Wow!  What a morning!  I was so excited to get to my job today.  I had the opportunity to handle and photograph sheets of money printed in the early 1900’s.  I had no idea that before the Great Depression, banks printed their own money.  It was signed by the president of the bank and the cashier.

Check out these scissors! They were used to cut the money. They were at least 18 inches long!

Check this out: the piece of paper on the top is a check from 1890…and that’s a stamp in the top right corner. They just put a stamp on the check and put it in the mail!

I have never been more proud to be a photographer as I was last Sunday.  I was honored to be a part of Hold That Hug a drop in family photo/play-date at the park in honor of Sarah E.M. Becking Six local photographers (and about a dozen other supporters!) donated time and energy to create this amazing event.  To see All of the AMAZING photos (and photos by Sarah that are for sale) go to www.becking.zenfolio.com  A slideshow of the event should be up soon at the Hold that Hug blog.

I think this photo of Ashley Turner and Kim Wade is a great example of what the day was like. (Thanks to Abbie Brown for taking pictures of the whole event for us!)

As I’m re-reading this…I’m just seeing that this doesn’t really express what I want it to. The day was so big, the event so big and so important. I met some amazing people who told me their personal stories and reasons for being there. It was so much bigger than me. It was so much bigger than what I can say here. Isaac (my 4 year old) called it a miracle…and in a way, it really was. I photographed a family with a teenage son who had never had a family picture made, I photographed a family who had lost their dad just 2 months ago, I photographed two little boys with their sticks that “gave them power”. Kim Wade took my family picture (look under hold that hug, silverbox photographers: kim wade–we’re the first one in her folder) and we LOVE it…you know, photographers are pretty hard to photograph.

There’s not really a good reason to call this post red letter day.  No big realizations occurred, it wasn’t even a particularly fantastic day.  I did, however, listen to ani difranco’s new cd, “Red Letter Year” the entire time I finished editing images from the Patek family’s annual photo session.  A great album and a really FUN family!  

This year, Heather, Jewel and two year old Mazie moved into their new, beautiful, stunning and wonderful new home and this summer welcomed baby sister, Emmerie “Emmie” to the family. I couldn’t wait to meet Emmie and see the new digs. (complete with pond, bounce house in the basement and the best bathroom ever!) My only regret from the photo session is that I didn’t spend more time taking pictures of the house to compliment the images of the girls.

I did manage to get these images of the girls’ rooms. I just loved these cool names on the walls:

As I edited images today…I just kept smiling…crying….smiling…that’s just how it is with me some days while editing. These images of Emmie really had me doing a bit of both:

The next greatest thing I noticed while editing these images….Mazie rarely holds still. Actually, this did not go unnoticed during the session. I just LOVE a two-year-old’s energy, joy, exuberance! I love it when I get a chance to capture that instead of trying to harness it in a static-hold-still-look-at-the-camera-picture. Although Mazie is beautiful, my favorite image might be the one where her head is actually OUT of the image because she was jumping up and down!

okay, just two more. This was hard…there were so many images I LOVED from this session. I love the relationship between siblings. These two are going to be fun to watch growing up together. The first one I love because it’s so cool when babies first realize that thing floating in front of their face is…connected to them! I was so tickled when I saw that I caught a picture of Emmie doing just that! And the last one…well, that’s just the bond between sisters, isn’t it?

I say it with almost every post, I love my job. And since Ani’s album has accompanied this whole day of editing, I think it is fitting to conclude with a quote from one of the new songs: “I’ve got myself a new mantra. It says, ‘don’t forget to have a good time!’” You can say that again!

Recent posts

Anastasia Pottinger Photography is proudly powered by WordPress and designed by Big Now Consulting.