Yet another good time had by all, inspired by the sassy, spicy, saucy ladies(and gentlemen!) at Skirt! Magazine, Savannh/HiltonHead!

Their 5th birthday bash at the Westin Savannah Harbor was a delicious and delightful engagement!

The food was fabulous, the drinks were good(mmmmmm…..Skirtini!), and the company was even better!

Following the relaxed commiseration in the gorgeous Savannah spring evening, DJ Epiphany walked some serious men in skirts down the runway!

Followed by the ample talents of some select Halo Models showing off the incredible tastes we are lucky enough to have available to us in Savannah.  We might be still small, but we pack a punch with our savvy fashionistas!  And no one is better at showcasing it than Skirt!

The boutiques showcasing their style were: Custard Boutique, Kathi Rich, Mint Boutique, Jezebel and Stella Rose.

Thanks to the stellar Jessica Leigh Lebos, Candace Winsor, DJ Epiphany, The Westin, and the incredible boutiques listed above, the men in their duds, and all the devoted Skirt! fans who keep people like me employed!  CONGRATULATIONS SKIRT!

Ah, nothing like being surrounded by friends and family in a beautiful, natural setting!  I have to say that it would be difficult to top the atmosphere and happiness present at the recent wedding of Jeremiah Brinkman and Raquel Arredondo!  Greer is in the White Mountains of Arizona, a mere 4.5 hour drive from Tucson, the town where I grew up!  The happy couple had me present to help them capture their entire wedding weekend, and though the photos are in the editing phase still, here’s a couple highlights to whet your appetite!

Anissa is so very helpful!  Anna was just wonderful, and so excited for her sister!

But there’s nothing like a mother’s touch……

The weather was just too beautiful, and the new family couldn’t have been happier to be there, in the presence of nature, God, and each other.

This should help illuminate some of the statements in Raquel’s note, below!

She’ll be able to say it better than anyone, so here it is!

Dearest Family and Friends,

WEDDING FACTS THAT MAKE YOU GO “HHHMMM”:

Along with all the changes this year has brought me and all of us in our personal lives, I am excited to discuss a few  major changes in my professional life!

I have been collaborating with the wonderful Eric Sharpe at Digital Doc LLC to create my new Website!

Along with a custom layout and design, I’m really looking forward to the new features the site will have, including on-site(no pun intended) event hosting with direct purchasing capability!  In celebration of this, I hope to release some of the weddings and events from 2008 with special promotional pricing, so keep your eyes peeled!

I have also been thoroughly enjoying my newfound affiliation with the Bryan Stovall Gallery & Studio, one of the only “photography-only” galleries in Savannah.  I have been acting as a gallery manager and consultant, as well as helping Bryan as a supplemental wedding photographer in Savannah, and a photographic assistant for various commercial shoots and projects he’s undertaken.  The Gallery has also helped me to find myself as an exhibiting photographer at the Moon River Brewing Company, where works from my Savannah Scapes series are on display.

In addition to being lucky enough to show at Moon River, I had the good fortune of being able to shoot in their establishment, which boasts an astounding setting for some very sensual photographs.  It was my pleasure to have been able to provide portrait photography for the lovely Christa Pannell on her short visit home from  Texas, where she now lives.

It’s rare and special to have such a comfortable model that isn’t a professional, and we had a wonderful time discovering the kinds of photographs Christa was hoping for.

I suppose it’s been a very exciting wrap to 2008, and an increasingly exciting 2009!  I wish everyone out there a wonderful Valentine’s Day, and hope to have more news soon!

Congratulations to Laura and Mark!  They’re Hilton Head wedding was so lovely, and amid fears of rain, they couldn’t have had a prettier day!

The sunlight was immaculate!  The dress was perfect!  The couple was IN LOVE!

It was my pleasure to enjoy the company of the families; everyone was in such a celebratory mood!  And, as it turned out, Mark is kind of a ham!

The food, provided by Aqua Grille & Lounge, was simply delicious!  The guests were treated to a choice of the most tender, butter New York strip you could savor, a juicy herb marinated chicken caprese, or a delicate pecan encrusted sea bass!  In conjunction with the swanky, laid-back atmosphere-the perfect compliment to the relaxed and classy couple!-and friendly, generous bartenders, there couldn’t have been a more enjoyable end to an energetic and joyful day!

But, all in all, it was a family affair!

Mark’s brother is a pastry chef, and treated the couple to a delicious and beautiful wedding cake which matched her astonishing flowers in perfect harmony!  His mother is also an incredible addition of energy, and was so enthusiastic about helping the families and the couple make the absolute most of their time together, which I have no doubt they absolutely did!

