I had a wonderful personal and photographic experience last week. I was asked by Esther (a good friend of my Mothers) to create a portrait of her with her best girlfriend that was visiting from out of town. No problem, I can do that. When they came to the session I started to get the history of their relationship. It was such a wonderful story. Esther and Galina have been best girlfriends for 52 years. They started showing me photographs of them together over the years and telling me stories. They had meet as school girls in their native Russia. They had spent time together working as young woman. They married about the same time. The two couples were very close through the years. At one point they had country homes right next to each other. The history of their relationship was such heartwarming story. They had their families at the same time; they grieved together through personal tragedies, they grew older together.
Almost 20 years ago their friendship would change forever as Esther and her family immigrated to the United States from Russia. Now they had a long distance friendship through letters, a few phone calls, e-mails and a few visits. This is what really struck me. It would have been natural for their friendship to change and for them to grow apart with such a distance between them. The exact opposite happened as Esther and Galina continued to grow old together. They shared even more and grew closer together, in spite of the physical distance between them.
I have often times said that for me photography it is all about the “story and the relationships” that I enjoy. Of course, I am inspired by photographing however my real inspiration comes from my subjects. When I get to know who I am photographing and what makes them tick that is when I feel that my portraits really have “life” to them. I do that with everyone I photograph it many different ways. What I have not mentioned as I started to hear Esther and Galina’s stories, I was only hearing half of the story as Galina does not speak a word of English. What a great idea it was to bring me some photographs of them together through they years. I learned about them from their snapshots together. What I did not realize until just this moment is; I watched their body language and without understanding what they were talking about I saw how they talked to each other. I learned about them by just experiencing them together.
Well let me tell you that experience was so inspiring and special. It made me think of all of my amazing girlfriends. All my girlfriends that have laughed with me in good times and supported and at times carried me along during my most difficult times. The girlfriends I have had for 30 years and the ones I am just as close to only after a few years. I have so many great girlfriends from all over the country and world. I am blessed to have a bunch of good girlfriends from so many aspects of my life. I have my photography girlfriends that I have traveled the world with. I have a dear, dear girlfriend from High School I am still close to. I have relatives that I consider girlfriends. I have good friends that I went to summer camp with as a kid. I have many clients that have become my girlfriends over the years. I have so many diverse and different strong, kind, loving, funny and passionate friends. I am reminded yet once again how blessed and lucky I am.
I wanted to share with you my favorite portrait of Esther and Galina. I took a beautiful portrait of them happy and looking into the camera they both loved. That is the portrait that they had in mind when they asked me to photograph them together. However, the image that I had to capture and that really spoke to my heart is the two of them just being close and really being as one heart together. As much as I know that this really them it was kind of difficult to actually take that picture. Remember I could not give Galina any verbal direction as she could not understand me. I got the image that was in my heart of them and they loved it too. I hope that you enjoy this image as much as we do and that this story reminds you how blessed by the good friends you have in your life.
On Tuesday, I am off to spend several days with two of my dear girlfriends. I am so excited to spend time with Lynn and JuliAnne. I am sad that the fourth person in our group Annell is not able to join us this time. These 3 amazing woman are all fabulous photographers and we get together yearly to share, create and inspire each other. As much as I don’t enjoy my body getting older with all its aches and pains I sure do appreciate and enjoy my many friendships and I look forward to growing old with all my girlfriends. They sure do make all the highs much higher and the lows a little easier to endure. Here is a big hug and kiss to all my girlfriends (way to many to mention by name and you know who you are) and you know how much I cherish and love each and every one of you. Until next time, be well.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy 4th of July. I have always just loved this Holiday. I think because it is the only “official” holiday in the summer. As I get older I appreciate more and more what is means to really be an American. We have so many opportunities and freedoms as Americans that I think most of us as are not fully aware of. I am always trying to be mindful of all that I have and today is one of those days that I reflect a little more often on how blessed I am.
I hope that you have a day full of family, friends and love ones. A parade, a hot dog, ice cream and some fireworks will fill out a perfect holiday for me. Whatever you do today try to stay mindful of how lucky we are to be Americans. I am also very appreciative for all the people who have given their lives over the years to protect my freedom. Have a wonderful Holiday and until next time, be well.
Chris, Northville High School Class of 2010
I wanted to post a few images I did last week of Chris. We took a bunch of fun images of him at the studio and then we went over to their house in Northville for more fun. Boy did I have a ton of great places to photograph him around their beautiful home. I wanted to share a couple of my favorites.
