Father Daughter Dance

OK, so it's my blog, and I hope you will indulge me with one last photo of the wedding. It's the father of the bride and the bride in their traditional dance at the restaurant. Funny, when I was thinking of a name for this post, what came to mind was the "Father Daughter Dance" they had each year at St. Mary's High School, where both Liz and Amy went to school. So I attended seven of those all together, and I bet if I dug around some I could find a photo of Amy and I at one of those dances... Such a long time ago... So this dance was one of the few formalities at this very relaxed and informal wedding... What an amazing event, from start to finish.

The Parade With The Mariachi Band

OK, nothing prepared me for this... Amy said she wanted to have a Mariachi band lead the wedding party from the beach, to the restaurant which was downtown, about a mile away. (You can see the band in the background, in the center of the photo.) OK, seems like a fun thing to do. Well, NOTHING prepared me for the outpouring of love and well wishes from everyone we passed along the way. We marched down this road from the beach, to the main promenade, or mall, which is really busy. Everyone in the wedding party had maracas to shake while dancing and marching. The applause from bystanders, both Mexicans and tourists, and watching them take photographs and movies of total strangers just melted my heart! I was using a video camera to document all of that, so this is the only still image I have, at the beginning of the parade, before we got downtown. The video is amazing though! This was perhaps the most memorable, because it was so totally unexpected.

Back Down the Aisle

...And here they come back down the aisle in the sand, with guests smiling and clapping.

Portrait of the New Bride & Groom

After the ceremony, they had to sign the official papers, and I took this photo. Then they walked down the aisle in the sand, man and wife.

They Wrote Their Own Vows...

Both Amy and Gus wrote their own vows to each other, and they were just beautiful! What you would expect from two creative people, I suppose. But we were all surprised and moved by what they said to each other.

The Beach Wedding

So two days after the church wedding on Thursday, there was the beach wedding just before sunset on Saturday. It was surprising how intimate it felt, even though it was on the open beach, with some others nearby swimming or sitting on the beach.

The Wedding Photographers

So there's this thing, you see, about the Spencer family we have to warn you about... We LOVE to take photographs at family events. Oh, and the McAvoys too! And it looks like, from this photo, the Albero family as well! So the new bride and groom had to face a barage of photographers, both in front, and in back!

Mr & Mrs. Albero

Mr. & Mrs. Albero outside the church after the ceremony, greeting family and friends.

With This Ring...

And then Amy says: "With this ring, I the wed..."

The Bride & Groom Before

This is Gus and Amy outside the church before the ceremony. Isn't he handsome? Isn't she gorgeous! (Please excuse the proud father here...)

The Bride & Maid of Honor

Wow, I am sorry for being way behind in posting these. I have much editing still to do! This is Amy and Liz, her sister and maid of honor outside the church before the ceremony. I love the simplicity of the Calla Lillies, and how beautiful my daughters are!

The Altar

We went by the church the day we arrived, and saw how beautiful it was. Then we went inside and sat for a while, and this is what we saw! The lights on the cross are from sunlight shining through windows in the ceiling of the church. Several people came in to pray, and it was moving to see their spirituality and their reverence. This will be a wonderful setting for the wedding of Amy and Gus.

The Church

I am way behind here! Here is an exterior photo of the church that Amy and Gus will be married at, on July 12th. We had no idea what it looked like, and it is absolutely gorgeous! The doors are open all around the church and a cool breeze gently blows through during the day.

Mysterious Lands

I LOVE this photograph! It shows the waters of the Carribean ocean, and in the shallows, the stunning colors of the water are evident, and the surf breaks on the shoreline to the right in the photo. The clouds make it all even more mysterious. The dark patches on the water are shadows of the clouds. Where are we? Just off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula, north of Cancun, Mexico. Why are we going there?
Stay tuned...

Classic Cumulus

So we are off to parts unknown, aboard Jet Blue. This is a photograph of some classic towering cumulus clouds, off the coast of Florida. In the distance is the clouds have an "Anvil Top," which happens when the clouds rise high enough so that the high winds at altitude blow the top of the clouds flat. This is usually seen in thunderstorm type clouds. Stay tuned to see where we went!

Behind Schedule

I have been on vacation. More on that in later blogs, but I am about a week behind in my postings, so I will be catching up. I took this photograph of Hydrangeas and and some Lavender, in the side garden next to the house. I Didn't get it posted before leaving but wanted it on the blog because I loved the flow of the stems, and the combination of colors.

Last Light of Day

The weather is hot, so after dinner, we went and sat on the front porch. It was interesting to see the sunlight turn more orange as the day grew to a close. I took this when the shadow of a Cosanti Bell was cast on the window behind the couch.

Yoga Instructors

I had an assignment to photograph a yoga instructor, and she wanted to do one of her more difficult poses, so she had her fellow instructor help her to get into the pose. This was such a lovely composition, I thought it was more interesting than the finished posed of just the single instructor.

Xavier

With the new Harry Potter book due out this Friday, I have had several assignments last week to photograph kids who are Harry Potter fans. This is Xavier, and he loves to read. His mom said that his second home is at the library! I shot this in the kitchen of his home, and set up my strobe to make the light a bit more interesting. There is something about this photo that I really love - perhaps it is the shape of his head, or something about the composition. Or maybe something intangible, but I did recognize it while I was shooting, which always gives me a thrill - to find that something extra.

Mystery Frog

While mowing the lawn a week ago, I saw this frog on the garden wall. I assume that my daughter Liz had found it somewhere and brought it home. Kathy thought that it was something I found. When we compared notes, we discovered that none of us had anything to do with it. Where did it come from? Our next door neighbors of over 30 years have moved across town and have been cleaning out their house. We guessed that Larry put it there - he has a history of doing things like that! We saw him a week later, and he confessed that he did put it there. We are so glad to have it - I LOVE frogs!

Going Upstairs

My daughter Liz was upstairs packing for her move to LA and I thought I would go up to her room and see if there was a photo there. I stopped on the stairs to check the settings in my camera, and when this image came up on the screen I was really surprised, and pleased. It was completely unexpected. So I spent a minute finding the best crop and shot a couple of frames. I doubt that I would have seen this had I been carrying my Nikon D2x with me..

Sixty Five

Sixty five. No, it's not the speed limit. No, it's not the speed I can reach on my bike, even going downhill - that maxes out at 34 MPH. It's my age today! This Yankee Doodle Dandy, born on the Fourth of July, reaches a milestone. I celebrated by cranking out 11 miles on my bike today, at an average speed of 15 miles per hour, which included cranking up the hills of Sea Cliff. It felt great today, but tomorrow I will go buy a cane, because I am so old... :-)

Sunrise sunrise

Do you remember that cancer camp I told you about the other day? It is called "Sunrise..." and when leaving after photographing the kids in the tree house, I passed this other sunrise painted on the wall of a building at the camp, and was impressed with how pretty a thing it was for the children to see. I reached for the point-and-shoot on my belt, and the rest, as they say, is history!

The White Room

We went to Connecticut for the family Birthday party for all of us born in July. This is one of the bathrooms in my sister Joan's house - the home I grew up in. She has a wonderful sense about decorating, and I think it shows in this room. I love the simplicity of the room, and how the photo is just an explosion of light.

The Sea Cliff Sign

We were on our way to the Gordon's for a party for Emily's graduation. When Liz got out of the car, she spotted this Sea Cliff sign on the window of a garage in town, and since she is a student of typography, having been a graphic designer, she fell in love with the hand painted typeface. So she got out to photograph the sign, and I got out of the car to photograph her.