First Studio Photo Shoot

I got a studio flash setup and put up some butcher paper. Joshua was in a good mood this morning, so he became the subject for my first studio photo shoot. I've always been against "studio photography" because it seems that people appear so stiff and unnatural in many studio photos. But I'm kind of liking this. I can see now that I'd like to add some back lighting for a whiter background. More to come!

New Lens

I received my new lens in the mail today. It's a Canon 55mm f/1.4 for portraits. I've been daydreaming of the pictures I'll take with this lens. I love the shallow depth of focus. This is Roseli, telling Ethan a story while brushing his teeth (see below). Isn't she beautiful?

Narrative Intelligence

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about stories. Stories are powerful. Stories are memorable. They affect us emotionally, they maintain our interest, and they are passed from generation to generation. As someone who is passionate about recording and preserving our family history, I want to be better about telling stories.

Roseli is a wonderful storyteller. She’s truly gifted. She possesses what some have identified as narrative intelligence, meaning she thinks in story form. She loves movies, for example. Or she’ll often ask when I get off the phone, “What did she say?” Or, “Why were you saying….” I think it bugs her to hear only one side of the conversation, because it’s only half the story, so I sometimes use the speakerphone so that she won’t miss a thing.

Today, she heard Joshua whine, but she couldn’t see him. She asked me, “What’s going on?” I told her exactly what I witnessed, in detail. This feels unnatural for me, but I know that Roseli craves the detail. She said, “Wow, I’m really impressed. That was so detailed that I could visualize what you were saying.”

Ethan has clearly inherited Roseli’s story gene. Every time we brush his teeth, he says, “Count me a story about…” and he tells us who the main characters should be. Today, they were Sharkboy and Lavagirl. No story, no teeth brushing. He’s got us trained.

I do NOT possess narrative intelligence as Roseli does. I studied journalism as an undergraduate, and journalists are interested in getting the information accurate. At least, I was. But a catalog of events does not a good story make. It’s too messy. Even when the story is about something purportedly true, storytelling requires exaggeration, omission, and sometimes pure fabrication. And yet, a good story can be more valuable, more memorable, and yes, more truthful than the cold, hard facts.

Old is Beautiful

Fall is here! I love the fall. It means that Halloween’s just around the corner.

As I was walking this morning, I noticed a leaf, lying on the ground, and I picked it up, struck by its ugliness. It was asymmetrical, generally rusty in color, but with some dark green and some other dark splotches. It had a little hole in it, and it was just a little dirty all over. But I wiped the dirt off and studied it more closely. Its lack of symmetry was normal for the type of tree it came from. Then I was amazed by the variety of colors in this one leaf. And I guess there's something charming even about the little hole in the middle. It shows that the leaf went through something in life - maybe what used to fill the hole was used to fill some little worm. People are much the same as this leaf.

There is beauty in our lack of perfection, in our flaws. I love the signs of having lived - of old age! Wrinkles! Gray hair! I will wear them with honor. Why should the changing leaves, or the twisted, knotted courses of an old tree trunk receive all the admiration? Are not the graying hair and the jutting veins of some aging person's leg just as beautiful? But if you find no physical beauty in aging, consider the experiences, the knowledge, and the wisdom of the aged. True, youth is beautiful, but aging has its own beauty as well.