“in the frame” Luke Stevens

I’ve been sitting on this for quite some time.  Like.  A.  Long.  Time.  And as I sit here writing this, I am not sure how soon I will actually pull the trigger on it.

Everyone has a story.  Everyone.  And for everyone it’s different.  Sort of.  We all have events that are part of our story.  The first time we drove a car, saw the stars and knew what they really were, or got really hurt by someone we loved.  Being hurt, healed, and blessed by the life around us.  That is our story.  Luke was and is a part of my story.  For a while not a lot of folks knew about his part of my story.  Luke was my younger brother.  To keep it short, he was killed in an accident in a field across the street from out house in Kirkland.  He was in 2nd grade, I was in 3rd.  Parts of this didn’t really hit me, until I had two little girls of my own, what it must have been like for my folks.  I know I can’t ever really know.  But I know what it was like for me, and it’s been a part of my story.  Not defining me, but a part.  Like knowing what the stars are….

Why now?  There is a friend, I’ve had the chance to second shoot for her, and collaborated a few times, who recently lost one of her twins suddenly and unexpectedly.  I can not imagine what they are going through, well I can imagine but I can’t know.  They are a strong family, not that they were looking to be tested, but I know they will work through this.

And maybe that’s a little bit of what I am doing here.  Working through some of my story.  Three decades after the fact.  I”m just glad I come from a family of photographers…  SO here’s Luke.  Oh, and that kid with the dark hair, yep that would be his big bro.  Me.

 Please excuse me if this post is coming out of left field…  If you haven’t been following me, it’s been a crazy fall….

Edit:  The memorial service was today for the baby.  It struck me, during the service how much smiling, and laughing happens during a memorial service.  That and the pastor quoted one of our College prof’s book on mourning Jerry Sittser’s ”A Grace Disguised”, specifically about grief being something that you need to allow to be part of you…

“in the frame” Randy Phillips…

Have you ever wondered what happened to the wacky guy who drug you all over the US, Canada and into a foreign country in a 12 passenger van when you were in high school?  You know, the guy.  If you remember all the way back to high school.  He (or she) was probably the one adult that seemed to “get you”.  He’d let you think you were getting away with more than your parents would have.  And you could tell him things that you would not tell anyone not born in your decade.  He actually listened to some of the same music, but was up front to point out that some of it was, well, nasty junk.  He’d say “do you hear what they are saying?” and your immediate reaction was to re-listen to the song, not kick out with a “whatever (insert parental authority figure of choice), you just don’t get it”.  Yeah, that’s the guy.  For me that guy was Randy Phillips.  He took over the youth group at the Church I grew up at right before I stepped into the awkward bumbling stage that I managed to live all through high school. From Seattle, to Canada, to Colorado to Ecuador, he was around to keep me from killing myself not that I was suicidal.  Just a regular guy trying to prove something.  He had a front row seat as I managed to repeatedly make a fool of myself, and while I think he enjoyed the antics he always seemed to enjoy more the conversations we had about how I might have handled a situation better.  In a nutshell, he let me make safe mistakes right in front of him, and was always willing to be a sounding board as I figured myself out

Is he different now?  Well sort of.  During a hiatus from ministry he started his own highly successful consulting business.  Check him out here: http://www.redpointleadership.com/ he’s also on FaceBook, and if you know him I would recommend keeping in touch with him there, I don’t think he holds still very long.

Back to the consulting, I have always been a bit skeptical of consultants.  Our lunch the other day changed that forever.  Over a flash back filled lunch at Taco Bell, he gave me more to think about with respect to my photography business than I can grind through in a month.  I’m still working on the first two big points he made for me. In fact I was so engrossed in our conversation, it wasn’t till I realized that I needed to have left 10 min before that I even pulled out my camera! He kept talking while I shot, we must have looked kind of ridiculous, and I only had a couple of keepers.  I had no luck filing all the rich information he had poured into my head enough to think about anything but grabbing a roughly appropriate exposure, and as to the other “things” I try to bring to the table photographically, I crashed and burned. I supposed in the end it worked.

The crazy thing?  Looking through the photos, he looks exactly the same as I remember him.  Whatever he’s using.  I want some.

