An Angel Walks Among Us

You are looking at Veronica, a woman who was hired from an agency to be my 91-year-old aunt Betty's home care assistant. If Veronica had had a job description it would have said that she was to show up 6 days a week, 8 hours a day and see that our aunt was cared for. And Veronica did that reliably for almost a year.Not in the job description was a demand for love, affection and friendship. And yet Veronica offered those things, too. To know Veronica is to like her. Veronica, who only four years ago immigrated to the US from Kenya, has a charm and grace that make you feel like you've known her forever. And her voice and laughter are music.I will also say that we have no doubt that Betty's life was not only extended but enhanced by Veronica's constant attention. They went shopping, they went out to eat and they played along with "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" on TV. Betty's blood pressure dropped from astronomical to normal in the year that Veronica was caring for her. Toprol helps; but it's hard to beat the healing power of love.On the day Betty passed away, Veronica had a premonition that something was going to happen. Instead of going home at 5, she stayed until nine. She told us she would have stayed all night but Vicky, who worked with Betty on Sundays, agreed to take over. On any other night, Betty would have been alone. But on the night she died, Betty wasn't. And at 2 am, when Veronica heard that Betty had passed away, Veronica came back to Betty's house to be with her friend.I just looked up "angel" in the dictionary and the first definition describes an angel as "a spiritual being . . . who acts as an agent or messenger of God." Only God knows if that is true of Veronica. However, the second definition says that an angel is "a person of exemplary conduct or virtue." And our family certainly knows that this is true of Veronica.

Aunt Betty

Early this morning we learned that my dear aunt Betty, my mother's sister and the sole survivor of the generation that precedes me, passed away. She was 91 and died in her California home - exactly where she wanted to be.I took this photo in 2007 at one of Betty's favorite restaurants - Las Brisas in Laguna Beach, California. She is happy in this photo and that's exactly how my wife described her after a conversation she had with her this past Tuesday.Her passing is painful to Deb and me on many levels but it is, as I have said before, part of the circle of life. We have yet to plan her funeral, but when she is laid to rest, she will be next to her husband Cliff and within shouting distance of John Wayne. And I have to smile about that. . . .Two Sisters: Bernice (Mom) and Betty (Beverly)John

Photographers At Work

The photographer is present in the photograph, which shows other photographers from my Lighting for Photographers class on an outing in Watertown.

Me, Myself and I

Such is the nature of the creative process that one often ends up with something very different from what was originally planned. Such is the case with today's rather self-indulgent photo.The task was to take a self-portrait. I was doing this because I had assigned the same task to my "Lighting for Photographers" students at LATI. My goal was to take something simple that would illustrate the idea. At first I tried using a crystal ball that has been in my family for at least a century. But that didn't work (I still want to try it!)I then stepped into my den to see what else I might be able to do and, low and behold, my closet mirrors had me staring back at myself. So I took a photo that showed three of me. And then I remembered that I had an app called WordFoto that I had just downloaded. And then I thought maybe I could do something with layers in Photoshop. . . .And then I ended up with this photo.I do believe there is some kind of symbolism in the fact that the part of the photo with "i" all over it shows less of "me." You tell me what that means!

Mother and Child

I took several photos of Evelyn D's baptism, but I liked this one best because while the main elements of the scene are identifiable, the purest point of focus is mother Alicia's face, which is suffused with a look of love and concentration.Of course, Evie is not an afterthought in this image, nor is her oldest brother, Ethan, who, if you ask me, has one of the best seats in the house.Incidentally, I mean no sacrilege in this comparison, but it was hard for me not to see similarities in the expressions of Michelangelo's Mary and Alicia. Though the circumstances in Michelangelo's Pieta are vastly different from those at Evie's baptism, both mothers exude a sense of calm that is striking to me.Click here to see Michelangelo's Pieta, which is housed in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Evelyn

This is Eveyln Marie, aged 3 months. Today was a special day for her because she was baptized. For my wife's family (the DeGeests) she is a special child because she is the first female born into the family in over a a half century. My wife was the last.The gown she is wearing was hand crafted by her grandmother, Paula, and was made from many heirloom pieces, including fabric from Paula's wedding dress. The gown is a work of art. And so is Evie.

Altered States

Vicky

I am continuing with my theme of "portraits from the past," this time with a photo of Vicky, who graduated from Watertown High School about 8 years ago.

02-01-12 Kristin

Here's another photo from my photographic past, this time of Kristin, one of the many fine gymnasts who represented Watertown Senior High School's gymnastic program. Not only was she a great gymnast but she was a wonderful portrait subject.This photo was taken at her parents' dance and gymnastics center, Dakota Gold. As I recall, I hadn't graduated to strobe lights and so I was using my "hot" lights. The advantage of continuous lighting is that the light you see is the light you get. The disadvantage is that it doesn't produce a lot of light. Thus, I was forced to use a fairly wide aperture. Truth be told, this photo suffers from camera shake, but ten years ago I wasn't smart of enough to see that. Today, this is a photo that probably wouldn't have seen the light of day.But I like the photo and so to try to make it look good, I used selective sharpening on Kristin's eyes. And then I blurred everything in Aperture, which is a great tool to help make art out of something that is less than perfect. Kristin, of course, is the most perfect part of this photo. :-)

Joelle

In my search for photos from my early days of digital portraiture, I came across this photo of Joelle that I took almost 9 years ago. I had a great subject but the the photo also represents the power of Aperture by Apple as an editing tool in that in a minute or two I was able to retouch and then enhance the photo. All of this was done in preparation for my Advanced Digital Photography class at Lake Area Technical Institute.One of the nice things about teaching photography is that I learn at every step along the way and today was no exception.

Lost!!!

This photo was a "shoebox" experience about 30 minutes ago. In a quest to find photos I have been ignoring, I started at the chronological beginning of a library of digital photos that has close to 50,000 pictures. About 300 pictures into my search, I found this. I don't remember taking the photo, but I do remember the class with great fondness.The light source was a single 150 watt bulb and the camera was my Canon 1D, which represented the state of the art in DSLR photography in 2002. The camera cost $5500 and do I dare say that it was worth every penny? It had a whopping 4.4 megapixel sensor!The "shoebox experience" is what many of us have encountered when we are searching for something in our closet and we come across a box of forgotten photos. I am sad to say that decades from now, no one will have a clue about all of the digital media that we put into boxes. If the 8-track tape and the floppy disk are evidence of the ephemeral nature of electronic media, imagine what will happened to hard drives and compact flash cards we are using today.If you want to enjoy your favorite digital photos years from now, you need to get them printed. And then put them in a shoebox.

Humane Society?

Compositionally, this isn't a very good photo. But journalistically it gets by because it does tell a story, even if you didn't know that is was taken along the Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain. It is a photo of a mendicant (more rudely, a beggar) and his best friends.I suspect that some may ask if he would have to beg if he weren't trying to feed 4 pets. I would ask instead, "What do you value and how much is it worth to you?"