“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life.

Life is brief, and then you die, you know?

And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.”

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2011. All rights reserved.| Permalink |

This is one of my favorite images from my tenure in New Mexico. When I’m feeling particularly squeezed by life’s seemingly impossible demands, I find myself seeking this image out in my archives. For me, it represents complete freedom.

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2009. All rights reserved.| Permalink |

My parents are retired, but not retiring. As a matter of fact, they’ve begun to range far and wide. Over this past summer, they set off on what I’ve begun to refer to as their Grand Adventure. They recently purchased a gigantic ‘Monster Bus’, a sort of land yacht RV thing, the type of thing you might see certain rock stars ensconced in. My mother had never seen the great American west or southwest and it had been decades since my father had. They set off on a 45 day ‘walk about’, following the setting sun.

My mother took a little point and shoot with her, to document their adventures. The images in this post were taken mostly by my mother, Patricia Sims.  A few were taken by my father, Wayne Sims. My mother is an incredibly creative individual who has tried her hand successfully at a great many endeavors.  Among other things, she has:

• Built a beautiful field stone patio, single handedly
• Learned to sew  and applique’ beautiful garments
• Taught herself to crochet and created lovely sweaters, afghans etc
• Created incredibly intricate and unique art with decoupage
• Created lovely art with gathered and dried lichens, bark, flowers, seed pods etc
• Painted truly wonderful oil paintings of a great many subjects
• Created the MOST fabulous outdoor courtyard with lush greenery and burbling fountain
• Is a fabulous cook with an innate understanding of how to prepare wild game

Don’t tell anybody…..most especially her…..but I think my mother is an artist.

My mother has never taken a photography class, but has become a keen observer of what I do : )  I gotta say, she’s been a great ‘student’ and has a fantastic eye. She emailed all these images to me, just to share. They came directly out of her camera and were all rather ‘flat’. I couldn’t resist taking them into Lightroom and doing that voodoo that I do. Then I exported them to Photoshop and also ran some ‘actions’ on a few of them. Enjoy! This first one was taken through the moving RV window, hence the ‘grid’ effect.

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2009. All rights reserved.| Permalink | 3 comments

On a recent trip to Boone, North Caroline, we stumbled upon two very old cemeteries.  There is something about finding an old gravestone from someone who has already been in the ground for 131 years, that just puts you right in your place.  We get to thinking that we and our troubles, causes and concerns are so important. And then, BAM!  You realize that none of it will matter in 100 years.  Kind of puts it all into perspective.

When I wander through cemeteries I try to imagine the lives that people might have lived.  Sometimes I try to put together a story of what might have happened in certain families.

For example, this 14 year old girl died in 1950, before the technology was there to put a photograph on a ceramic tile.  Yet, years after her passing, someone loved her enough to come back to her grave and put a beautiful photograph of her on the headstone.

At least Gail Hagie has a grave marker.  Many of the graves have only plain standing stones, without inscriptions of any kind.  They make me think of Stonehenge.  All we know is that someone, surely once loved by another, is buried beneath that spot.

I realize it was the tradition of the time, but it always bothers me to find headstones for women that either say Mrs. What’s His Name or simply ‘wife’.  Gone.  Vanished.  Who were they?  I know I am writing from my own, post feminist, staunchly INDIVIDUAL perspective, but my god, did they not deserve to at least have their very own NAME written on their grave marker?  I am also aware that many of those very same women would not have thought it odd.  Seems a shame.

This young man, a victim of the war in Iraq, was outlived by his own father, who managed to survive WWII.  They were buried side by side.  How it must have galled the father to have to put his son in the ground before himself.  I found the words on his headstone oddly comforting.  No words about ‘god’ or ‘country’.  Just simple faith in the earth.

I suppose there are far worse fates than to live out your life in a close knit, self reliant mountain community and to sleep throughout eternity in a literal earthly paradise.

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2009. All rights reserved.| Permalink |

I know I mentioned it before, that we live in the heart of urban Midtown, Atlanta.  I can honestly say I am glad to have had this experience.

When I was younger, oh so much younger, I used to daydream about all the different ways I wanted to experience living.  One of them was that fantasy of living right in the heart of a vibrant city, wherein I would walk right down to the street and skip happily along, just like Marlo Thomas in That Girl.  I’d stroll past fresh flower vendors, shop at my local corner grocer, frequent my neighborhood coffee shop slash bookstore and bump into friends, neighbors and acquaintances all along the way, as I made my way to a fabulous city park for a bench with a view.  Hmmmm…..don’t forget the baguette and fragrant cheese either.

