Some Pictures of My Lovely Wife
Like me, Bev doesn't easily relax in front of the camera. I usually get my best shots of her only when she is distracted. Since I've started taking pictures I've tried, every once in a while, to change that. When Joel took Ruth out with him to a post-performance party with cast-mates and friends Saturday night Bev and I returned to the hotel room. It was way too cold for us to try to find anything else to do on an unfamiliar college campus. Bev agreed to let me take a few pictures of her. As in most hotel rooms, the light was not very bright. After seeing how my flash took all of the warmth out of the picture I turned it off. As a result the pictures are all grainy, noisy and sort of soft-focusy but I kind of like them this way. Bev and I chatted and joked while I took the pictures and the whole thing was more relaxed than it usually is. I later realized that it was, in part, because neither of us had our minds on the next thing that had to be done -- we were on a little vacation so we were better able to simply pay attention to what we were doing without mentally compiling a to-do list for the rest of the weekend.
I fiddled a little with the pictures (not much) in Picasa before I uploaded them and while I don't regard them as great art I do regard them as more representative of how I remember that time with my wife than would have been a couple of pictures quickly snapped off.
Comments
It's nice to take the time to chronicle memories. Ron and I do that when we go off on Holidays. In summer we take my son to stay with his father. Immediately following we usually head off on some holiday or trek of some sort. Last year it was in search of retirement property. What fun to spend time in hotels, meeting new people, exploring communities. I just love doing that with Ron.
With any luck, you two have a compatible relationship, and it sounds like you do. It's nice to be friends with your partner, wouldn't you say? I appreciate it.
Anyway, thanks for sharing. It's a lot easier than trying to navigate your flickr. As I mentioned before, you are a prolific photographer.
Yes, I really started taking photos when I got my first digital camera -- before that next to nothing. I treat flickr, first and foremost, as my offline storage area - so I upload nearly everything I take. It annoys people who regard flickr as primarily as a gallery or as a source of clip art -- but what the hey. Someday, maybe, I'll sit down and develop some sort of coherent tagging system which will allow people to search my flickr photos for the ones I regard as particularly nice or significant. I already use sets for that purpose, although inconsistently. I guess I'll consider using Vox more regularly to highlight my photos as well. It is only recently that I've thought of them as being of more than personal interest.
Bev and I don't often vacation alone together. We have two more years of college for Joel and four years of college for Ruth that we will be paying for. Vacations have tended to be the only time that all four of us can spend together in a relaxed atmosphere -- so Bev and I mostly defer anything else. We have managed a weekend every once in a while and we stay on the lookout for the possibility of taking an unplanned week off if the opportunity presents itself...but mostly we talk about the things we'll do six, seven, ten years from now.
Bev and I were a very unlikely couple. When word first got out in the New York office of U.S. Customs that we were going to get married people would come up to me and say something like "You and BEV?" and just walk away, shaking their heads in confused wonderment.
I assume you both work/ed in customs at the time of your engagement? Now, why would anyone think you an unlikely couple? How many years married?
Ron and I have been married 7 years, to each other. Too many to count in total. (I don't have enough fingers)
Don't get me started about CUSTOMS! Hahaha! Have you any idea the hassles when your daughter lives in the US and you live in Canada? Yikes! Seriously, we don't have issues...I'm just giving you a bad time. I would imagine you get worse.
Again, Ron and I are fortunate. He will get to retire early from his job at Alcan Primary Metals Group. He has worked there a very long time. He will retire, assuming our investments continue to go well, about the time my son will graduate high school. 4 more years or less. We've made some great investments and been really lucky. I am looking forward to being considered retired at just under 50. Oh My God, where has the time gone? Of course David, my baby, maintains he will live with us until he is 35. He LOVES his mommy taking care of everything. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
What kind of camera do you use? I always forget to take mine, in large part because it's so big and cumbersome. Finally this summer I got a little point and shoot Nikon that I just drop into my purse. It doesn't take great shots but a lot handier than our big one and it is adequate.