March, 2010

Wedding Photography — 2 Comments
12
Mar 10

2009 Weddings Gallery

Well I finally gave up (temporarily) and posted a gallery from some of the weddings that I shot last year, using a format that for which I hadn’t originally planned. I’m still wrestling with a new javascript gallery. I imagine that I’m Gandalf wrestling the Balrog, but it I’m more appropriately the Balrog as to this point I have javascript gallery has bested me. Okay, enough geek references for one post.

You can find the gallery here and you can find a link to my weddings home page here. Here are a three of my favorite pictures. I love the unscripted moments before and after the ceremony. I find that they tend to be the most revealing. That’s not to say that the there aren’t nice moments during the ceremony. Click images to see larger versions.

Before the ceremony with bride and flower girl at the Sorrento Hotel in Seattle


And another photo

The bride with her bridesmaids just before the ceremony at Alderbrook Resort in Union, Washington


And the last one

The breide and bridesmaids after a visit to the hair salon in Poulsbo

Photojournalism — No Comments
9
Mar 10

Vigil for Susan Cox Powell ….

On Saturday I covered a vigil in Puyallup marking four months since the disappearance of Susan Cox Powell. I can’t imagine having a family member go missing. It’s one thing to lose a loved one, it’s another to have no idea what happened to them or not know where they are. This is the second vigil for Susan that I covered and each time the Cox family has been very gracious to me and to all those in attendance. I am amazed by their strength. Last month, they started the Susan Cox Powell Foundation, which can be found here. Before they have any closure themselves, they start a foundation to help the families of missing persons. They also have a Facebook page with more than 45,000 members here.

The first  photos is from before the vigil started, when the dark blue sky still balanced with the sky a bit. I try and shoot with as much available light as possible especially in a situation such as a vigil. I try to be as unobtrusive as possible, which when carrying cameras is nearly impossible.

Candles illuminate the faces of people attending a vigil for Susan Cox Powell

Here is another photo from the vigil. A moment of reflection for members of Susan’s family. They are illuminated by flood light and the candles.

Members of Susan Cox Powells family including her sister, brother-in-law, aunt and grandmother during the vigil.

Personal / Ramblings — No Comments
1
Mar 10

Remembering Grandma

This morning my grandmother died. She was very dear to me. She was very dear to her five children, to her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She lived in Santa Cruz, while I was growing up in San Jose, so I saw her a lot, less so in recent years, but I got to see hear during Christmas for which I am grateful. While I didn’t get to see her much in the past few years, it’s hard know that a fixture in my life is no longer there.

Next to her apartment in Santa Cruz was a drive-in theater, which on the weekends hosted a flea market where my grandmother rummaged finding things she thought her friends and family wanted or needed. She also was a dumpster diver, finding things like a new leather jacket with jammed zipper. If she thought someone could use it she took it. When we visited her, she always had a box or several boxes of stuff depending what family we might see before she had the chance. When she visited our home, she was always busy with some chore or another. Constantly. She always had a stack of clothes for me to take up stairs. She had an energy that didn’t stop.

She always thought of her family first. She was always so proud of me. For what reason, I have no idea. Every time I saw her she reminded me of that, unabashedly. Probably the same as many other grandparents, but she was my grandmother. She survived a rough life, but that didn’t diminish her kindness and her love.

Aside from her unconditional love I will miss her apple pie, for which there was no recipe. Everything from scratch. No measuring cups. Every time she came to visit, every time she saw me, she had an apple pie for me. I know it is cheesy, but there was nothing like Grandma’s apple pie.

Below if a picture of my grandmother with my Aunt Kathy on Christmas Eve. I know I have a better picture of her, which I will post when after sort through my negatives and scan. I love you Grandma and I apologize for eulogizing you a post. You probably wouldn’t have wanted the attention. No worries. I don’t think any reads this blog anyway.

Grandma Brashear