Well, there have certainly been days like those.  But I am a country girl at heart.  I grew up in the heart of the deep south, in rural north Alabama amid rolling hills and farm land.  I have been living in or near a big city for far too long.  I am ready for a change.  I keep hearing the call towards western North Carolina, up in the hills.

So, we keep taking little mini-vacations and driving up to the mountains.  This past weekend we stayed up in Boone, North Carolina, in a wonderful little house with a wrap around deck.  We did a lot of exploring, but right now I just want to focus on the cabin experience, where in we sat at a charming bistro table and sipped hot coffee:

I found a tub of plastic toys stashed under the coffee table and couldn’t resist amusing myself while sipping my coffee in the dappled light.

What’s I’m saying is, I’d like to see A LOT more of this:

Before I see this:

Speaking of which, we spent a wonderful afternoon wandering through two different and really old cemeteries while in the mountains.  I’ll be posting more about that experience later.

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2009. All rights reserved.| Permalink |

Saturday was the Second Annual Worldwide Photo Walk. Somehow I fell off the planet and only just found out about it on Thursday, two days before the event. I have NEVER been accused of paying close attention to…um…details. Anyway, the general Atlanta metro area was hosting no less than 7 different walks in 6 different locations. Of course, most of them were already filled to capacity. Did I mention this MAMMOTH event only came into my consciousness on Thursday? Late on Thursday? VERY late on Thursday?

I decided to attend the walk in Marietta.  I live in Midtown.  I figured it would be good to expand my horizons, visit a different town and break out of my comfort zone.  I set my clock for early.  Early for a Saturday morning.  I arose, showered, ate and departed.  I drove and drove.  Then I drove some more.  I arrived in Marietta, dutifully followed my googlemaps directions…and completely FAILED to ever find the group.  I must have circled that darned town square 15 times.  Stopped and asked for directions, guidance, donations and prayers.  NOBODY had a clue where Depot Street was.  It’s a small downtown.  I’m looking right and left for a group of 50 people with cameras.  You’d figure they’d stand out like, well, a large group of people with cameras.  No.  So, after 30 minutes of driving in circles around the Marietta square,  I cashed it in and headed home.

But.  I REALLY wanted to participate.  I mean, it was a WORLD event.  Turns out there was a massive group convening in Midtown.  Two groups rolled into one mob of 100 people.  That group was ‘technically’ full.  No vacancies.  But I figured, lookit, it’s a Saturday afternoon for cris’sakes at overcrowded Atlantic Station with a million loose cannons rolling around on deck.  HOW, I ask you, was anyone gonna know I was a gate crasher?  Exactly.  I mean, who do they think they’re dealing with here?  I’ve stiffed a New York cabbie!  Whoa.  Hold up.  That was a lie.  What do I look like, someone with a death wish?

And that’s how I came to be out and about on a beautiful, but slightly warmish July day in overrated Atlantic Station.  Beautiful, because the humidity was stunningly low for Atlanta at this time of year, where one usually expects to slice it with a knife.  Not so beautiful in the light category however, as the event kicked off at 4:00 pm.  The light doesn’t get really good this time of year until almost 7:00 pm.  The good news is, I met 3 really nice people.  Camille, Dan and Nat, consider this a ‘shout out’…whoop whoop.  Nat, if I’ve misspelled your name, you have only yourself to blame.  Little mister ‘I don’t have a card’….

My role in this misadventure was to play the ‘Hyacinth Bucket‘ part.  I was bossy, overbearing, talkative and just in general, my usual sparkly self.  I’m nothing, if not self-aware.  If either of my daughters is reading this, they will snarf liquid through their nose.  I didn’t photograph much, as I’ve already spent a fair amount of time in the vicinity, camera in hand.  Plus I was talking.  A lot.  However, I did get a few shots that make me feel happy to look at, so I’ll share those with you now.  Ladies and gentlemen, my impressions of Midtown on Saturday, July 18, 2009.  Drum roll please:

As mentioned previously, I live in Midtown, so I’m often out and about with my camera.  Below are some images I shot at Atlantic Station a few months back, when the light was most tasty.

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2009. All rights reserved.| Permalink | 2 comments

I traveled to Bangkok, Thailand in May of 2009 for surgery. I am one of the growing number of Americans that are now ‘self pay’, which is a euphemistic way of saying I am uninsured. I will not go into the details of my surgery, other than to say I had a very positive medical experience in a state-of-the-art hospital for a fraction of the cost in America. That includes the round trip airfare for TWO, a private hospital room with a bed for my traveling companion, AND a 2 week stay in a 5 star hotel to recuperate before the journey home.

