Favorite June Photo

My kid is constantly in motion.  Even when I was pregnant with him, Zane seemed to always be moving around, running in place, dancing, kicking field goals, etc.  Now that there's nothing between him and the world, he's all up in everything, asking questions, making observations or comments as he chooses. He may have that ADHD thing, but it's more probably that Zane may just be a real boy.  Stranger things have happened. 

But the tricky thing about a perpetual motion machine is that they are difficult to photograph in their natural habitat.  Most of my early photos consisted of blurs, so we bought a camera that we just keep on the "sport" setting all the time.  We also take many pictures of us holding Zane, trying to contain that energy for the seconds it takes to snap the shutter.
 
Occasionally, however, we get lucky.  We were at a restaurant called Good Time Charlie's one cloudy day in June.  I don't know about Larry and Zane, but I was there for the chicken fried steak. Because if you're going to go to a place called Good Time Charlie's, you do not order a salad.  We brought in the trusty tablet, so Zane would actually remain seated for the entire meal.  While he was sitting there, I snapped a few pictures with my phone.

Most of the pictures looked something like this:  

Would you just STOP?

 I had to keep interrupting a rousing game of Plants vs. Zombies 2 in order to get Zane to actually look in the direction of the phone.  After the fourth or fifth time, I started to hear the familiar refrain: "Moooommm!"   I kept on pressing the button, however.  That's my secret to photographing children:  keep bugging them, and eventually they'll start smiling. Or stop smiling.  Which also makes for some dramatically spectacular photos.  Also, good blackmail photos, for those awkward teen years. 

And finally, you end up with a decent picture. A keeper.  One to frame...except for the old lady photobomber. I am pretty sure that she kept looking over at our table because she was experiencing Lunch Envy.  She did not order the chicken fried steak. I wasn't about to tell her to stop ruining my photo opp; she looked mean enough to bite.

A perfectly good excuse to learn Photo Shop, I suppose. 





4.) Share your top favorite photo you took in June. Give us the back story.

Beautiful

My son and I were hanging out, and I wanted to commemorate the moment with a picture.  I was hesitant. I don't normally do such things, I thought. I don't really see myself as someone worthy of a photo. Doesn't that sound horrible?  It sounds pretty pathetic to me.  And depressing.

My look is usually laid back, minimal makeup, hair pulled into a pony tail. I've never been one to spend hours in front of a mirror, putting on another face. Five minutes to slap on some of what I call "War Paint".  What you see is what you get.  If that frightens small children, so be it. Over the years, it's become a habit, this pretending not to care about how I look.

But my son doesn't see me that way.  He thinks that I am just fine the way I look. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that.  My husband tells me I'm beautiful all the time, and it makes me sad that most of the time I don't believe him. I was raised in a time when only certain 'types' of women were considered beautiful, and that old and scratchy record player is still playing that tune in my head.

I see the beauty in others, but not myself.  Why not?  What would it hurt to think of myself as beautiful for five minutes a day?  Maybe it's time to try.  Maybe I can start to see myself as at least reasonably attractive, just to start, and then move up from there. I can't be the only person out there with these issues, and maybe we can all work on this together. 

It all begins with a photograph.  So I turned the focus of my camera around and snapped a picture of my son and I.  The first step on this journey has been taken.

I Once Dreamt Of Being A Photographer

I got a new camera for my birthday.  Consequently, I've become a photograph-shooting fool.  So when we passed the abandoned wreckage of a house in Glen Rose, I made my husband and son sit in the air conditioning of the car while I took photos of the place.

I don't know anything about this house, except that it was there, it looked abandoned, and it probably burned down.  Which made me a little sad.  Someone obviously cared enough to spend hours creating the designs on the walls. 

While I was taking my pictures, various stories about the people who might have lived there went spinning through my head.  A man lovingly creating a house to bring his bride home, only to burn it down when she spurns his advances; an old couple living out their days, until one night their home burned down with them asleep inside.

I have a vivid imagination, but it's rare that an abandoned building is unusual enough to trigger such ruminations.  Plus, I got that "if I turn around really fast there will be a ghost standing behind me" vibe during my fifteen minutes looking about.  Many abandoned places seem alive with stories, just waiting to be told. 

This shot made me think of a fort in the Old West.

Maybe this small window was stained glass?

I think these are cedar logs, along with limestone rocks, but I'm certainly not an expert.

I just thought that this looked cool.

It's a shame that such a meticulously crafted home should be left empty and abandoned.   I made sure to say "Thank you" to the air around the house before I walked back to the car. 

Are there places in your world that seem alive with stories?