Settling into Summer.

So I’m back. Though I’m still navigating that wasteland between college and the Real World. It’s scary. And yet, kind of exhilarating. But also overwhelming. It’s a real roller-coaster ride of emotions, I’m not going to lie. But there have been inspirations and revelations abound. Just a few things to share:

I’m making my cousin’s wedding dress for her September wedding! This will probably be my biggest project over the summer. I’m also in her wedding, and let me tell you, I have gone full-fledged Wedding Nerd about the whole thing. I’ve squealed in delight more times over this wedding than I have probably in my life. I’ve always thought I was pretty jaded about weddings, having assisted my dad in photographing about 20 or so in my life (and I have seen some doozies), but somehow a really excitable monster inside of me has been unleashed. I don’t know how she can stand to be around me, quite frankly. But she’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to a sister, and we spent roughly half of our childhood planning our weddings and holding fake ones (with my little brother officiating) so I guess it was bound to happen this way.*

Also on the subject of weddings, my father has begun to let me shoot pictures when I assist him. To give you an idea of how much this means to me, imagine my life is a Kevin Costner movie. When my dad handed me a camera and told me to go ahead and shoot anything I think looks good, it was like he handed me a baseball glove and offered to go outside and play catch with me. And it was AMAZING. Though I learned a valuable lesson about how far I’ll go for the Perfect Shot when, during an outdoor wedding that included the couple’s dogs, I went around the back of the ceremony to get a shot of the bride’s parents. This caused the dogs to start growling and barking at me, briefly interrupting the ceremony. People, I do not blush easily. But my face was on fire as I meekly went back behind the wedding guests, my dad quietly laughing at me from behind his own camera.

I remember always being interested in photography as a kid. My dad gave me an old manual film camera of his to play with, and I would go nuts. My brother & I would go all over our property, looking for nature-y things to photograph. We learned all about f-stops and shutter speed. We would experiment with double exposures. We would even stage little feats of trick photography, like taping a cut-out UFO shape onto our living room window, then taking a picture of the valley with the focus in the distance, to make the “UFO” appear to be in motion in the sky. But I never thought I’d still be so interested in photography now. While I was in London, some sort of passion for it bloomed inside of me, as I spent so much time wandering around with my camera, capturing things that inspired me; things I wanted to remember. It’s pretty thrilling.

Finally, let me leave you with a flickr member whose photographs are totally capturing my imagination:

winter forest light
Originally uploaded by Cate

Until I post again, cheers!

*Evidence of Wedding Nerd-ness: I used some form of the word “wedding” 6 times in that paragraph ALONE.