Close to the Heart

No pro shoots were on my Work Calendar for Saturday.
No hike was on my Recreation Calendar for that day either.

Leah was stuck with me for the day.

So, we drove to Bainbridge Island to shop the Farmers' Market.
Leah wound up buying a bagful of radishes,  with a Sunday plan (when I would be hiking) to make preserved relish. I wandered around with my camera and people-watched.  What caught my eye was that there were a number of individuals carrying and wearing various stuff on their chests:

A chicken was sleeping inside a kid's jacket.
A man was wearing an amazing necklace he had made of seals' teeth.
A young woman was showing off her baby goat.
Another woman had a baby human on her chest.

All these things were being worn,  or carried,  close to the heart, you might say.

Nature's Ways

I have a wedding to photograph tomorrow evening and it will be held in a sweet little park on the east side of the Olympic Mountains not far from where I live.  I'm sure that, as the bride and groom planned their event, they hoped for good weather because Hood Canal is nearby and there is a peaceful beach where wedding guests could gather to watch the sunset.

I've been keeping my eye on the weather forecasts; and though, for two months we have had no real precipitation to speak of -- there was a 30-second shower Tuesday that produced the rainbow above -- we might finally get some rain tomorrow. Nevertheless I suspect my wedding clients will happily hold their ceremony indoors in a quaint and cozy cabin on the park grounds, not complaining one bit if it rains on their big day. Our land is dry, dry, dry and we all know that "perfect" weather is not perfect.

All of the photographs I'm posting today were shot this week, offering a visual example I guess of the take-away/giveth ironies to be found in Nature:

A forest fire, caused by a lightening strike back in the Spring,  has been smoldering in the Queets Valley Wilderness in Olympic National Park, perhaps two  hundred miles away from my house. The fire flared up this summer and is taking away incredible old growth trees and putting smoke into the atmosphere.

At the same time,  that smoke is making for some dramatic and "picturesque" evening skies.

Beauty is resulting from destruction.

And, for we little humans,  I guess our wisest reaction might be to just shake our heads and be amazed.

Wheel of Life

It's been eight years now that I have been making photographs of the Tibetan community in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. I look back at images I shot in 2007 and I am blown away to see that, in what seems like the blink of Father Time's eye, little kids have become teenagers, teenagers have turned into young adults, and a few of the community's elders have passed away, going on to Whatever is Next.

This week I received word that a beloved 82-year old Rinpoche (a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism) had died at his home near Seattle, and a funeral service would be held to honor him. All community members were invited, including me. I let Rinpoche's family know that I would attend and pay my respects,  and that, as always, I'd have a camera with me. If the family wanted me to photograph the event, I would do so.  If they'd rather I not take pictures, I would sit quietly.

One of Rinpoche's sons said yes, please do take pictures.

The image above is a portrait I made of Rinpoche this past summer when I photographed his daughter's wedding. The photographs below were shot last week at the funeral.

This is history-in-the-making I am documenting for the local Tibetan community, the Wheel of Life as it turns.

I hope the images reflect the respect and love I have for my adopted community.

Three Events

I joked in this space last week about how my end-of-summer wedding work has been keeping me busy and cutting into my hiking time, and the same wisecrack could be made about the volunteer shooting I do for the Seattle-area Tibetan community.

In all seriousness, however, this work is most definitely a labor of love, and the Tibetans have become like family to me. I'll gladly sacrifice hiking time for them.

Today I thought I’d post excerpts from three shoots I’ve done recently for the Tibetan Association of Washington.

The first five pictures are from Tibet Fest, held annually the last weekend in August at the Seattle Center.  It’s an event where the local Tibetan community shares its culture of food, dance,  and song with the city of Seattle. I do lots of pictures of the various on-stage performances,  and the Tibetans post those images on their web site and Facebook page.

What I’m posting here, however,  are off-stage and behind-the-scenes moments from Tibet Fest -- a few of my personal faves from the two-day event.

A couple of Saturdays ago,  one of my Tibetan monk friends was giving a teaching, but it happened that I was booked to shoot a wedding that day. Fortunately,  the timing of my “work” shoot was such that, on the way to the wedding,  I was able to first make a stop at the Tibetan monastery,  listen to at least a little of my friend’s teaching, and quietly shoot a few pictures,  which I later emailed to him.

Because Tibet Fest was such a success, a celebration dinner was held last weekend so that the Tibetan community as a whole could thank the many individuals who had volunteered at Tibet Fest (myself included.)

Seventeen monks from the Namgyal Monastery in northern India, currently on tour in the US, happened to be visiting Seattle that day.  The monks were invited to the dinner and enthusiastically took part in the laughter and celebration. At the end of the evening, a ceremonial scarf was presented to the monks, who, in turn, offered a prayer to the community.

 

 

An East Indian Wedding

I spent three days this week photographing an East Indian wedding that was held on nearby Bainbridge Island. And, though I rarely post pictures here that I have been paid to do -- this is a space for me to share my personal, non-work imagery --  I thought that today I'd post these wedding photographs.
 
What a go-go-go three days it was for me (not to mention for the bride and groom, their families, and guests!)  Forty-eight hours have passed since I finished covering the events,  and I'm still amped-up, high on the energy of the amazing celebration.

The wedding, as you can see, was an over-the-top affair, full of the cultural traditions of India, but with a few Pacific Northwest, Bainbridge Island wrinkles.  For example, I was told that, in India, the groom often arrives at the wedding venue on horseback, or even riding an elephant.  On Bainbridge Island, the groom sailed in on a boat named Yachta Yachta. He and his friends and family then danced their way down a dock to the site of the ceremony, the waiting wedding guests, and the bride.
 
