Career Favorites: The Dance

I started a Sunrise to Sundown project several years ago. That project has since morphed into more of a Sanctuary project, but when I first began it was more broadly a project where I shoot a subject from literally sun up to sun down.

This couple was a ballet duo that lived in this area at the time. We had some mutual friends which put us in touch. I shared my goals for the project and they were interested. We actually shot 2 fully days from sunrise to sundown and visited a total of 9 different locations including a swimming pool for an underwater segment, a local old fashioned candy shop, a stage, a beautiful downtown mansion, and others!

The location where we shot this particular image was an old crumbling building in the middle of downtown in a city close to where I live. It was a great spot! The location which was broken, run down, clunky, and well beyond its prime provided such an opposite esthetic to these dancers who were beautiful, elegant, graceful, and at a highlight of their prime.

We set up for this image about an hour before sunset. The light was pretty even at this time of day and the harshness of the sun had gone behind a set of cloud.

It took the dancers several tries to position themselves where they were balanced. I could call out, left foot up a bit more! Right arm more round! Relax your brow! I was so happy to be the one taking the photos! I could not have done their part at all! But they hit their mark, and I hit mine and what we got is what you see.

There are hundreds of photos from my 2 days with this couple that are favorites of mine. But this one is my top favorite. For me, it’s a testament to skill: to their skill, and to mine. I was, and am, still very proud of this project, the time and the effort that they, and I, gave to make it a success. We all had an expertise that we brought to the table, and I believe it culminated here.

-M-

Career Favorites: The Apple Tree

I became a homeowner in Arkansas for the first time in May of 2011. The house I purchased came with a big backyard, which I had fenced so my dogs would have a safe place to run around. It was a bare piece of property in the back apart from one tree at the very back of the property line (which I later learned was a plum tree!!)

When the fall rolled around in 2011, I decided I’d love to plant some fruit trees and berry bushes in the back. This was three-fold….

1) the trees would eventually provide some shade for my pups
2) we would have some yummy fruit
3) it would bring local wildlife to the yard

That year, I planted 2 apple trees, 2 peach trees, and 2 blueberry bushes. The trees were no bigger around than my thumb and not much taller than I stood. I spent many mornings and evenings in the quiet of my backyard watering and babying these trees and bushes. I took care of them, and I watched them grow.

Every spring, I would get so excited and happy when I’d see the first sign of my fruit trees flowering! For the first several years the fruit the trees would grow were too small, too immature. But, their 4th year, the year I took this photo, we got our first apple, our first peach, and our first little batch of blueberries! I stood in the backyard looking over my trees like I imagine a proud parent looks at their child when they’ve won an award for something they’ve worked so hard to accomplish. I was so proud of my trees.

The morning I took this photo it had rained the night before. When I got up and let the dogs out for the first time this day, everything in the backyard was wet and dripping water drops to the ground. I slipped on some shoes and grabbed my camera to take a little walk around the yard. I stopped at this apple tree because it was the first time I’d noticed that year just how much fruit was actually growing on the branches! I couldn’t believe it. There were apples everywhere I looked! The leaves were a beautiful dark, rich shade of green. It would be another several weeks before any of the apples would be ready to be picked and eaten, but I was so proud of my hard working trees!

A number of years later I got married and it was time to combine our households into one which meant it was time to put this first Arkansas home of mine on the market. I was literally so sad to leave my trees behind. I’m so thankful to have this photograph (and others I took while I lived there). It reminds me of the many backyard conversations I had with my trees as I watered them. It reminds me to continue to work hard to grow in to a better version of myself. It reminds me to share what I work hard to grow, to stand tall and firm when it’s windy or situations are difficult to withstand.

Nature is so cool.

I hope the new owners love those fruit trees like I did. I hope they bring them as much joy as they brought me.

Till next time…
-M-

Career Favorites: The Birth

June 17th, 2016

I can’t even tell you how many births I’ve photographed over the years. They are all incredible. Every single one.

This one, though. This one is a little extra special because the baby being held up by Dr. Curry is my very own niece. If you’re a patient at St Bernards OBGYN Associates, you might even recognize this photograph. It hung on the walls up there for a year or so before Dr. Curry retired. We had gifted her a framed copy and I’m sure she took it with her when she left.

There is something spectacular about birth…about a woman’s body and what it can withstand, and do…about medicine and how far it’s advanced…about witnessing little tiny brand new humans experienced their first few moments outside the womb…about watching the parents fall instantly in love. It’s a tangible, real, beautiful, messy, exhilarating, scary, incredible thing to witness.

I was a little surprised to get this shot. It was pretty difficult for me to actually see through the tears streaming down my face…after all, I was also instantly falling in love with a new family member. But when I took it, I knew for a fact that it had just earned its rightful place inside my Career Favorites folder.

This is the last photo we have where my niece and my sister are physically connected. Just after this, her cord was clamped and she was taken over to the little newborn bed to be wiped down and wrapped up. It’s the moment before little Monroe is set free into this world to have her own experiences, to teach us who she is. It’s a powerfully exciting moment.

As I am with any birth I’m asked to photograph, I’m so thankful I was allowed to be present to bear witness to it. It’s an honor I’ll spend the rest of my life being grateful for.

Till next time!

-M

Career Favorites: The Grasshopper

The first studio I had (outside of my home) was a cozy little 700 sqft space in a business center just outside the busy midsection of Jonesboro. Concrete and bricks and cars and parking lot. There wasn’t a lot of appeal outside the doors of that studio for nature to inhabit.

