Things my daddy taught me...(the first in an infinitely recurring series)

This past Christmas, last month, I drew my daddy's name in our Christmas gift exchange. Not an easy task to buy for him. But back in October, he had expressed interest in some of my "framed" photography so that was a thought. The problem with giving my photos as a gift is that I never like to presume that any of my shots are worthy of someone else's "taste" in art. So, though I had a slight idea of what to give him, I had no specifics.

Then I remembered..... THE PICTURE!! All of my life, I have known of THE PICTURE. It is a beautiful work of art done by my Grandmother, my daddy's mom. She passed away before I was born, but the art has been rotated amongst the families for as long as I can remember. I also remember years ago that Daddy worked very dilligently (before Photoshop) shooting photos of the picture.

Here is where one lesson my daddy taught me comes into play. While I've often been told to find a specialty area with my photography, my daddy told me when I first started shooting, "Shoot everything!" I listened to him! Soooooo, two years ago (I believe) while waiting for the annual 42 Championship Game to be determined at our Family Round Up, I saw THE PICTURE on my cousin's wall. So, I switched around some lenses and shot probably 20 shots of it in about 10 seconds. Low light, poor preparation, reflections on the glass...but like Daddy said, shoot it all...ya never know.

I was at my "day job" when I had this idea for the gift, and I could hardly stand it until I could get home, sort through 1 million (or so) disks, and find the images I shot of THE PICTURE. I found it. Then I played with it. Worked on the lighting, sharpened it up...tried to remove the reflection. Then found a frame of approximate dimensions in my stack of frames (I do things backwards...find the "frame" and then scale the photo to match). Then for the next 6 days, I fretted and worried, and planned and thought. One thing I loved about the process...it involved 4 generations. My grandmother's work. My idea to "reproduce" it, my son and daughter helped with the planning and putting together of the frame, and my husband did the spray-painting of the frame. And, of course, Daddy would be getting the gift.

He seemed to like it. Had bought the hanging supplies a few days before he passed. I regret tremendously that I didn't get a shot of him with the gift. Well, I kind of got one, but as you will soon see, it was one of those "from the hip" shots. But again, I followed his advice, not only to shoot everything, but also to NEVER destroy a negative (or original version in this day of digital). So I found the imperfect photo. Just a captured moment on a crazy Christmas Day....that I'll never forget.

Change...

Could NOT believe how long since I've updated. And how much has changed since that time. Perhaps the changes have provided me with some explanations as to the poor updating!

Since July...

My wonderful mother-in-law, Janice Richardson, passed away in August. She had been diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma about a year and a half earlier, in April of 2009. She fought hard to live so she could meet her newest grandchild, my niece Alexanda. She met her, she held her, she fell in love with her. The remainder of the summer was beyond rough. But through that tears, we got to say things we might never have said. That was good.

Then came fall. Fall was fun and busy and though our lives had changed, we kept on going, in "our new reality". That was a phrase that I started using to describe our family during the summer. I think I tried to put some normalcy into our world with that phrase.

I even wrote a note on my Facebook page at the end of 2010, detailing some of the changes, good and bad, exciting and scary.

Then came January 12th. Started out bad. Had a sick puppy. Doesn't sound like the end of the world to most, but considering we had lost our last puppy back in October, it struck fear in our hearts. I even posted some silly, tough sounding Facebook status that referred the fact that 2011 had better "back off" with the bad luck...I was going to have none of it.

Little did I know. That afternoon, I got a call from my mom. Daddy had died. Suddenly, unexpectedly, minutes after clocking out from his job because he felt sick. My daddy. My mom's "sweetheart" for nearly 50 years.

Naturally, the next few days, and now nearly 2 weeks, have been painful. On the one hand, he did not suffer. He didn't have to suffer so many things that he feared with his health. He was just gone. I have no doubt he is in Heaven. No doubt at all. On the other hand, there was no time for goodbyes. No holding his hand and assuring him I loved him, and thanking him for the life he has given me.

I've also been reminded of the importance of family....And I don't just mean the immediate family. The cousins, the aunts, uncles, 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins, the whole clan. The importance of lessons taught. The importance of so many things.

My brother says we will be forever changed but we will make it. How true. Forever changed, but also forever the same because we were raised on a solid foundation, thanks to Mom and Dad.

Hug your loved ones. Tell them you love them.

Worth It All

So, as I've said in another post, I love reliving moments by going through the photos after the event....Sometimes, you just have an awesome set of circumstances that allows one to witness the moment, live the moment, and ALSO Capture The Moment in pictures.



We had just that moment last Tuesday night. Let me back up.....Monday night, my husband (coach) and son's ALL-STAR team lost 25-0. Not a great night. Though, I must say that even with that loss, I was proud of our boys. One moment that stood out in my mind was OUR pitcher walking over to third base line to give the other team's player a high five after he hit a homerun.


Then there was Tuesday. It just seemed like a magical night. One of our guys got a homerun, and from that point on, we were on our game. Unlike Monday night's game, these two teams were evenly matched. It was back and forth all the way. Ended up going into extra innings, and though they were last at bat, we ended up winning by ONE.