Chris is quite the musician and he plays the piano beautifully. They have an incredible Steinway piano in their home and he asked that I get some portraits of him at the piano. I started out doing a totally different pose than this and it was just not cutting it for me. I kept thinking to myself “there is a killer portrait in here somewhere. I just have to find it.” After a little playing around I came up with this image. I really like all the angles and the reflection. I just love it!
Of course, everybody knows that I am a total flower and gardening fanatic (it is a borderline problem for me) and I just loved incorporating all of Chris's Mom Karen's beautiful flowers around the deck into this image of him and his favorite dog, Ranger.
I hope that you have enjoyed some my most recent images. This is really pretty fun being able to post them right away. I am going to do this as much as I can in the future.
If you are around this coming up weekend we will be at the Northville “Art in the Sun” Art Fair over the weekend. Please come and see us, our booth is on Center Street just North of Main Street. Hope to see you this weekend it’s a fun show and the weather is supposed to be great! Until next time, be well.
I am so honored and humbled when I am asked to record a person’s life in photographs. A few weeks ago I had the privilege of completing an 18 year long journey. I have been photographing Jared since he was just 6 months old. I just photographed his Senior Portraits and 18 year old portrait. WOW, every year for 18 years I have photographed him! I just can’t believe how fast the time goes by. How does that happen? It really has been fun watching him grow up. First as baby, then a curious toddler, a darling little boy, an uncomfortable pre-teen, then a typical teenager and now he is a man. A very nice man I must say. In the fall he is off to Michigan State to continue his journey.
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I must take my hat off to Jared’s Mother, Molly. You know that kid did not bring himself to the studio 18 times to have his portrait taken! You can also bet that during some of those rebellious years he was none to happy to be going and getting his portrait taken. So Molly, here it is, kudos Mom for a job well done! Actually, several jobs well done. Molly and Brady should be very proud of their son. He really is a great young man. They have a terrific son and priceless album of portraits of him growing up to warm their hearts forever.
I guess it’s hard for me to explain how important it is to me that I have been trusted to capture so many of life’s milestones for so many amazing families. I am really impressed with our clients that have made the commitment to have their children photographed each year. I do understand that it is both a time and financial commitment that can be easily put aside as your children get older.
The older they get the busier and busier everyone gets. It’s tough to get it all in. That is one of the things that is so great about summer, in the summer usually your schedule is a little less full. When you are not as busy that makes everyone a little more relaxed in the portraits. The flowers are in bloom, the weather is great and now is the best time for outdoor portraits too. I know that everyone is being very cautious with their expenses right now. However, you can’t get time back. Please contact us soon to continue your child’s history in portraits. We are more than happy to help you work out whatever financial arrangements to make this happen this year. No worries, we can make it work for you. Until next time, be well.
May is a crazy Month for us. As I am sure it is for you. We always have a lot going on. It’s the start of outdoors “handy project” season. Our deck needs to be stained and a bunch of boards need to be replaced. I am a gardening freak and there is a ton of work that needs to be done to get all the beds and pots ready at home and the studio. May ends with our 7th wedding anniversary on the 29th. We try to get away for our anniversary just to spend some Steve and Angela time. This year we are off to Disney for a week to relax and celebrate not killing each other for the past seven years. Mothers Day is also in there and this year Mothers has taken on new meaning for my family. Like I said it’s a busy month.
You know how life is just plugging along busy as ever and then something just sneaks up on you and slaps you in the face. Well that is just what happened to me. I will do my best to not confuse you as I tell this bizarre story of the past few weeks.
Mothers Day weekend went great. Our family dinner with my Mom was just about perfect. Mom had a good time and so did the rest of the family. Steve and I spent a lot of that weekend working on our deck at home. How I do love my handy projects especially when it involves power tools. We worked on replacing a bunch of the rotting boards on our deck. It’s not hard to do, it’s just hard work. Getting all those 20 year old nails out of the bad boards, you need to use crowbars and big hammers to make it all happen. After 3 days of doing that we were both sore and tired. We are way too old for that kind of hard work!