These are a few of the shots I was able to take on my limited post surgery ‘walk abouts’.

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2009. All rights reserved.| Permalink |

I could take this post in any number of directions. I could talk about bold color in portraiture, how to transform virtually any place into a photography studio, how to work with children of varying ages or how to work with a larger group of people. Let’s roll with the last one.

Posing a large group can be intimidating to even the most seasoned of photographers.   Let me say at this juncture that my particular style of photography is casual, fun and quirky.   My subjects are often on the floor and very little proppage is used.   Yes, proppage is a word.   It means ‘things you use to make yourself feel more like a real portrait photographer and therefore run the risk of having your work look like everybody else’s work’.  If you are looking for more traditional ways of grouping and lighting people, then I am not the photographer for you.

Mama Koku, storyteller extraordinaire, a traveling bard who spins tales in several African traditions, hired me to photograph her upcoming CD cover. During our initial phone interview (yes, clients interview us and we most assuredly interview them, let the circling and sniffing begin….) it was decided that a bright orange backdrop would fit the bill nicely.  We selected a time and place (the multi-purpose room of the local library branch) and we were off and running.

Mama Koku and her wonderful tribe of friends, family and neighbors began to arrive in stages.  I decided to break the ice by photographing smaller groups to begin with.  Actually, my very first shots were lighting tests with a dashing young man of unusual grace and presence.  This test helped me determine a two light setup would be best.  Shooting down at your subject is also a great way to emphasize their eyes, btw.  This shot below was just between young Mr. ‘I’ and me, as the room was quiet and empty except for the two of us.

Here is another shot illustrating the same principle.  This is Mama Koku seated, looking slightly back over her shoulder and up at me.  I was standing on the background paper mere feet from her, aiming down.  Look at those wonderful, warm eyes.

As more people arrived, I spied these two dashing young gentlemen.   They were thick as thieves and full of mischievous energy.   Sometimes the best thing to do is pair people up.   Having someone there with them, allows many children (adults too) to relax and not feel so on-the-spot.   Through the years I have found the back-to-back pose very effective.   It works especially well with boys, as they are often far more self-conscious in front of the camera than girls are.   It also gives them a way to touch, and I always insist their backs actually touch.   This has a profound psychological effect.   It says, in a primal way “I got your back”.   It also allows for maximum individualism.   Each subject is free to be, without visual input from the other.   Yet they each feel ‘safer’ and more confident than they would, all alone out there, in the big middle of all that cold seamless background paper.

All kids invariably love the ‘watching TV’ pose.   They like it even better when the photographer assumes the same position.   I spend a lot of time crawling around on the floor when I’m working.   When shooting like this, I’m usually on my belly, just like my subjects.  Did she just say belly? Yep. I always insist shoulders should be touching.  None of this ‘I’m not really in this photo with you’ stuff.  Either go all the way or don’t bother.  Either you like each other or you don’t and if you don’t, why bother to be photographed together?  I’m just not interested in all that in-between stuff, in photography or life.

Least you think it was all about the boys, look again.  Of course the girls wanted to get in on the action.  I suggested they line up but had no clue they were already miles ahead of me.  The relaxed and sweet energy between these girls was fantastic.  They just naturally configured themselves into a classic pyramid, which is one of the most effective ways to group people.  They got it exactly right!  We can tell they all know and like each other just by looking.

The following images illustrate how versatile the pyramid configuration can be.  Please note spaces were left for a graphic designer to drop in animated figures for the final artwork.

Sometimes within one configuration, you can use another.  Inside the pyramid below is a modified back-to-back pose.

As another handsome young man arrived to be added into the mix, I shifted to a diamond pose, which also happened to encompass a back-to-back pose.

Mama Koku is a storyteller.  I had the idea to pose her with children drapped about her person, much like the Native American Cochiti storyteller.  So I had her lie down and set about arranging some girls around her.  I decided to use only the girls in this one, because the boys were of an age to be extremely uncomfortable with this type of close, physical posing.  It is always best to work with, rather than against, your subject’s innate characteristics.  It is difficult to get warm, natural and engaging photographs of people who are woefully and wretchedly outside their comfort zone.