Now, I am a mom that doesn't usually yell during games. Always afraid I will yell the wrong thing, if truth be known. But Tuesday, I yelled, I rooted, I jumped up and down, I hid my eyes (and even hid the camera lens a few times, not wanting to "jinx" it), I thought I was going to have a heart attack.


There were so many moments that thankfully were captured.


The undeniable thrill of hitting a homerun....WALKING ON AIR across home plate!



Coach taking the time to say "Great job!".

Exuberance!!!

Boys not afraid to offer a hug of congratulations!

Fun and fellowship.

The thrill of the win fades with the next loss. But the photos are there forever. To remind us of how blessed we are!

Glass Family

Had a great time with the Glass family on Sunday. Perfect weather...overcast so no shadows to worry about. Not too hot, not windy...just right. Only slight problem I had at the beginning was this sweetheart. She was very shy to start with.
That's when the telephoto lens comes in handy....Sent her off to go play with her brother while I "spied" on her with my lens.

Slowly she started coming around...at this point I had gotten closer, but she would only look at me if she was "connected" to mom or dad. She didn't even respond to my normal lame jokes!

FINALLY, she figured out I wasn't so bad after all. And I figured out her favorite word...."CHEESE!"

We had fun! Lots and lots of photos.

Feeling Blessed...

I was editing some of the photos from the first weekend of baseball season in our household. I love baseball season. It's so....AMERICAN, I guess. :-) I came to realize that my boy, at the ripe old age of 11 is one of the "big guys" out there. It's fun to watch the t-ball players looking up to the older ones with such respect.


It's also fun to watch the boy t-ball players trying to impress the girl t-ball players. It's times like that when I wish I had a video camera in my bag.


I also love the old fashioned values....taught by all the parents to all the players....


Remove your hat when saying the pledge....

Always take an opportunity to provide instruction and encouragement....


Be enthusiastic.....



Give it your all....



Congratulate a job well done!

Yes, there is a lot of reason to be concerned with the goodness and safety of the world sometimes, but then again...there's a lot of reason to be thankful!

The Imperfect Necessity

I get a bit wrapped up sometimes in getting "professional" shots. Ones that have some value for potential customers. I find that I sometimes forget to get the day in and day out snapshots. I sometimes take the shot, but then don't feel they are "technically correct" enough to share.

Today, I'm sharing from our weekend. Just some snapshots. In imperfect places with imperfect lighting, and typically zero time to prepare.

At the Blue and Gold Banquet....some of the Cub Scouts visiting with my father-in-law, inquiring about his patches.

My boy getting recognized later in the same banquet.

It was a big day for him....Here he is "getting some leather" from the Baylor catcher after he threw out the first pitch at the first baseball game of the season for Baylor Baseball.

Here he is on Saturday evening. After the above events AND a church lock-in, he was tuckered out!

Perfect moments deserve to be captured. Perfectly or not!

Cookbook

For Christmas, I wanted to do gifts that had a bit more meaning than usual. 2009 was not the greatest of years in our family, so I really wanted to make it special.

My daughter has taken a great interest in cooking. At first I felt guilty, because I thought she was just helping cook dinner because her mom was tired and grumpy. (Who? Me?) Then she started experimenting, and I realized that she REALLY enjoyed it. So I thought that might be one inspiration....

Then there's the relationship my daughter has with my Granny. I say "has" even though Granny passed away in 2001, because Heather, like my mother and I, believes in "Pennies From Heaven". The thought that when we find a penny on the ground, it is a message from Granny, sending us her love. With this past year being as it was, we found it surreal that there were pennies every time we turned around. (And once, she sent me a dollar...while I was filling up with gas at the gas station!)

So that was a second inspiration!

When we cleaned out Granny and Grandpa's house, I brought home a recipe box. I honestly was looking for a specific recipe, which I never found. (Jalapeno pickle recipes are always appreciated, by the way)

Here is the box....

I knew there were more recipes that I had brought home, but couldn't remember what they were in. The very day I was planning on starting on the cookbook, I cleaned some shelves I have in the dining room. Lo and behold...there was an old 3 ring binder full of recipes and notes from Granny. I was about to casually take it to my office when I flipped it open to a random page...

There, in Granny's handwriting, was this:I literally RAN with the binder to my office, tears running down my face. Now I KNEW this was the right gift to make for my daughter.

So this is what I put together:

I had to add the "and such" since I have a whole "chapter" of Granny's clippings from newspapers and random notes she had written and thought enough of to keep in the binder. I also threw in a few pages of photos, of course.

The recipes are scanned, so that they retain the original "flavor" of Granny's recipe box. Complete with grease stains, gravy drops, and an occasional correction on a recipe.

There were even a few surprises. Granny is my mom's mother. But mixed in her recipes were some from my aunts on my dad's side:

and one from Backflip Johnny's mom (who is my aunt's sister-in-law.) Backflip Johnny is a rodeo clown that my family has enjoyed watching at small town rodeos around here for several years. One day I posted a shot of him on Facebook, and my cousin responded with "HEY! That's my cousin!"...From the other side, of course. Heather loves thinking that she is a "cousin-in-law" to Backflip Johnny, and was therefore excited to see his mom's recipe in the book.

When I present a family with their photos, I know I've done well if there are tears. Well, in this case, Heather cried....and so did I.

Thanks for letting me stretch a bit on my "photo blog" by capturing a different kind of moment.