No problem, I have all week to recover before it’s time to get the pots and flower beds ready the next weekend. I was not bouncing back as fast as I thought and by the end of the week the pain in my neck and shoulder had not gotten any better. Actually it was getting worse. On Thursday I had a new symptom I was getting a lot of numbness in both my hands. I had been having some numbness over the past few months and I had been writing it off to carpel tunnel. I thought it was a good idea to get this new numbness thing checked out. So I called my buddy Dr. John Maltese and he was good enough to get me in the next morning to see him. He was pretty concerned that something was going on in my neck. I needed to get an MRI of my neck. He also sent me for an x-ray of my right ankle (I forgot to mention I totally wasted my ankle the week before from a Lazboy chair dismount. REALLY!!!) I made the MRI appointment for 6 am on Monday and then went about my weekend.
I had a lot of work to do over the weekend I had to get ready to plant 60+ flats of flowers the next week. All the pots and soil had to be ready for planting. I do love to garden (I have a bit of an obsession with flowers and gardening. Really I am like a crack addict in a greenhouse.) “Flower Day” that’s the day we every year to close the studio to do our planting at the studio and our house. It is a really fun and creative day when all of us from the studio get dirty planting all the flowers. It is just about my favorite day of the year. We always do that the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend.
Have I lost you yet? I am trying not to make this to confusing even though it is. So the weekend is over and on Monday I get up early and head over to ProvidencePark to get my MRI. No big thing, I have taken a Xanax ( I am not a huge fan of the small space) I know how the drill goes, I have had way too many MRI’s over the years. After the test I left there with a copy of the CD of the images of my neck. When I got home I put the CD in my computer and played amateur doctor and looked at the images of my neck. I have had many back and neck problems over the years (including 2 surgeries, I personally think that I am the president of the “shitty spine club”) and I know way too much about discs and the spine (I am not a doctor but I play one on TV) I did not like what I saw on the screen I had a disc pretty high up in my neck that did not look good.
First thing Tuesday morning (while I was working out, honest.) the phone rang. It was my buddy Dr. Maltese and he had the report on my MRI. Just as I thought it did not look really good. I needed to see a surgeon. Not great news but honestly I had seen that the day before myself. Well Angela being Angela has another really good friend who is a Neurosurgeon. A really good and highly respected Neurosurgeon, Steve Papadopoulos. Dr. Papadopoulos did my last neck surgery 11 years ago at U of M. One small problem though is now Steve and Penny now live in Phoenix. I am thinking in the back of my head that I trust Steve with my life and I would want him to operate on me if needed. So I overnight shipped the CD of my MRI to Dr. Papadoupoulos in Phoenix and went about my business for the next day until he got the MRI.
OK so now it’s Wednesday evening and I am at the hair salon getting my hair done and climbing the walls waiting for Dr. Papadopoulos to call me and tell me what is up with my neck. It was hurting me and I am sure the stress of the past few days was not making it any better. In my mind is all that is going on with my neck, what am I going to do about that and I have 68 flats of flowers to plant the next day and I am leaving on Sunday for vacation. My head was about to explode.
About 7:30pm on Wednesday while I was still at the salon with hair dye slimed all over my head I get the call I have been waiting all day for from Dr. Papadopoulos. I could tell by the tone in his voice it was not good news. (You know that tone your Dad used when you were in big doo-doo) That conversation is mostly a blur. However, I do remember him saying, “I NEEDED SURGERY SOONER RATHER THAN LATER”. Holy shit! Well if I needed surgery, I really wanted him to do it. I had to figure out how to get to Phoenix to make that happen. (Oh ya, poof there goes your vacation to Disney next week.) Dr. Papadopoulos wanted me to see one of his old partners at U of M for him to look at me. He was going to try and make that happen the next day.
So I get the gunk washed out of my hair and go home to my empty house. Not a great day for my husband to be on his first business trip with his new job. I don’t know how to describe how I felt except in a fog. A couple of hours later my phone rings and it’s Dr. Papadopoulos it was set for me to see his friend at U of M, Dr. Chandler Thursday afternoon. He also said that my neck was so bad there was no way I could fly. My fog now has been elevated to complete spinning. It’s time to try and get some sleep. (Ya, right!)
Are you still with me? I know this is a crazy story. I swear every word of it is true. I never have to make up stories; I am one of those people that wild, crazy, unbelievable, bizarre and funny stuff is always happening to.
