Photographers… we are all historians.

It comes to my attention that, in the middle of retrieval of lost images, my concern and the acid feeling that comes with the discovery that I’ve lost images; is really founded in the near loss of piece of time I have captured. It seems I collect images, it has become a rather serious past time. I have lulls in the action but the camera is always charged and ready to go. The uninitiated sometimes find my camera a nuisance. I usually win them over with a few images or a slide show in the middle of the week… Nags Head NC, Paris France…Manuel Antonio Costa Rica… a round table and we pass the camera or we show them on a laptop – even better a projector…

LaSalle Street after a family tour of Garfield Park

I can spend hours looking at images I have captured, but more importantly images alone, any images. I have made social media “friends of friends” just based on sifting thru images…I kidding say “I like to watch…” but if you have seen my photo’s you already know that it is true. If you have images on line and you catch my eye, the music will start and I will drift thru your day weeks and months… seeing what you see, seeing what you saw… living vicariously thru your shots. Usually there are images that so strike me I fess up and communicate about them. That’s where the friends I have never met come into the picture (No pun intended).  Sharing my images and they the images they have captured.

Art by Sister Christine, Photographer unknown

There’s a song you know, The Leader of the Band?” His blood runs thru my instrument and his song is in my soul…”, Our Leader of the Band was so deeply rooted in our family fabric, my father the head of our household, a friend to many (and many of my friends) the consummate professional, he was a musician, and he was our photographer. Let me restate that, He was an accomplished photographer. He reveled in the beauty that surrounded him and in addition to his family and friends – nature, mainly flowers were his thing. I look at his photographs now and realize I am seeing what he saw, he left us with his view of the world. The photographs he took of friends and family stand the test of time… Holidays and special occasions were all good cause for a little photo session. He was certainly a family historian – capturing these moments in time. Good for him. Great for me (The family now pretty much expects ”accepts”  my camera around…) 

Christmas and the cousins

”It’s your thing, do what you gotta do.” I am a little like a sniper, my “photographs” are not pictures – they are often story telling images… captured moments of time. I tend to be trigger happy… If I find the hired photographer watching my every move…then following and concerned I often let him know I am the uncle. After brief discussion we usually find that we are coordinating on the scenario that is unfolding, and no I'm not the competition.

Aunt Christine and John looking towards NYC from Ellis Island - The Great room

 As friends and family leave us, on to bigger and better things, I realize that we have been recording the passage of time, collecting bits and pieces of a life – often well lived – happy and sad moments – good attempts and bad as whatever the thing may be. Some photo’s are bitter sweet, some are just sweet…

Nick, Ben and Eddie enjoy Lisa's "Sudden gust of Gravity" South of SFO

"Uncle Rob" shares his capture with Robbie

 

Firefighter Weinmann Salutes as his retirement flag is brought front and center.

Mayor Daily and his grand daughter - Garfield Park

Lisa nearly ends up lunch when Rex takes a chance and opens wide....

WTC card from the family of one lost in the towers....

Paris Mini World created from a night shot off of the Arc de Triomphe

When do you ever see this?? I believe X does mark the spot

Graduation Happiness abounds

Baby Bird calls for Mom, a hot day near the driveway

Getting a snoot full

Turning the soil via a 39 John Deere

Hero's walk

Brother in crime

Initial Training on Jim and Tom's Layout

Continuing Education...

Signaling the end of another day - as light fades

An ode to Dad, the Snow on the table shot...

 I’ll keep taking them and in years to come they will remain my secret friends which I share with reckless abandon, and on occasion you can find me completing a private slide show… a smile on my face or a tear in my eye…