Holiday Inn

Let the Seasons Begin

Long Awaited

Two months later I present a completely random edit of my favorite photographs from Ty and Amanda Garrett's wedding in Bucyrus, Ohio. This was a difficult wedding for me to photograph because it was on my way to Ohio that I found out my grandfather had passed. Needless to say my focus was jumbled, but I attempted to give everything I had to documenting the wedding. At least it was a completely beautiful autumn day. I still have photographs to show from two other weddings I shot in the fall... with any luck everything will be organized and edited by the new year, and I'll have some sort of collection of all my wedding work hosted up somewhere in cyberspace. Thanks for your infinite patience.

When Love Comes to Town

The holidays present the rare but welcomed opportunity to see my big sister Shannon. As the years have gone by, I've seen less and less of her. After flourishing as an undergraduate writer, she ventured to California to complete her Master's degree in creative writing. Sadly, I never took advantage of her temporary presence out West. She recently moved back to Ohio, but I have, of course, since been displaced in Chicago. It seems that our geography hasn't matched up since I was in high school. I suppose I could take this opportunity to become extremely sentimental. My sister has been my best friend my entire life; no doubt this will never change, despite the miles between us or the milestones paving our separate and succinct paths. This blog entry is sounding a little mushy and trite. I cannot muster the perfect string of words to adequately describe my love, admiration, and gratitude for my sister (she is much more equipped). And, I cannot believe that it has taken me so long to take her picture. But then again, the past few years have plagued me with a selfish sort of tunnel vision, and maybe I am still suffering from this crippling blindness. (Refer to the portraits of my parents that are only just now surfacing, after I've been fairly diligent about photographing what's near and dear to me for the past four years.) Christmas at home this year was one of the most humbling holidays I've shared with my family. Despite the rapid whirl (and, at times, what feels like the stagnant slump) of my young adult life, they have my heart.

Trouble Loves Me

Mom and Dad

Thanksgiving Rain

True Love Waits, Pt. IV

True Love Waits, Pt. III

True Love Waits, Pt. II

True Love Waits

I am finally getting around to posting the photos from the wedding I shot in early October. Sorry to keep nearly everyone, including myself, waiting.

Kendra has been a dear friend of mine since elementary school days. I have been there for her in her ups and downs and it goes without saying that she has been there for nearly all of mine, even though in recent years contact has been sparse. Kendra and Allen met at the pizza joint we all used to work at in high school. One of their first dates included attending my 20th birthday blow-out at my ex-boyfriend's ghetto college palace where they jointly witnessed an inebriated party guest almost fall out of a second story window, shattering the glass, falling to the floor in a confused stupor. Smells of so much romance, I know. I have witnessed their relationship bloom from the earliest stages in the most unexpected of places.

And it's impossible for me to sit back and really swallow the fact that one of my best friends just got married without considering, well, my own position in life.

I know it's difficult to imagine settling down when you're young. Well, at least it has been for me. I don't know if I can fully grasp the impact of love, and I have felt just too damn unsettled for my own good. This has been an area in which I've faltered significantly. I fall down, I get back up, and I fall down again. In many ways I am grateful for the pattern because it constantly challenges me, but it has also made me exhausted... and fearful of loving, afraid that my basket of eggs will fall right out of my hands, shells and yolk splashing up in my face in a tumultuous mess.

Posting these photographs has not only forced me to jot down this sort of disjointed reflection... thankfully the experience of photographing my friend's beautiful wedding reminds me to remain calm and to be open to the possibilities of love.

I have not ruled out any.

Congratulations and all of my love to Kendra and Allen. It was such a privilege to capture their happy day.

(P.S. I am posting photographs from the wedding gradually, so as to avoid an overwhelming page load time.)