“in the frame” Emily Wakling-Lee

Emily; it’s hard to even know where to start.  I have known Emily for decades.  We were literally next door neighbors in grade school K-6th.  There are loads of those embarrassing photos of us as kids together at birthday parties, playing in sprinklers, and going to the first day of school.  We moved away in 5th grade, but I have always felt like she was my long-lost sister.  In fact, when we bumped into each other at the start of our senior year in high school on the cruise ship ”The Spirit of Puget Sound” (A wonderful Christmas cruise that ended in 2001.), it was like bumping into a cousin I hadn’t seen in several years.  I probably would have spent a happy evening chatting away with her, but a certain someone else had me highly distracted.  It was her best friend, but you’ll have to stay tuned to find out more on that story…

In a way I should thank her best friend; thanks to her I’ve been able to keep up with Emily.  And with Emily, that’s about all you can try to do; keep up.  Living in New York and married to an incredible artist (link here), I think she’s been to more places than I have heard of.  She makes sure to drop into her old home town though, and we were able to catch up with her a few weeks ago.

I remember doing theses little puzzle things with her when we were little!

My fave!

Thanks again Emily for the visit!

“in the frame” Jon Stevens…

I am a lucky guy.  I’m lucky for a lot of reasons.  One of those reasons is my Dad.  We met up for an early Denny’s breakfast a week or so ago, and I was able to grab a few shots of him.  We meet up every few months and have breakfast together and get caught up.  It’s not like we live very far apart, but it’s nice to touch base with each other.  My dad’s great.  He’s the first to point out his flaws, quick to share heartfelt advice, lend a hand and loves to be part of the process of discovering.

He reminded me the other day of the time we spent at the Seattle Camera Club, when I didn’t have access to the school darkroom.  He’s invested his time and energy in what has interested me.  From photography, to rock climbing, to farming, and from fishing to sailing.

It’s not like he doesn’t have plenty of plates spinning.  Take a look at his site here and you can see that.  Better yet, stop by his farm stand this summer and drool over the certified organic produce that it will be overflowing with.  And don’t forget to say hi to Snickers, the farm dog.  And yes, at 5 am we are both a little groggy…

“In The Frame” : Greg Sicotte

Greg.

I met Greg just 3 short years ago, when we moved up to Stanwood.  Fact is, he’s probably the person on my “in the frame” list who I have known for the shortest time and met most recently.  But we’ve crammed a lot into the three years.  We have some of those kooky connections that make meeting new people fun.  He went to the high school my father in law was the Vice Principal at, their oldest daughter is very close in age to ours.  He is also a bit of an adrenaline junkie.  You do get to learn a lot about someone by meeting with them once a week, every week, for three years.  I look forward to our weekly coffee and head clearing…

Greg is a true entrepreneur.  He started, built, and sold a tremendously successful service company, as his interest and passion has shifted he invested his time in web development, understanding not not just the how but more the why.  He is someone who loves to learn, to question and to listen.  A meticulous attention to detail, a desire to learn about the industry that he is serving; all give him the knowledge, skill and drive to exceed his clients expectations.  He’s also helped me focus more on my passions.  My family, faith and priorities..  He is someone I wish I had met years ago.

So without further ado- here he is…

If you want to learn a little more about him, or see some of what he’s done he was kind enough to send me some links…  And when I can, he’s going to be giving my whole web presence a once over…

http://linkediq.com/

http://linkediq.com/web-design-portfolio/allstaragents-corporation/

http://gregsicotte.com/about/my-experience/

“In The Frame” coming tonight to Stanwood Wa.

So here’s the premise, it’s kind of a long thread but there is an end to it… I’ve been thinking about a “personal project” for a long time (my wife likes to say, everything I do is a personal project ), and the list of possibilities is long. Some of them I have looped back to several times, but they have never really stuck. Then a few weeks ago, after listening to an interview of David duChemin, author of “Within the Frame” it hit me. David (he’s not the only one) is a big proponent of shooting what you love. If you like cats, shoot cats, cars, then cars… Because you connect to that subject on an emotional level, and therefore probably shoot better photos of it/them. I love photographing people, why, because of the emotional connection I have with them. I love making photos that will resonate with people who really know the subject in the photo. And so I thought, why not shoot some of the people who I have connected with, in my past, and now? It’s not something that will be wrapped in a week, or a month. For crying out loud one of the “must shoots” lives in New York, one I haven’t seen since my wedding, and one is no longer with us.

So stay tuned, look for the “In The Frame” post title, and get ready to meet some people who I hold near and dear. Some things to keep in mind, I am posting these in no particular order, outside that I have been able to connect with them and get a few minutes to take some photos. Yes my wife would probably have been first, but it’s going to take a little more sweet talking to get her to do it willingly she’s the last person in the world I would try to arm twist into something, cause that never goes well. And that’s the last thing, accessibility to the people is probably going to drive the order more than anything else. With two exceptions, all the photos I am doing for this will be fresh. Not re-treads. Mostly.

So tune in tonight for “ITF” #1. One other item of note, check back on Feb 1st for a Wedding Special that will run till the 14th.