How your world will be turned upside down so very soon.  Your baby sister is just around the corner.  My heart both aches for you and soars for you. You’ve been our world for so long, how will it change you? How will it change us?

For now though, it is still us three, numbered like the years from your birth. This day is yours: happy birthday Mason Ray.

Well how about this, when ten different comments are left in the first two weeks of a portrait post, the client gets a FREE 8×10! If twenty comments are left in the first two weeks I’ll upgrade it to a FREE 12×18! And to make it fair for all my past clients, for the entire month of February, comments left for any post on this blog, no matter when it was photographed, will also qualify for the free print!

Stay tuned, a brand new photo post is coming soon! Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS so you get all the latest and greatest.

Seriously, lately my parents have been threatening to take my son to Sears just to get some current pictures. Ah well, because I do it for a living, sometimes it can be hard for me to find the time to capture images of my own son growing and changing.

So Christmas card time rolls around, and I figure it’s time to get ‘er done. Of course I waited till December, and it’s freezing out, and the poor boy is getting over a cold, but too bad because it’s finally a sunny day out. Sorry kiddo, no nap today because the light is gorgeous with a capital G and time’s a tickin’.

I guess I got what I deserve, huh. What do you think? Should I use that first picture for the Christmas card? Well he is two, and yes if you’re wondering, that last photo is of him eating dried field corn. A growing boy does need his carbs, and besides, I forgot to pack a snack.

From my crazy life to yours Happy Holidays!!!

All portrait sessions must be photographed by December 5 in order to get your prints and cards in time for Christmas. We have only one weekend appointment and only a few weekday sessions available before then.

For ground delivery, all prints and cards must be ordered by Wednesday, December 16 in order to receive them in time for Christmas. Canvas gallery wrap orders must be received by December 7 for ground deliver. Express delivery charges will be applied for dates after these.

OK, I admit it. The other night I was watching The Bachelor out of the corner of my eye while imaging photos on my computer. One of his dates asked him the question, “If your house was on fire, what would be the one thing you’d grab?” The response: his old sneakers. Seriously? Hey dude, what about your kid?

The question got me thinking, though. What would I grab? If my husband and son were safe, what would I take if my house were on fire? My son’s baby album? Maybe, I did just get it finished after eighteen months. But his photos, along with all my clients, are archived off site, and I would be able to reprint them if I had to.

My answer is this photo. It hangs on my dining room wall with two others from the same photo essay. I look at it every day, and yet every day I still love it. It was part of a project I had wanted to do for years.  I finally made the time during my last month at the newspaper.  I don’t really consider myself a landscape photographer. I’ve made a career of photographing people. It’s what I do. Yet, I am fascinated by old barns and rural buildings. The history they tell in the bones of their bleached wood calls to me. I have to document them before they are gone forever.

This barn I discovered on assignment near Centerville, Wash. years earlier. It took me weeks of public records searches before I could find out who the owner was, so I could get permission to photograph on their property. The town is an almost two-hour drive from the newspaper, and the one day I had free it was raining cats and dogs. I was so bummed the whole drive there thinking I was wasting my time. But, I must have done something to make the photo gods happy because as soon as I got close the rain broke, and the sun started peeking through the storm clouds.

I have never moved so fast in my life. I parked the company car in a ditch and threw open the trunk. I had borrowed another photographer’s old medium format camera to do the project because you just can’t reproduce that look any way else. I pulled out its cumbersome hard case and tripod, and I tried not to drop them or rip my pants as I climbed over the barbed-wire fence. The light was not going to last, so I flew across the old field to get into position. Ten minutes later it was over. The light was gone. Had I gotten it? That’s the problem with film. You don’t know what you have until you develop the negatives and scan it in.

They ran the photo with five other images as a Sunday feature a week after I left the newspaper. It turned out nice, if not a little dark in the paper; yet, it wasn’t until I had a print made that I finally realized what I had. I used the now defunct Ivey Imaging in Seattle. I don’t know if another lab will ever be able to reproduce their print quality. When I opened the box and pulled out the 30 x 30 print, I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was gorgeous. To me it was most beautiful piece of art I had ever created. When I look at the photo I don’t just see the image on the paper. I see myself driving for hours with the lowest of expectations. I feel the rush of adrenaline when the sun breaks, and I haven’t even parked the car yet. The chilly air as I run across the furrowed field, the heavy tripod bumping against my knees. And finally, the deep satisfaction that I’ve forever captured the soul and emotion of an ancient barn I first discovered so many years earlier.

]]> http://summerlandphotography.com/blog/2009/02/17/what-would-you-save-if-your-house-was-on-fire/feed/ 1 http://summerlandphotography.com/blog/2009/02/11/summerland-2008-favorite-photo-contest-5/ http://summerlandphotography.com/blog/2009/02/11/summerland-2008-favorite-photo-contest-5/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:08:00 +0000 Sandy Summers Russell http://summerland.bigfolioblog.com/weblog/post/91303 Here is the next picture posted in our 2008 Favorite Photo Contest. Voting by comments will be open for this photo for ten days and will expire February 21.

Voting for this photo is now closed with a total of 72 comments. Way to go Sadie!

ANYONE can vote by leaving a comment so have fun and help the client with the most comments win a fabulous 16×20 gallery wrap!

Those who post a comment for every contest photo will be entered in a drawing for a free Children’s Portrait session or a $150 print credit.

I adore the photos from little Sadie’s session. She is such a sweetheart, and, not to mention, she has a little girl’s wardrobe to die for. I took a lot of memorable shots of her, but this one is my favorite. She’s just learned to pull herself up, and the window was one of her favorite resting places. The recent rainy weather made the tree appear like an impressionist painting behind her. It couldn’t have turned out better if I had planned it. Life doesn’t imitate art. Life is art.

I’m putting together an album from all of his photos. I’ll be sure to post a link to it when I finish it later this week.