We also did a number of shots of Mama Koku actively engaged in the art of telling a story  For these shots, I had her sit on a small child’s chair and we gathered the younger children around her.  This took a bit of arranging and rearranging to make sure everyone’s face or profile was showing.

At the end of the shoot I asked Mama Koku if there was anything we hadn’t done that she would like to try.  She wanted some shots of the whole group standing.  Here goes:

By this time we had been working for about an hour and a half.  Everyone was relaxed and perhaps even a little tired…..

I couldn’t resist a little family love.  What’s not to love about mothers and daughters?  Yeah, I know.  Keep it to yourself.  You KNOW you love your mama.  And she loves you, right?  Right.

I realize I sometimes spend a fair amount of time on certain intangible things, like psychology or family and group dynamics.   That’s because those things MATTER.   This is aimed at all those folks who think any fool with a camera can be a photographer.   I would be remiss in my duties if I only talked about technique and equipment.   It takes SO much more to produce COMPELLING images of our fellow human beings.   It takes empathy, courage, strength of character, a sense of adventure and compassion, as well as killer instincts and lighting fast reflexes.   Here’s to all the people shooters out there.   Long may you prosper and thrive.   Without you, the world would be a lonelier and less colorful place.

Oh, here’s a shot of the room before I transformed it. Look closely and you can see my roll of orange background paper lying there waiting for me to finish my setup.

If you would like to read more, check out these articles:

Using Bold Color in Portraiture – Tips and Techniques

How to Set Up a Photo Booth in Your Home

High Key Studio Lighting Tutorial

Low Key Lighting Tutorial

Photographing Young Children with Low Key Lighting – Tutorial

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2008. All rights reserved.| Permalink | 3 comments

I know I’ve said this a few thousand times, but it really IS true I’ve had a camera in my hand since I was nine years old.  I celebrated my 50th birthday last May (yeah I know, hard to believe huh?) So, I’ve had a few years to rack up some doozies.

Here are some of my favorites.

1. EMBARRASSMENT COMES EARLY

My very first moment of embarrassment came right along with my first camera, which was a gift from my parents on my 9th birthday. It was a Brownie box camera, which you had to open up completely to load with roll film. We’re talking way old school here. In my excitement, I ran next door to share with our neighbors, a married couple with no children of their own at the moment. The husband, who had befriended me, marveled over it, ooh’ing and aah’ing. With a wicked gleam in his eye, he said, “betcha there’s no film in that camera.”  And I’m all “uh huh, there is too film in my camera” and he’s all “nah, couldn’t be” and I’m all “well just look then!”   Quick as a wink, before you could say ‘bad idea’, I ripped open the camera, exposing the film. Of course, I didn’t understand that at the time. I just knew he GASPED, looked SHOCKED, then burst out laughing. I did what any reasonable 9 year old would do and ran home crying. I was mortally embarrassed and vowed to never leave the house again. I still see him almost every time I go home for a visit, and he has NEVER let me live that one down.

2. OOPS, MY BAD

Early on in my photography career, I had a brand new portrait customer in with her two children for a shoot. So, I’m all wedged between my tripod and the back wall (where I was ALWAYS wishing I could back up 3 giant steps), just shooting away. Oh yeah. It was good. It was happening. Great stuff going on and I’m getting it all down on film. I was just shooting away. Shooting……and shooting……..and still shooting…..and gosh this is a really long roll of film and ….WHY AM I STILL SHOOTING?????? Why haven’t I had to change the roll of film????? WHY? BECAUSE THERE WAS NO FILM IN THE CAMERA!!! Oh yes. I had been shooting for almost 20 minutes with absolutely no film in the camera. When I realized this, I audibly gasped. Mom looked up.

Her: “What’s wrong?”
Me: “I don’t want to tell you.”

My mind was racing. Here she was, thinking we were winding down and the session was almost finished. Good thing too, as her son was nearing his personal meltdown point. Yet, not one single picture had been taken. I had no idea how she would react. I took a deep breath.

Me: “I know I’m supposed to be the professional here, but there’s no film in the camera. We have to keep shooting.”

She looked at me for a nanosecond…..then threw her head back and GUFFAWED. Literally laughed until tears were streaming down her face.

Conclusion? I loaded the camera, we kept shooting and I actually got even BETTER images, because her children had relaxed by that point and it got REAL. She became a repeat customer for many years after that, adding baby number 3 and occasionally hubby into the mix.

