Inessential Stuff

I’m late posting this. But Marcus had himself a birthday.

At right, Marcus showing typically intense enthusiasm for a Spokane Chiefs Zamboni.

Click here for a tiny sampling of Marcus Birthdays.

. . . of a “fence” I saw here in Spokane.

I’ve been a little behind in my posting, but I just finished a trio of engagement shoots.

Jeanette and William don’t look tired in their pictures, though it would be understandable if they did. We shot at 7:00 in the morning on a Sunday, and they had to drive in from Pullman to do it.

Sometimes I’d make suggestions for poses, but mostly I let them be themselves: they naturally made loving gestures–a gentle touch, a graceful draping of an arm, an inclination of the head. I just had to shoot–all the affection and elegance were already there.

By the end of Laura and James’ shoot, it was getting dark and late and I wouldn’t have blamed Laura or James being impatient, but gamely went along to one last location: the gazebo. And that’s where, for me, things finally came together photographically. I am glad they were so patient with me.

My son watches me edit pictures sometimes. While editing the pictures of Amanda and Anthony, he said, “Those people aren’t real.” He says strange things sometimes. “Why aren’t they real?” I asked. “They look too good,” he answered.

Well, he was right and he was wrong: Amanda and Anthony are real, but they do look good. We did our shoot early in the morning, and while driving to the location, I passed Canon Hill Park, which I thought looked particularly peaceful. After an hour of shooting, I suggested we drop by the park for a few more poses. After 380 pictures, I got this shot. I only took three more. I didn’t think I could do any better.
The fun thing about engagement sessions is that it lets me get to know the couple better as people, which makes me even more excited about shooting their weddings.

Marcus and I spent several days in Seattle, visiting Cousin Akian, Aunt Laura and Uncle MacLeod. I thought he might really enjoy the Space Needle (he was ready to go down after two minutes on top); I also thought the highlight would be going to an Angels game at Safeco Field, perhaps the first baseball game Marcus will remember (he has been to at least 6 others, all in his first year, starting at three months, but I don’t think he’ll remember those). Ends up that for Marcus, the highlight of Seattle–and I think this makes him unique among almost all people who have ever visited the Emerald City–was the Monorail. At any rate, we had loads of fun.

Okay, it’s not seamless. But I did put together a 360 degree panorama of Seattle, taken from the top of the Space Needle on a sunny, though hazy day.