I Married a Photographer

After a long hiatus of not reading for leisure, more specifically, not reading anything interesting for leisure.  My husband bought me a book on our recent trip to California.  I like reading and I enjoy it even more when I can commit to completing a book.  I used to read all the time, I always had a book in my hand.  After passing my boards, I would look forward to pouring myself a glass of wine, spending the evening on my bed or futon and diving into a good book.  Since Dean and I have been married I think I finished one book (In Cold Blood by Truman Capote),  just measuring a milestone to a milestone.
With all of this being said, my writing skills are severely crippled.  When I don’t read for a creative outlet, I cannot write with much of a flair it becomes clinical and concrete.  When I was a Chemistry major at Bloom, I had to take a few gen eds my first 2 semesters, one was Comp 1.  I found that when I applied myself to the topic, I did very well at expressing how I felt and why I felt that way.  It became a great tension release, eventually I found that I somewhat relied on my writing to help me work through my problems.  So let me give it a whirl again.
On a Summer morning, one of the Pennsylvania summer days where at 9 am the weather is that cool muggy feeling.  You walk outside and you can feel the layer of  humidity stick to your skin.  I zipped up the lap-top bag and walked out the front door.  Running over The Checklist.  I have this tendency of doing the check list before I leave the house, fridge door closed tightly, toilet running,  stove off, iron unplugged, doors closed, windows shut, etc.  Really the way I was raised, this list could go on forever. I reached to my ears, slipping my earrings on while getting into the passengers side of the car.  Though on the drive we had light conversation about the future’s events, I ran through how and when I should approach people when I am out; and one thing I make a point to do is wear something memorable.  Identifiable.  For example, when Dean and I decided to go to the Children’s Miracle Network motorcycle ride at Quaker Steak and Lube in Bloomsburg, I had starfish earrings on and my hair styled in pigtails.  That should be easy to spot, right?
As the morning progressed, the sun beat down hard on our shoulders and noses forming beads of sweat that no matter how often you wipe them off, reform in the same spots seconds later.   We approached the entrance gate where a woman stood, wearing a baseball cap and a bright orange or yellow vest, as if we’d all have a hard time seeing her without it.  Dean, wearing one of his tie-dye shirts, grabbed his camera equipment, strapped it on him and away we went.
Lined on the south by the river and the north by the edge of town, the open fields of the airport were a welcome setting for a car show.  We entered the grounds and turned left toward an open macadam lot where, in clear view, were the hangars.  After zigzagging through  the crowd of people and beautifully shiny chromed-up cars, trucks and bikes, we were  fortunate to find a ton of friendly people who permitted us to take photos of their vehicles.  I remember thinking that by 1130, the sun was so bright and unobstructed that I could barely look at 50% of the vehicles. Much too too shiny and clean!  Ouch!  We made it a point to give out as many business cards as possible, meet and mingle with as many people as we could and really sell our idea and skill.  Looking back, I think that it was a great marketing move.  Word of mouth is still one of the best forms of advertising out there and when people can put a face to it, how can we go wrong?
Well, I’ll tell you how.  The evening before the car show, Dean and I were playing around with the flash on the camera.  Trying  different lighting techniques, etc.  As one of the settings on the camera changes the white balance to compensate for the different lights one can shoot in. The entire collection of photography taken at the car show was done in an incorrect white balance.  Now thanks to technology, all of those types of errors can be corrected through a few different programs.  I can’t recall the software that he did end up using but thankfully, he could correct them.

Dean shooting a HDR titled "The Elders"

After spending all day Saturday out in the hot sun at our daughter’s field hockey tournament, we planned to attack Sunday with unusual energy.  Constantly running between the kids’ games and practices, we find that most of our weekends are spent at the extremes of straightening the house or lounging about.   It has been a while since we all climbed in the car with nowhere to go and nothing special to see or do. So that’s exactly what we did!  Sunday in the early afternoon, all four of us and the baby (Dean’s Nikon D300) hopped in the family vehicle to a destination to where we rarely ever travel!

With nothing on our minds but a new family adventure, a hint of newness came over me.  It felt good to approach life with a fresh mind, open to explore.  We found our car slowing down around Halfway Dam; we could not resist.  Slowly we pulled the car into the parking space, I heard the gravel under the tires as we came to a stop.  The first door opened.  I felt the hot Spring air sting my face as I stepped out into the afternoon sun.  Seeing photo opportunities all the time, Dean really has become crafty in finding what angles, lighting, and lenses to use in any given situation.  It always amazes me to see him work.  He gets so into his art that my job is not to point things out to him but help him change the lenses and encourage his craft.

In order for you to view any of these images at an excellent resolution/size, you’ll need to become Dean’s contact on Flickr.  He also has posted most of the images on Facebook and JPGmag. After he took some great images of the forest near the dam, we headed up the hill to the overlook area.  This is where things got interesting!  Having little to no expectation sometimes is the best way to go about things. And in this instance it proved correct.  We got to the top of the hill where there is a narrow pull-off on the right hand side of the road. On this day it happened to be lined with cycles.  There were at least 10 bikes there whose owners stood about 20 feet away looking out over the dam talking.  Dean pulled off the road to turn around since there wasn’t a space for us to park and headed back down the hill.  As he was driving away, we talked about how the bikes would be a great untapped resource.  We ran the scenario by one another – ask the owner permission to take a photo, hand him/her a business card, send him/her a print after it has been processed and violá!  We both looked at one another and Dean did exactly what I thought he should, turned the car around.  I was getting a card ready to hand to the bike owner as Dean became excited thinking about how his shots will turn out. He could see the the HDR results in his mind’s eye and just couldn’t resist.

We parked the car and approached the slew of bikers who were laughing and clearly having nice time.  Dean singled out one fellow to ask him which person owned the bike he wanted to take a shot of – the owner agreed.   After asking us if we were cops, which I found humorous, Dean proceeded to take some amazing images.

As we wrapped up the photo session, we waved to and thanked the bikers once again. They all kind of reminded me of my Uncle Jim but that is a whole different story.   We packed up our equipment and headed off to the next destination; taking snaps of the Amish in transit to . . . uh . . . wherever they go on Sunday. Church? One culture to the next, huh?!  Looking back on the day, it was perfect in a number of ways.  Dean has illustrated to me a number of times how serious he is about doing photography full-time and when I see him work I can’t help but think that his talent is somewhat of a waste in an area that underwhelmed is the new overwhelmed.  We continue on though hoping for that shot to get published or to find that perfect studio space.  Everyday one step closer . . .