I shared a few of these pictures via email with a writer friend, and his reply was priceless:  "Sedate little affair, wasn't it?"

 

 

Going Native

I wonder whether the pictures I’m posting today might lead a viewer to suppose that I’ve recently been off someplace colorful and exotic...New Guinea or New Zealand, perhaps?... or maybe Fiji? That I’ve been in a climate where my clothing needs were few:  A beach towel tied around my waist and flip-flops on my feet?

Is it possible that these pictures give you the idea that I’ve traveled to a land where the inhabitants might be referred to as “natives”?

‘Fraid, not, dear reader.  These pieces of photographic eye candy were found just miles from my home in the Puget Sound region of the Pacific Northwest.  I made the “Bird Woman” portrait posted above while doing a volunteer shoot at a sweet summer camp for kids with health challenges; and I shot the images below at a wedding reception.

I can’t remember for certain, but, though the weather has been nice here lately,  I’m pretty sure I made the photographs without even having to wear sunscreen (nice because there’s always the possibility that goopy sunscreen might accidentally get smeared on my expensive, nano-coated camera lenses, leading to imagery that is far too soft-focus and dreamy for my photographic style.)

Nope, I’m afraid there are no recent South Seas island experiences to report from my world, though I should hasten to add that the eye candy was a fun find... and also that I’ve resolved that next week I’m going to wear flip flops as often as possible.

Working

Photographers know that the best light for image-making is often to be found at the "edges" of things, like the beginning or the end of the day, or before or after a storm.  Longtime National Geographic photographer Bill Allard has said that his photographs -- in which wonderful light is often an element -- are the result of “simply showing up for work on time.”

Photographers try to stack the odds of finding and making good pictures in our own favor by being out early, when others are eating breakfast, or in the evening, when civilized folks are sitting down to a glass of wine and dinner. Additionally,  a couple of shooters I know -- myself included -- have fashioned a clamp setup that will hold an umbrella over a tripod so we can keep camera gear dry and we can work in a rain or snow storm.

Yes, we show up for work on time...and last weekend I found the image you see above because I went one step further: I showed up for work early.  I had a wedding to shoot on nearby Bainbridge Island at a venue that was new to me. I timed my arrival so that I could walk around the place and check things out, maybe shoot a few “scene-setting” images.   Thus, I was onsite with camera in hand when wonderful light happened on the island landscape.

There is, of course, a bit of hyperbole in this business about “showing up for work on time.” I’m one of those photographers who nearly always has a camera with me, and making photographs is an integral part of my life. I guess it could be said that I’m always “working.”  For me there’s no such thing as a beginning, or an end, to my photographic day.

Common Moments

Maybe it’s because I have a lot of friends who are climbing bums, and many other friends who are journalists -- in other words, I know a lot of people who are ne’er-do-wells, vagabonds, and dreamers -- that I have been on the listening end of more than a few conversations that began: “If I was rich and didn’t have to work for living...” The climbers then rhapsodize about peaks they’d summit, while the journalists go on at length about bar stools they’d occupy in some out-of-the-way, south sea island village until a Big Story came along that needed covering.

I guess I personally tend to be a fellow with pretty lame fantasies about what I’d do if I was independently wealthy. As a former photojournalist who now shoots weddings for a living, if I quit working, I’d pack my cameras, go someplace where people don't speak my language, and then...I’d...shoot...(wait for it...) WEDDINGS!

Or at least I’d shoot events a lot like weddings.

You see, I am passionate about photography, but I’m even more passionate about the magic way the camera allows me to plug into the lives of people around me. For me, weddings -- and cultural celebrations, religious holidays, and festivals of all kinds -- are great opportunities to see and document the coolness of everyday Life.

A week ago, for example, I photographed a wedding, and wonderfulness was happening here, there, and everywhere. The pictures I’m sharing here today of a young flower girl, caught in three very girlish moments, are the kinds of somewhat non-wedding wedding pictures that I love.

I suspect I could go to a wedding in Mexico, or Brazil, or China, and find similar moments...Or at least that’s my theory.

If I was independently wealthy, I’d head to Brazil, bum around a bit, then shoot a wedding and hope to find pictures like these, just to prove my point.

There’s a little ne'er-do-well in all of us.

In the Service

I have a young friend who is in the US Army and is serving in Afghanistan. I heard the other day that my friend’s tour will end at Christmas, which is of course good news for his family and others who are close to him.

The friend worked with me at weddings for a while, back a number of years ago when he was a college student with a growing interest in photography. He had a wonderful eye and talent for making images, and he went on to shoot for newspapers for several years. I guess photography wasn’t difficult enough for him because he decided to join the Army, where he trained as a paratrooper.

I’ve climbed many mountains here in the Northwest, and being up in airy places doesn’t scare me. I can’t imagine, however, jumping out of an airplane. My young friend has courage that impresses me beyond words.

A couple of weeks ago I photographed a wedding where the groom is a Navy pilot. He wore his dress whites for the ceremony, as did members of his squadron. After the ceremony, when the bride and groom were formally introduced to the wedding guests at the reception, the men from the squadron formed an archway with swords, through which the newly married couple passed. It was a very cool thing to see.

I later learned that the groom and his squadron recently returned from deployment in Afghanistan.

All these folks who are now or have been serving in Afghanistan got me to mulling over the idea of “service,” ... a word that could be spelled serve-us. I got to thinking about all the people I know who, in one way on another, serve others: Family members who volunteer at church; a friend who runs a nonprofit foundation for families who have a child with a life-threatening illness; neighbors who donate produce to the local food bank. I could go on and on. I was kind of amazed to realize that I couldn’t think of one person I know who does not do something to be of service...

To serve-us.