where there is a will, there is a way

will loves bubbles... and his bright green ball. he definitely does not like the feel of tiny pebbles beneath his bare feet and he prefers that his hand not be held in the arboretum. on the hottest day of the year, in the sunniest patch of green- we photographed will and his mom and dad. it was hot. it was humid. it was unlike the former summer months with cool breezes and mild temperatures. it was not a good day, really for anything, save a swimming pool or a tall glass of ice water.... and yet, where there is a will, there is always a way. we snapped happy and busy and playful and aside from the occasional reddened cheeks, you would never know that the heat was stifling.

thank you jenny and dan for sharing the hot afternoon with us! you were both a delight and we so enjoyed capturing will.... and his way.

jg.

state fair

grab a tub of popcorn, some cotton candy and surrender your soul to the memory of a happy day. soon the state fair will be here! complete with the tenfold talents of youth and sage. ten days of nostalgia, achievement and sensory overload.

there is something about a fair in general that suspends time. where the advancement of technology and the evolution of intellect pauses briefly, allowing the simplicity of life to shine through. where battles are fought in quart jars of jelly and bragging rights are given to the hand holding the lead of a blue ribbon dairy goat. where the smell of hay and feed and cattle mix with carmel corn and funnel cakes. this is life abundant. this is every grandfather grasping the sticky hand of boyhood and showing him the efforts of a year well-spent.

timeless are these days, as proven by our recent photographs of will. will- whose grandfather wore this very state fair shirt. will- whose reddened cheeks showed evident the hot august day. will- who will no doubt save this piece of legend and give it to his own one day.

thank you will- and thank you to your grandfather- for allowing us to view the essence of happiness, spent in the heat of youth in the greatest state of being.

jg.

taylor and lucian

right smack dab in the middle of rain and clouds and an otherwise disagreeable week, occurred a beautiful Sunday afternoon. i had the fortunate opportunity to photograph some adorable, happy, and busy subjects. attached are taylor and lucian. taylor is nearly three and lucian is soon to be a one year old.

full of energy, vibrant, happy, curious children. the backdrop is a beautiful family garden complete with pebbles and mulch for eating (!), rocks for plopping in the pond, and pathways for running! happy are the days of youth!

enjoy!

jg.

hiatus

hiatus/hahy-ey-tuhs/ noun. a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. whatever it's defined, we have had it. i suppose as with most, summer means vacation, vacation means beach, beach means sandy laziness, and the return home means a more postive outlook on the routine of our daily lives. unless, that is, when the return home is followed by a feisty attack of appendicitis on a wife who does not like going to the hospital. definite interruption in the continuity of work.

i thought about photographing the whole fiasco, but i didn't imagine it would go over well... especially after my jokes about whether or not she wanted to sign a DNR at the emergency room failed miserably.

nonetheless, our happy little family is back, refreshed, renewed, and less one cranky appendix. (thank you Dr. Rogers!)

and so i begin again. now thinking thoughts of august. the majestic month that brings backpacks, new tennis shoes, sharpened pencils, new beginnings, and big adventures....

it's a great time for grabbing your own camera and catching those first day of school jitters and excitement... you remember... that picture on the front porch, school bag in hand, new shoes, new clothes, new everything. snap away august. or call me.... i'm always up by at least 6:30 ... plenty of time to get the wide-eyed excitement of a brand new year.

pencils ready? the hiatus is over!

this is scary

check out this story that I found on yahoo.com. as a photog, this scares me!

Mo. family Christmas photo turns up in Czech ad
Ap
By BETSY TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer Betsy Taylor, Associated Press Writer – Wed Jun 10, 9:23 pm ET
ST. LOUIS – It's an international mystery: How did a Missouri family's Christmas card photo end up in the Czech Republic, splashed across a huge storefront advertisement? Danielle Smith said Wednesday that the photo taken of her family last year got sent to family and friends, and was posted on her blog and a few social networking sites. The photo showed her and her husband Jeff holding their two young children.
About 10 days ago, one of Smith's college friends was driving through Prague when he spotted their huge smiling faces in the window of a store specializing in Europeann food. He snapped a few pictures and sent them to a flabbergasted Smith.
"It's a life-size picture in a grocery store window in Prague — my Christmas card photo!" said Smith, 36, who lives in the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon.
Mario Bertuccio, who owns the Grazie store in Prague, said the photo was from the Internet. Details were sparse, but he said he thought it was computer-generated. When told it was a real photo — of a real family — he said he started taking steps to remove it.
"We'll be happy to write an e-mail with our apology," said Bertuccio, who said he would send the Smiths a bottle of good wine if they lived in his eastern European country.
The Smiths and photographer Gina Kelly hadn't authorized anyone to use the pictures. Kelly said she has asked a professional photographers' organization to help figure out how her image wound up in Prague.
Smith has gotten 180,000 hits to her Web site since she recently posted the story about the well-traveled snapshot. She said the photo wasn't used in an unseemly manner, it was just used to tell potential shoppers about the store's delivery service.
Smith said next time she posts a photo on the Internet, she's going to lower the resolution or add an electronic watermark to make it hard to reproduce.
"This story doesn't frighten me, but the potential frightens me," Smith said.
____
Associated Press Writer Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this report.
____
On the Net:
Danielle Smith's blog: http://www.extraordinarymommy.com/blog

passion

it often happens in ways that we don't want it to. it = life. we get fat and sassy with things that we are comfortable with and often fail to open our eyes to see those things that challenge us and inspire us to capture the moment. photography is a passion and it is a way to tell a life story. if I do my job correctly, the pictures I take should make you feel something. that's the struggle. that's the challenge. that's the passion.

forgive me for being a fat and sassy "do-er" and give me the drive to get moving on this passion again!

as I often hear in a prayer at church, "Lord, grant me the energy to change the things I can and the awareness of the things that I cannot."

I can change this.

jg.

welcome back, june!

so i believe that if june were a woman, she would be beautiful. maybe a young bride with possessed by intense joy.. or maybe she might be a grandmother just home from picking strawberries with her granddaughter, with the warm smell of fruit on sweat-stained skin. if nothing else, she must be a mother carrying damp bathing suits to the laundry room after watching children run through a sprinkler until daytime sunshine was overshadowed by dusk. this is summer, undoubtedly the best- happiest- time of year. i feel like the world massages the tension of winter and spring out of their shoulders on memorial day weekend and then welcomes june, whatever form she may be, to come and relax with a glass of sweet tea for 30 days... or so.

happy are the days of summer when ties are sometimes replaced with short sleeves and bermudas. grass is softer for tumbling this time of year. water is the medium we use to soothe our wayward souls. june is the wonderful adjective-evoking season of love, strawberries and bathing suits. join in the fun!

jg.