After my very long, fitful and lonely night the phone rang at 7:30 am on Thursday. Now remember it is “Flower Day” my favorite day of the year and I should be all happy and excited. I really just wanted to get back in bed and pull the covers over my head forever! It was Dr. Chandler on the phone. He wanted me to get to his office that afternoon as early as possible and how did I feel about “getting this taken care of” the next morning? I thought, Oh God did he just say tomorrow? I have no idea what I actually said to him. Somewhere in all my babblings was “OK”. I knew it had to be done soon, Steve Papadopoulos trusts this man with his own life (a recommendation does not get better than that) and I sure as hell was not going on vacation with my husband. (That would be the husband who was in Traverse City on a business trip and needed to get home ASAP to take me to meet the Dr. who was going to operate on me the very next day and do all the pre-op stuff)
Let me tell you that the spinning in my head has now ramped up to a full blown out of body experience. I was going to get a pedicure on Friday not have major surgery. I was going to spend the weekend at the Ritz Carlton in Orlando not at the University of Michigan Hospital. There are no words that convey the total freak out I was in. Talk about one extreme to another, time of your life to life threatening, the “Happiest Place on Earth” Disney World to the University of Michigan Hospital. Freshly painted toes to ugly bruises all over my arms from my IV’s. Sunshine on my face to drainage tube in your neck. A complete flip-flop of what my expectations for what Memorial Day weekend was going to be for me. It was just unreal.
Back to my favorite day of the year (at least it used to be!) of course I could not lift a thing let alone climb around on my knees in the dirt to plant any flowers. I tried to plant a few boxes and pots and give somewhat coherent directions on what to do. I just was not into it this year. I was in shock! The weather was perfect and I was a zombie!!! Thank God for Rosa, Kim, my friend Deborah, my sister in law Dawn and our helper Johnny (I was together enough earlier in the week to hire us some muscle to help with the lifting). They did it all, beautifully without me. (I still feel like a kid that missed Christmas) I walked around in a haze and when Steve got home from his trip we had to get to the Hospital to meet with Dr. Chandler and do all the pre-op testing.
That afternoon at the hospital went very well. Dr. Chandler was a pleasure and I felt good about him doing the surgery. Everybody that waited for me to get there and do all of the paperwork and testing I needed could have not been nicer. It was set. I needed to be back at the Hospital at 7am the next morning for the operation.
Other than the total meltdown I had in the pre-op room before my surgery because no one could start an IV on me (evidently it was torture Friday at U of M, who knew?) I think that the insanity of the past week was coming down hard on me too. The surgery went very well just as planned. I was very well taken care of by Dr. Chandler, his assistant Dr. Lehmann, the great anesthesia department, the recovery room nurses and my amazing and wonderful nurse Marsha that I had overnight on Friday who was finally able to get my pain under control without me turning into Linda Blair from the Exorcist. My dear husband Steve was right there with me all the way. He simply could not have been better to me. I love you, honey.
For those of you medical types (or persons in the know or the wanna know). I had a “large disc herniation in the midline at C4-5. With severe central canal stenosis and cord edema.” (In other words it was nasty as all get out!) The surgery that I had was an “Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion.” Dr. Chandler went in from the front of my neck, removed the disc and all the fragments of it, put in a cadaver bone to fill the space and screwed in a titanium plate to hold it all together. (That is after he removed the plate I had in there from the last cervical fusion I had in 1998.)
I came home from the hospital on Saturday afternoon and I have been doing very well. I am sore (everyday it’s better) and still kind of in shock. The worse part is the sitting around and doing nothing. I am really climbing the walls. I can’t drive for a week and I can’t lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk for the next month. That for me is torture. I am really trying to lay low and do nothing. Of course, when I am at home all I see is everything I want to do and can’t.
I didn’t write this for you to feel sorry for me. I wrote this as a continuation to the last blog post I wrote. You know how I said that you never know when your life is going to take a dramatic left turn and everything you know is going to change. Little did I know when I wrote that 2 weeks ago that I was talking again about my life and how it was going to take that dramatic left turn yet once again. I also wrote about how we need to stay in the moment and appreciate the simple things. You know, all the little stuff we get to do, the simple things. For those of you that can go to work today (I really wish I could) or do yard work, clean the house or go to Costco and buy all good stuff we all need. Go for it! Stay in your happy place and remember that all the stuff we all go through on a daily basis is not a problem. A problem is something that can’t be fixed. All the other stuff is regular old life, with all its usual ups and downs.
