mymeanderings
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Name: Joanna
Birthday: 6/23/1976
Gender: Female


Interests: Photography, journaling, hiking, India (all third world cultures), reading, all avenues of art
Expertise: stumbling along in constant need of grace
Occupation: Wife Mother Photographer


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Member Since: 11/24/2005
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Monday, July 12, 2010

My Love's Birthday

 

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In the middle of editing photos I came across this photo of Steve. We were away at  a camp with the kids  when this photo was taken.  I found Steve and Jeff asleep on the lawn. 

 My heart swelled with so many feelings when I saw this, he is such a kind and patient father.  I tell him all the time

"I love my life with you!"

Today on his birthday my constant thought is:

I am so grateful that he is alive and shares his life with us.

 


Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Confession

 

I did not wear the camera holster even though the majority tipped towards wearing it.

Blush

Okay, but here is my excuse; 

The church was packed  the very small front pew was empty so I was able to leave all my gear right there. I hardly had room to move around much so I did not need to have a bag with me.

So there you have it,

I confess it was not worn.

Don't be mad Steve and I really enjoyed reading all the comments and I really did want to hear what you thought!

 

Would you like to see what was waiting for me when I came home from the wedding?

Steve and the kids saw this commercial

The cupboards were emptied of all the flour and the counters were lined with the empty containers.

and then there was this

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If Steve had the van on Saturday, to go out and buy more flour, I am sure it would have been even bigger.

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Steve and the kids were very very proud of their little culinary accomplishment!

We ate the giant biscuit with dinner on Sunday.

I hibernated with the kids after the wedding.  I missed them so much that when I get back I sort of shut the world out.

Coco and I took a long nonsensical walk yesterday. 

I let her direct the walk ..sometimes we would turn around half way down the block and go in a different direction.  We found some alley ways and streets we have never walked down before, and also found these wonderful tiny lilies that smelled dreamy.

I asked Coco to hold them so I could get a macro shot of the buds and she kept bringing them up to her nose to smell them.

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A neighbor stopped us on our walk to talk to us and Coco said  "We are on a look walk, we are looking for flowers!"

This is her collection she arranged in the vase so we would have something pretty to look at while we ate dinner.

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I have not uploaded all the pictures yet.   I chose a few without seeing what they looked like, it was a fun challenge "whatever numbers I choose will be the ones I show on the blog".

God was so so so good to me on Saturday. I asked Him to show me His glory, to show this bride and groom His glory, and He did in so many ways.

I stood on this field at sunset and whispered "Okay Lord what do you have for them?"

He is so kind to allow me to see and experience so much beauty.

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Friday, May 14, 2010

Can I wear it?

 

Steve ordered this camera bag for me.   He was so excited when he found it and he loves it.

 I needed a bag to keep my hands free at weddings. I usually am carrying two large cameras at the same time.

This fits every little thing  that I have to have on me and all other gear is in a large backpack usually with my assistant.

In the past I have used a regular bag but during the wedding it slips off my arm and drives me crazy.

I have a wedding tomorrow, I was all ready to bring this and then Juls my sister came over a few minutes ago and said "ABSOLUTLEY NOT YOU CANNOT WEAR THAT, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE PACKING HEAT"

I thought that if I was wearing my black shirt and dark pants people would hardly notice it. It is a camera bag but even Steve agrees that there is something very Tomb Raider about it.

I do not want to draw attention to myself while shooting a wedding but it is so so practical. I just can't bring myself to wear a photo fanny pack, I thought this was cooler, but Juls totally disagrees.

So please please tell me TODAY if possible if I can get away with wearing this to the wedding in the morning. I will go with the majority vote.

 

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Saturday, May 08, 2010

From the archives

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I don't remember ever seeing these pictures before. 

I had taken the kids to a park to scout out a location for a photo shoot that was coming up in a few days.  I must have come home and downloaded the shoot onto the computer, these pictures must have been still on the same card. They were set these aside for when the business slowed down and then I forgot to come back and look at them.

In latin camera means "chamber" or "room" and it feels so much like I was allowed to peak into a little room from the past.

A room where Chloe had just turned three and Etienne was five, Jeff was in school, and the seasons were changing.