Laura and Mark and everyone who shared in that day, Thank you so much for allowing me to witness and be a part of your memory-making!

TO A BRIGHT AND LONG FUTURE!

Come see their full gallery here:  http://www.pictage.com/539523

And come visit me here: www.hsgsphoto.com

I just got back from recharging my batteries on the island of Cyprus. According to mythology, the goddess Aphrodite was birthed from the water between two rocks off the coast of Paphos there.

I’m lucky enough to be tied to this island through my mother, who is an archaeologist digging an ancient city in the more landlocked part of the island, where she has been digging for over 35 years. It seems to get older and older the longer she digs….but anyway!

My personal experience there has always been beloved and sentimental. Since beginning to go as a baby, I have dug with my mom, gone traveling around the island, bathed in the Mediterranean Sea, gone to the Baths of Aphrodite. This time was no different.

My mother and step-father now own a home there, built of mud-brick and stone, in a tiny village full of stray cats. It sounds cliche, but I can’t express the overflow of joy in my heart to know that these places still exist. My sister and I woke before dawn to the roosters crowing at the neighbor’s, drank tea as we listened to the BBC and had a traditional breakfast-snack of lountza, the traditional Cypriot cured ham.

After digging for a week in the East Temenos(Terrace) area of her ancient city, called Idalion, I was able to find outlet for my personal interest, namely, photography, of course! In the capitol of Nicosia, Lefkosia by it’s Greek name, an old family friend who has known my mother since my sister and I were toddlers, happens to own a camera shop. He has been contributing to our happiness enthusiastically since we began to visit in our childhood. So I was able, with his facilitation, to capture and edit some incredible images of my beloved island, as well as urban travel shots of the city itself thanks largely to his central location inside the Phoenician walls surrounding the old city. Here’s a freebie, to be featured soon on the website, www.HSGSPhoto.com

So, a very important person in my life is home safe and sound!  I think a lot of us who love someone involved directly in the war are breathing a sigh of relief around Savannah.  I looked at him the other day, as we were grabbing lunch somewhere from which I could see the surrounding street, and suddenly realized there was a hole in our community when these friends and neighbors of ours are gone.

I watched a young man with babe-in-arms, his young wife and stroller in tow(a thankfully common sight!) saunter down the street in the halcyon daze many of us take for granted as a part of our Savannah Spring, and it suddenly filled me with gratitude that the men and women who are back can wander around thinking about nothing.  It made me absolutely giddy!

So, where I was going with this was that I turned to this VIP of my own, and said “It just makes me so happy that you guys are here and can sit on a sidewalk and have lunch, or walk down the street wasting time.  I’m so glad you’re home and can finally enjoy some of that freedom to do whatever you want!”

The tension is so great while they’re gone, though the only way for many of us to survive it is to quietly digest it, and ignore it, the way you do when you’ve eaten something prepared specially for you that you didn’t really care for.  Though once you’re away from the scenario that is the foundation of that tension, the relief washes over you like a cool tide of incredulity, and you think to yourself: Wasn’t he just here?  What happened in that fog of oblivion, where I got up every morning and enjoyed my day?  It all seems to dissipate so rapidly when suddenly facing such a high priority.

It’s a myth to state that those of us here waiting don’t enjoy ourselves, or love our lives, or feel anything.  However, by comparison, once a piece of your life that has been missing is restored, all of those things seem tinted in retrospect by the overhanging tension of waiting…..often, we who have to repeat the experience over and over survive and flourish by not realizing we had been waiting till the wait ends.  And suddenly, you’re living in a much more tangible reality again.

Thank goodness for those who bring us back to Earth, and I hope they can be glad if we’re able to return the favor.

Welcome Home!

Come hang out with us at www.HSGSPhoto.com

    It’s been a while since I felt like I’ve been able to talk to anyone at any length, so here’s a brief synopsis:

Things have been busy for me here, and of course, it seems like it’s always feast or famine!  It’s a little tough to keep up with from time to time, but that was the goal, I guess!
I expect to be shooting something or other at our famous St. Patrick’s Day parade, though the festivities have been put off this year because St. Pat’s is falling in Holy Week.  Probably a good decision on the part of the City.  I’ve been having phone issues, but I expect things to be resolved, and am available for normal talking now!  I apologize if anyone was unpleasantly surprised lately if trying to call me!

