'll find out...  Ok, I should explain why he is hoping to get arrested and why I'm willing to as well.  

President Obama has to make a decision on the proposed pipeline written about in this article (linked here).  This is not so much a protest as much as it is a way of showing support to President Obama if he were to say no, the right thing to do...  

I have to tell you.  Last year I signed up to join a protest put together by 350.org that was taking place in my community.  Um, I didn't show.  It was early?  I don't know- some lame excuse.  But it's something that has bothered me.  I didn't follow through...  And now by some stroke of luck, here is another opportunity for me to show my support.

It's late, I have somethings to work out.  I'll keep you posted...   

 

Wedding Day

 

Today I was so lucky to have the opportunity to photograph a wedding.  I still can't believe that my job allows me to be with people on some of the most memorable moments of their life.  Today's wedding was small and the service was beautiful, it was a privilege to be a part of.

It's funny how I've resisted doing weddings for so long and this summer I've been so comfortable it's just felt natural...  The location is so beautiful and very different from home (AZ) it's been so exciting for me to have a chance to photograph here.      

 

After the Rain

It's hard to see when the photo is so small but the light is hitting the trees showing the green on the mountain side.

zoom.

It's been raining through the night and on and off this morning.  I decided after breakfast to walk down to the water and snap a few photos.  I don't have very many photos of the lake during or after a rain storm.  I guess I usually assume those are my days off, ha ha.

While down there the clouds broke just long enough for me get the sun hitting the trees across the lake.  Which I love because the photos prior everything looked white, grey or black.  I really think I need a wide angle lens to really make the photo pop, but I like what I see...

There's a pretty interesting story about the mountain side I photographed.  Several years ago a man got together with several of his friends and purchased the land.  They gave it to New York State under the condition that the land be forever wild and never built upon.  It's a beautiful view and looks like it always will be... 

Presley was with me and my lil' one is naturally always on the hunt for a photo.  Presley spotted this spider and a few others.  She asked to take the photo, being that she'd be facing the camera towards the water I said no.  She didn't mind much and was pretty excited when she saw the photo.  Thanks to the rain the web detail is pretty clear.

A Night at the Ball

 

 

Tonight after the campfire we stopped by the ball they were having in the gymnasium.  What I didn't realize was Tucker's parents are the dance instructors on campus.  Tucker is a new friend that has been in Presley's summer camp the past week.  They've played in the front lawn the past few evenings after dinner. 

Presley asked him to dance with her right away.  Tucker was more excited to play his board game, Candy Land...  It was pretty cute to watch them both playing the game and dancing.  Presley said to me after, "I danced and I didn't even get married".  She has watched, The Little Mermaid too much.  

 

 

Ballet Night

When I first came to NY this summer I saw Ethan (in photo above) dancing in the studio at our gym.  The next time I saw him I told him I wanted to photograph him.  He said sure let me know, that was in June.  I was starting to get worried it was not going to get any photos of him.  But we pulled it together and here they are!

The session went really well.  I had wanted to take the photo at Ticonderoga Beach because I liked where the sun sat behind the mountains.  So we drove from our beach 2o minutes over to Ticonderoga.  We got there just in time for about 45 minutes of shooting before we lost the sun behind the mountain.  I really love the shots we got.  I do wish we could of had at least 20 more minutes to allow me to play a bit more with my set up.  The bright side is we did the photos are I'm happy with the ones we got.   

Ok so the photo of him in the chair (below) is not from that session.  It was earlier that day and we were goofing off at the beach leisure diving.  The photos below are totally silly but I liked them too!  It had taken me a bit to convince a few of the people around to join in but Ethan literally dove right in.    

 

 

 

 

Rainy Day= Craft Shop

I'm in a very small town that is mostly a summer community.  So most of us are running around trying to get the most out of the summer activities available.  The last time we had a rainy day I spent some time in the craft shop.

I made the three rings (3 different days) photographed above.  It was so much fun and didn't take long at all, the first ring took the longest 1:30 minutes.  Being my first time I stopped frequently and asked a lot of questions.  I didn't want to cut or file the silver too much and have a ring that didn't fit.  They are all very dainty and I love them.  They are remind me of my grandmothers ring.  She has a very fine gold band that  I have always admired...  

The process was pretty easy but it's a process.  It was fun to file, twist and hammer the silver.  The three rings cost me less then $10 but I have a great attachment to them...  I loved learning the process and it's always fun the try a new craft.  I think I'm pretty much a fan of anything hand made!