 

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In the past few years we have come to this park numerous time and every single time I remember this day, the day I took these pictures.  It was November and I was so surprised to find an entire bank full of roses still in bloom and I smelled them for the longest time. I knew that they were the last of natures perfume of the year.  It was only a memory, so it was really sweet to be able to have that memory come to life with a visual memento.

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I was humming this tune, by Simon and Garfunkel, over and over while looking at these. The words are sad but so fitting.

 

 

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Tuesday, May 04, 2010

5 dollar tulips from walmart

I was waiting for weeks looking for our first robin and a few weeks ago I finally saw one!

The kids and I painted/sketched/colored robins and I had a little party for us. We had our yearly picnic outside.

This year I also did something different:  I bought some fresh flowers as a way to welcome Spring in.  I brought the flowers up to my bedside at night so that I could see them first thing in the morning and then brought them down to the kitchen during the day.  After what felt like a long winter they were such a bright spot!

Steve snuck over to my bedside while I was sleeping and opened the windows, (it was too cold to have them open all night). The birds have all returned and he knew that I would want to hear them in the morning.  So I woke up under layers of warm covers, with crisp air coming through the window bringing with it a chorus of birds (cardinal, robin, and mourning doves) and there was also the beautiful stripes of light falling on the flowers.  The sheets had been hung on the line earlier and smelled wonderful, so all my senses were really happy.

The days I took these photos were beautiful, warm, early Spring days and the boys had no school.  We spent an ENTIRE day outside.  Eti wanted an apple because he wants a garden so badly. After he finished it he buried the core and checked on it every few mins to see if it had started to grow yet.

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One of the other things I did to celebrate the first robin was to cut little strips of material to use in their nests.  I did this when Jeff was a little baby.  The birds came and took little strings and ribbon and bits of cloth from our back porch and where we had hung some from them in the trees.  The following year they did not come back to that nest so when we moved I took the nest that still had little bits of ribbon woven into it.

The material I used this time was little bits of cloth that I had used in projects and was now too small to use for anything else.

Coco helped me cut them up, as well as some ribbon.

We wrote lines of poetry on tiny strips of paper, because how cool would that be to find a nest with bits of poetry woven into it?!

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Here is our Robin cake this year.

I found a recipe for a chai-flavored cake which tasted like a basic spice cake and then poured a lemon glaze over the top.

Lemon glaze

1/3 c. lemon juice

2 cup confectioner's sugar

2 T butter

1 T water

Whisk together, poke holes in the cake and then pour over.

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My morning view.

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The second book on my bedside is a poetry handbook by Mary Oliver.

Even though it was a handbook it read at times like poetry.

"Invention hovers always a little above the rules"

 

"The poem is not a discussion, not a lecture, but an instance - an instance of attention, or noticing something in the world."

 

"You find that most poems are gatherings of words, in good order, in simple order, plain and appealing." 

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"With a great poet the sense of beauty overcomes every other consideration, or rather obliterates all consideration." -(John Keats quoted in Mary Oliver's handbook)

"..the first few draws of the long oars through the deep water tell a lot - is one safe, or is one apt to be soon drowned?  A poem is that real a journey. Its felt, reliable rhythms can invite, or can dissuade."

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"It does not take much, but it takes a sure eye and a capable hand to be forever noticing and writing down particulars."

 

"The poet must not only write the poem but must scrutinize the world intensely... If the poem is thin, it is likely so not because the poet does not know enough words, but because he or she has not stood long enough among the flowers - has not seen them in any fresh, exciting, and valid way."

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"I like to say that I write poems for a stranger who will be born in some distant country hundreds of years from now.-Not MY poem, if its well done, but a deeply breathing, bounding, self sufficient poem. Like a traveler in an uncertain land, it needs to carry with it all that it must have to sustain its own life-and not a lot of extra weight either."

 

"A poem on the page speaks to the listening mind."

 

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"The natural world (nature) is the old river that runs through everything, and I think poets will forever fish along its shores."

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Some friends of ours came to visit--it was so good to see these two sisters, Mandy and Liz.  Mandy with her beautiful new baby and Liz with her thought-provoking questions.  They feel in many ways like younger sisters to me.

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Liz

 

 



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