I was recently(well, in February) in AZ with my dad and two brothers, visiting my sister and brother-in-law and a smattering of friends(I grew up there and had lots of great, close friends to see!), and was lucky enough to have some photography for a Hilton Head firm to do while I was out there!  Actually, I ended up shooting 4 out of 5 days I was there, but I love my job, Savannah Photographer on the move, so it’s ok!
The week after I got back, I was up in Hilton Head Island, doing photography for a corporate event, so that put me off the radar for a full two weeks!  I would say I think things are starting to settle down, but I’ve been working in Hilton Head with Hilton Head Island Photography(a great company!) doing freelance photography on Hilton Head, and we are trying to figure out a relatively regular schedule, so that promises to keep me as busy as I want to be, and should carry us straight through the summer!  Then when winter comes, the congregation I’ve been teaching Sunday and Hebrew school for wants to make me a part-time-regular.  Plus, it’s spawned tutoring and babysitting for me, which is truly a blessing, since I think I might wither and die if I had to go too long without seeing kids!

Whew!  You know, it sounded more exciting when I was saying it in my head….I guess I’m just living my life, like anyone else!  Come by and see soon, new photos will be up! www.hsgsphoto.com

So, a great friend of mine threatened to write a comment to me saying “what good is it if you don’t use it!”

Prophetic words! I think it’s a philosophy that can be applied to any facet of one’s personal or professional goals to increase productivity!

Perhaps a symptom of my extroverted and energetic personality, it’s sometimes an issue for me to keep all my thoughts organized when they’re internal; I think one of the advantages of the blog that I didn’t foresee was that tried-and-true trick of psychology: by verbalizing my thoughts, I’m forced to organize them. I think that the deterrent is that in my field, so much of my work is verbal, and while it’s natural to communicate with others, I think it hasn’t sunk in yet that the blog is yet another form of that; as a newbie, it still feels like an internal monologue-that is, until I start to write, and then lo and behold!, I’m focused!

I had a really blessed, though strange, week last week. One of my very favorite things in this world-if not my very favorite!- is children. Granted, I have none of my own(many of the parents I know joke that’s why they’re my favorite! Doubtful!), but it’s a pleasure of mine to be acquainted with whole families on a very personal level through my part-time teaching and experience as a nanny. It’s a special treat to be able to truly know people, and I think there’s no more authentic way for people to reveal who they are than through how we interact with youngsters, the most honest, unbiased and direct judges out there.

But I digress! I spent the week sitting for an incredible family and watching the kids while Mom and Dad and the littlest one(too little to be away from Mommy yet) had to go out of town for business. It provoked me into reflecting, rather incredulously, on what a compliment it was that they trusted me not only to keep their home and children safe, but to treat them consistently as warmly and lovingly as they would have liked to be able while they were gone. I’m one of the many people who feel a little uncomfortable receiving compliments, maybe feeling like it somehow undermines the “humility” society saddles us with embodying, but the non-verbal accolade this family bestowed on me was very touching, and it’s a truly enlivening thing. I feel so incredibly, incredibly lucky.

Now that I’ve had a little bit of quiet time(comparatively!), it occurs to me that that’s perhaps a key in why I have found myself where I am in my professional life. I remember being in school years ago, and disinterested in portrait photography, feeling unsure how to approach it. Naturally, fate found portraiture as my first, and continuing, focus once I entered the workforce as a photographer! It suddenly occurs to me how lucky I am that people are continuing to trust me, in that very sensitive way, to catch the memories they will value the most, and be a part of the experience of being together.

It’s a special thing, and if I think too much about it, maybe even a scary thing except for that it seems so natural. We as human beings want to share, to connect with each other and revisit those poignant times. It’s a very special responsibility that I am fortunate enough to be asked to find and keep the moments that people would choose for themselves, if they could. That includes not only portraits, but events, weddings, etc. It occurs to me, as it has now and then in my continuing exploration, that this was a hidden blessing. It reminds me to feel not only lucky, but grateful, that others would choose to include me, and trust me, and that they would have such faith in me. I’m truly honored.

I hope I can, and we can all continue to experience those moments of awakening now and then, to remind us what we’re here for, how we can do what we do with awareness of how lucky we are to be where we are. I also hope we can all remind each other when we get the chance, the beautiful things about what we do, because no matter how much you love what you do, one day it feels like the daily grind!

This is a step into a new level of existence for me…..as a “blogger”! I heard that after this one, it’s official, I get to call myself one now. That’s my kind of community: no entry fee, instant acceptance, and you can’t kick me out!

I need to thank the Blog Savannah UNconference, 2008 for that! All you inspirational people, with your coolness and tech-savvy, broke down the barriers for me to begin exploring this new realm! Whether or not you’ll be pleased with the result remains to be seen….don’t blame me, I am what I am! And now you get to witness it!

Can’t wait to see what this brings, and the answer to the scary questions I faced on my path to realization as a blogger, in particular “If no one reads it or responds, what will you do?”. Gulp. I suppose we’ll find out….