The Wandering I

Audrey is such a wonderful partner!  After everyone had left tonight after the Flashes of Hope reception, I just sat looking over the images thinking about how much grace I have in my life.  I have a wonderful wife, a wonderful work space, very compassionate and extremely diverse friends and clients, and I have the opportunity to photograph wonderful people.  Audrey is all in favor of my taking the time to ruminate on these sorts of things so that’s exactly what I did as I decompressed from the days leading up to this reception.

I just walked around the room looking at each of  the photos, both mine an the other shooters’ work thinking about how much each of the kids in the photos had taught me and would teach me.  I just found myself falling farther and farther into the pristine clarity of their eyes and I was simply transported back to that place of complete humility in what I could learn from each of these children and young adults.  They really are some pretty remarkable people and they have blessed me with some of their time and shared a very small piece of their soul with me and the others who have worked with them and spent time with them.

I may not have alot of “stuff” but I certainly do have joy in my life!

Nat

From Somewhere in rural New jersey

Still catching up …

Last Tuesday was the shooting day for The New Brunswick Chapter of Flashes of Hope for the month of September and we were going to be shooting in The Cancer Institute of New Jersey [CINJ] where the a Pediatric Outpatient Clinic is located.  Once each quarter we set up at CINJ for a shoot while the other two months of the quarter we do our shoots in the Bristol Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.  I was in a jam in August when the photographer who was scheduled to do the FOH shoot got a paying gig at the last minute and had to bail [and that's one of the conditions I'm very clear about with all the shooters!  If a paying job comes in, they should take it and I'll deal with getting someone else for the FOH shoot.  It is, after all, a volunteer shoot!].  So I asked the photographer who was already scheduled for the shoot in September to come in and do the August shoot.  So I took the shoot last week.

I have the sense that most people have no idea what an incredible joy it can be for a photographer to be able to do one of these shoots!  I guess most people think that volunteer work is something you do because you’re supposed to do it and that it’s not supposed to provide any joy.  I figure it just clarifies the idea that I’ve had for years that photographers and other artists are cut from a VERY different cloth.  I LOVE doing these shoots and come off of every single one of them with such an unbelievable high that I can just float over/under/around/through [DAMN, that just brought back an old Lucky Strikes commercial! - why can't I let go of some of this foolishness that I have hanging out in my brain so that I'd have more space for important things!] the next several days!  When I see these kids and thier families light up and brighten up right in front of me, there’s just nothing that compares!

The first little boy we shot was a 10,000 watt kleig light.  As soon as I picked up the camera and pointed it at him, the entire lobby at CINJ was blindingly bright.  I’d lower the camera and he was just another happy kid, then I’d point it at him and I’d have to put on my sunglasses again!  For some reason, I kept thinking of a totally sober WC Fields, he just had that kind of attitude!

Then there was the little girl who quite simply had all of us wrapped around her little finger.  Mom and Grandmom kept saying that she didn’t like to have her picture taken but she had them totally fooled!  She was just playing along with that idea but loved having us all under her thumb … after about twenty minutes of coaxing her to come over to the “studio” space, she finally went with her mom and then just hid in her mom’s arms.  But every once in awhile, I’d see this little face with these really clear eyes looking out at me and I could see what she was thinking …

I have got to be the luckiest guy in the world to be able to spend time with these kids!!

Nat

Somewhere in rural New Jersey

Been a bit busy over the last week or two so I’m running behind.  Last weekend the was a “big” parade in Millstone Borough just across the D&R Canal and the Millstone River from us in EAST Millstone.  Our next door neighbors, who are the parents of Corinna, called to see if we would like to go to the W3R parade and celebration over there [ I was trying to figure out what the W3R meant, at first I thought it had to do with the fact that Washington's and Rochambeau's armies passed through Millstone three ( 3 ) times during the American Revolution.  There's so much Revolutionary history all through Central New Jersey that after a bit you can recite it from memory ].  Audrey had a group of friends coming over to the barn but I was available so I went along.

This was absolutely an event for the kids in the Boro which was great!  There was a demonstration of Dutch dancing [ don't know who else would try to dance in wooden clogs! ]

Then the parade started out and traveled the three blocks from the Reformed Church up Main Street to the Boro Hall.  I just slipped back into the ol’ ways of the PJ gettin in really tight on folks [ I'm sure the fellow at the top of this entry thought I was out of my mind to be walking backwards about four inches from the tip of his campaign banner, but he was cool and didn't break character]. I guess the muscle memory just kicked in and the back steppin’ was fine …

Girl Scouts, Brownies, Cub Scouts, you name an organization for kids and they were there [ 4H? ].

After the parade there was a reenactment by a storyteller told from the perspective of a slave that was really quit good the games and face painting for kids and hot dogs and hamburgers soda and homemade sallads for everyone.  Corinna met her first enactor [ notice King George hanging in effigy in the background ] and she really had a great time!

Don’ try to tell me that you’re going to find something as small as this in any city!  This is what I love about this being out here,   God is great, beer is good and people are crazy .

Nat

Somewhere in rural New Jersey