I know that the big man upstairs was watching out for me once again and that I have lessons in this that I am supposed to learn. I am so very thankful to the great Doctors (John and Steve, you ROCK!) and good friends I have that were looking out for me. I really appreciate my dear hubby who stayed strong for me and is taking great care of me. (In the coming weeks that care may include tying me up to keep me from doing stuff I am not supposed to do.) I guess I will just close this long, long post with one last thing, is anyone free to go to the movies or for lunch this week? Stay healthy and be well, until next time.
PS. I will be back at the studio after June 2 and the Dr. cleared me to be able to photograph as long as I don’t pick up any heavy stuff.
I couldn’t let Mothers Day pass without babbling on a bit about what it means to me.
As many of you know, in January of this year my Mother Christine suffered a major stroke. My sister Chrysia was driving her (in an ice storm, no less) to a doctors appointment she started getting confused. My sister got her as fast as she could to the closest hospital. I was out of town (no surprise there) I got home as soon as I could for what would become my new normal.
You never know when your life is going to take a dramatic left turn and everything you know is going to change. I guess that is my first point here. I’ll never forget my sister saying to me one of our first phone calls as we were figuring out what was going on with Mom that “she was not ready for this.” You never are ready for huge changes in your life that are not for the better. You are never ready for your parents to age and become ill. You are never ready, no matter what to have a loved one pass away. You are just never ready.
We all go through this awful transition of becoming the next generation at one time or another. It gets scary to realize that you are becoming the parents. Parenting your parents is just about the hardest job of all. We know how this is going to end. OK that is enough of the really sad stuff.
My second thought that I want to leave you with here is that we all must rejoice in the simple things. I am always trying to stay “in the moment” and appreciate all that I have. I am constantly trying to be mindful of all the wonderful experiences I have, large and small. It can be very hard to do at times with all that we have going on in our lives.
Let me get back to my Mom. After 3 months of rehab my Mom is now living full time in Renaissance Gardens at Fox Run in Novi. It is a full time “care” facility. Or the “home” as we call it. (You have got to maintain your sense of humor in situations like this) My Mom is unable to use her right side. No standing or walking and she is in a wheel chair for the rest of her life. The good news is her language is improving and her spirits are pretty good.
As I write about how I am always trying to be mindful of the little things. This weekend we are planning a big outing on Sunday for Mom. I want to celebrate Mothers Day like our family celebrates so many holidays, together and at somebody’s house. You see it is those little things like family gatherings that I miss the most in our new situation. Good company, good food (of course, we are Greek!), the kids running around the house and total chaos. That is my idea of a perfect holiday.
So on Sunday we have hired a transportation company to bring my Mom (she does not transfer easily out of her chair) to our house so that we can spend 3 hours together as a family like we used to. We are figuring out how to get her wheel chair in the house and all the other “stuff” that goes along with a handicapped person. It’s just that important to my family and I to have a “normal” family event, just like we used to.
I hope that I am not sounding like a broken record. It is really the simple things that do mean the most. When it is all said and done all we have are the memories and experiences to take with us. It doesn’t matter what I cook, what the weather is or anything else. It’s the being together that is important. The chatter, the bitching, the laughing and all that is a family is what I want and what I miss so badly. That is what I am looking so forward to on Sunday.
I just would like to take the time to wish all the Mothers, Daughters, Grandmothers, Godmothers (my personal favorite title of all), Sisters, Aunts and any other kind of female care giver (that really is what a Mom is) a wonderful weekend. I wish for us all to appreciate the simple things and try to “stay in the moment” of your family and friends. I would also like to give a special hug to those of you who will not be with your Mom or Grandmothers this weekend. I know that it is extra hard for you and please know that I am thinking of you. Not having the people that mean so much to us around anymore is just one more of the reasons I don’t want to grow up. I always tell the kids that growing up is so over-rated! At least that is what I hear. Until next time, be well.
Mom and I Together on Christmas Day at my Sisters House
Come and See Us!
I just wanted to make a quick post to let you know that we will be out of the studio until Tuesday May 5
th. We have a booth at the “Michigan International Woman’s Show” at the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi.
http://www.southernshows.com/wde/ It is a really big show and we are looking forward to seeing old friends as well as meeting new ones. Please stop by our booth if you attend the show. We are booth 1331. We are next to the Novi Fire Department. (Can you say hunky fireman!) The show has a lot of really interesting booths and I am looking forward to seeing all that is there. Hope to see you. Until then, be well.
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