I had arrived at the studio to get ready for a newborn session I had that afternoon. Walking up to the door I noticed this large grasshopper, very out of place, and having a slight lean to her posture. Something was wrong with her. I went in and sat my bags down, then back out to the sidewalk to inspect a bit closer.

I picked her up and gave her a good looking over. Her body seemed to be intact. As far as I could tell, she wasn’t missing a limb or anything…she didn’t seem to have an injury…she couldn’t keep herself standing up right very well, her movements were very slow, and she never once tried to jump or fly away. I cradled her in my hands and we went into the studio together.

I’ve always been an empathetic person…to a fault. I feel things very deeply. I assign feelings to things that (probably) don’t have feelings at all (like my childhood dolls who are all stuffed in a storage container together and not on my bed like they used to be. *I’m sorry, dolls*……..see what I mean?!) Anyway, as I held this grasshopper, determined to be with her as she crossed the rainbow bridge, I started thinking about her life. Where all had she been? Did she have a favorite place to stay, or a favorite food? Did she have friends or family? Had she had any children? I wondered if she’d enjoyed the life she’d lived…if she was hurting…if she knew she was dying.

Then I started to think about what would happen when she died. Had there been any other human on this planet that had gotten to experience her? Was it just me? Who would remember her when she died? Who would remember her once I died? (I told you….empathetic to a dag-gum fault).

So I talked to her and asked if I could take her photo. She didn't seem to protest. I grabbed my favorite wood crate and placed it on one of my backdrops near the door. I didn’t want to use any of my lighting because I didn’t want to scare her. She was used to the sunlight, the sunlight looked good on her, and that was good enough for me. I took a few photos, then went back to holding her.

After about 20 minutes, she didn’t move anymore. And, her lean was so pronounced that without giving her stabilization, she would fall over completely to the side.

I took my grasshopper friend back outside and laid her gently at the base of the flowers in the flower pot I had outside the studio so nature could run its course and return her body to the earth.

Every time I saw my flowers bloom, I thought of my grasshopper friend.

I’m so glad I have this photo of her. It reminds me of her presence in my life, that caused me to set aside what I thought I needed to do and offer a bit of comfort and compassion to someone else.

I’m also glad I have this photo, and that I’m sharing it and this story with all of you on the internet…because now I’m not the only one who got to experience this beautiful grasshopper, and you can be part of the remembering as well.

Thanks for reading!

-M-

Career Favorites

I’ve been a professional photographer well more than a decade at this point. I’ve worked with thousands of families to preserve every milestone between birth and death. Photography has been the most rewarding career that I never knew I wanted. I suppose the old adage is true, “third time’s the charm.”

I’ve owned cameras for as long as I can really remember. I used to love when we’d get one of those cheap little disposable cameras at Walmart or K-Mart growing up. As a matter of fact, the first major purchase of my own was to buy a Panasonic camcorder for $600 from a local electronics store when I was in the 10th grade. I thought I was so grown and I took such good care of that camera. (I still have it, by the way! I wonder if it still works!)

After I’d graduated college from North Dakota and moved back to Arkansas, my parents surprised me with a puppy that I’d fallen in love with one day when my sister and I were visiting shelters. I’ll say it until I die that Charlie Einstein was the best gift I’ve ever been given. I didn’t have a camera at the time to take pictures of him with apart from the very questionable camera in my Motorola Razr flip phone, so I went to Walmart or RadioShack and bought a small point and shoot Panasonic Lumix. (I swear I didn’t have an affinity toward Panasonic…it must have just been a brand I easily recognized at that time, or one that was just readily available in this area.)

It was this little camera that started helping me really fall in love with photography. I kept it in my pocket, or in a backpack I’d carry. I used that camera for several years. As a matter of fact, it was this camera that I used to take photos of my first nephew when he was born and up through when he was around 2. I remember the first photo I took that when I looked at it made me feel like maybe I needed to take photos more and maybe even for other people. It was a shot of my nephew…brilliant blue eyes, freckled face, eating a slice of watermelon that my mom was feeding him.

Since turning pro and shooting on a consistent basis for myself and others, I’ve accumulated quite a collection of what I refer to as Career Favorite photos. Photos that leave me feeling a lot like the photo of my nephew did. I’ve had a folder on my desktop labeled “Career Favorites” for years, and each time I make a photo that has something special about it that connects to the inside of me, I add that photo to this folder.

A photo might be added to this folder because of the colors…or the angle/perspective the shot was taken…or the action that was frozen…or it’s the culmination of a series of events…or maybe it just simply has something to do with the subject itself. Maybe it’s a combination of some of these things. Maybe even I don’t fully understand what it is about these photographs that meant they would end up in my “Career Favorites” folder.

There are a handful of photos in this folder that I knew the half-second before I even pressed the shutter button that that frame would 100% be added to this esteemed collection. I wish I could fully explain it. Part of it is a feeling. It’s how the photo makes me feel. It’s how I feel when I make the photo. It’s how the subject or action makes me feel.

It’s a connection.

It’s a very deep connection to a very impermanent fraction of eternity, and I just happened to be at the right spot, with all the right elements, having learned all the right techniques and technology, standing ready and watching for that perfect singular second when my gut says “NOW” and all of these things align in the tip of my finger atop the shutter button of my camera.

Welcome to my blog.

I can’t wait to open this folder with you.

-M-