3.  OPEN BOX, INSERT FOOT

And then there was the time I fogged an entire box of unexposed photographic paper. Yep, all 100 sheets. How, and why was it embarrassing? Because it was at my local rental darkroom in the middle of the mad dash to the Christmas deadline aka The Christmas Crazies, when I, like many of my fellow photographers, was chained to my enlarger. I had some sort of brain fart either coming or going to the feeding room with a light tight paper safe.

The facility manager was trying to figure out when everyone would be finished feeding prints, so he would know when he could start shutting equipment down for the night. I had already been there for 8 hours and was exhausted. Without thinking, I said  “well let me see how many prints I have left to feed.” And I opened my paper safe. In the light. The manager, a personal friend btw, merely cocked at eyebrow at me, while I stood there twitching like Daffy Duck in a bad cartoon skit. Trust me, he had seen it ALL. I, however, was mortified. So were my darkroom buddies. No one said a word. Not one.

4.  CAN I GET A WARM TOWEL WITH THAT, PLEASE?

My ‘dream’ studio was housed on the ground floor of my home. I went to the gym every morning and usually scheduled my first shoot of the day at 10:00 am. This gave me time to rush home, shower, dress and head downstairs. The studio itself was always in a state of readiness for the day’s shoots.

Piece of cake if everything went according to plan. Until the morning a family of five showed up 20 minutes early and I was still in the shower. I kid you not. The doorbell actually had the audacity to ring and I had a decision to make. What to do???

Well, I greeted them at the door, in my robe with a towel wrapped around my head. Dad looked a bit uncomfortable. I invited them in, tried to act far more glib about it than I felt, gave them some reading material and went back upstairs. I returned 15 minutes later, slightly more presentable. They did not become repeat customers. Was it something I said?

5.  ANATOMY 101

One of my favorite ‘poses’ for infants who can sit alone, but not yet crawl, is the ‘Shoot the Moon’ pose. Basically, you place a naked baby on your backdrop, facing away from the camera. Then you have mom call their name and they usually look back over their shoulders at her, often with a little index finger raised. It’s so cute. You get gorgeous eyes, curious looks and sweet little baby ‘cheeks’.

Worked like a charm, until I had a customer with a little boy who had clearly never sat around much naked. He ‘discovered’ his, um ‘little friend’. Oh my goodness. He tugged on it, pulled on it, bent double staring at it and would not leave it alone. Would not. He was EARNEST. And mom was sooooooo embarrassed. We kept trying to distract him with other props and toys, but nothing was nearly so interesting as stubby. Mom was crimson. She kept saying “Oh my goodness. Oh my. Oh dear. Oh he’s just never done that before.”  And I kept trying to reassure her it was ‘normal’ and nothing to be embarrassed by, while secretly feeling like an inappropriate voyeur. But the little guy just wouldn’t let up and ultimately, even I had to concede defeat. We dressed him. He was not happy. They didn’t become repeat customers either.

6.  FEEL THE LOVE

When you work with families as much as I have, you begin to develop a sixth sense about a lot of things. You can feel when something interesting is about to happen and you develop your instincts and hone your reflexes on the shutter.

You also learn to read family dynamics and anticipate trouble. Usually.

I was photographing a set of three siblings, two boys (ages 3 and 4) and a girl, aged 6. The boys were wild. Screaming, jumping and creating utter chaos. The girl was a bit rough and tumble, but basically a good kid, sitting on her mark waiting for her two young brothers to be wrestled into submission by Dad. We were twenty minutes into an unbelievably difficult shoot and Dad was starting to lose it. His patience was frayed like an old rope.

I can usually tell when things are about to ‘pop’ in a family and will do or say something to distract and diffuse. Not this time. The little girl starting trying to ‘help’ Dad, who blew a gasket so fast it was unbelieveable. He whipped his head around, yelled “YOU’RE OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER!!!!!” And started spanking her on the legs.

I was embarrassed for EVERYONE. First of all, it was o.v.e.r.  I sat there with all these emotions rolling around inside me, wanting to say  ”Hey Dad, do you really think I’m gonna get good pics of your kids now????” His daughter was crying and so very embarrassed to be spanked in front of me. Her little face was red and swollen and snot was flying. For good measure, the boys started wailing because…well, just because. Mom looked like she wanted to melt into the floor. Dad had that ‘deer caught in the headlights of a car’ look in his eyes. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

I just sat down and sighed audibly. I said I thought it might be best if we concluded the session. I didn’t charge them a sitting fee and I never saw them again. I still cringe every time I think of them.

7.  WHEN IN DOUBT, DROP KICK IT

After several successful years in business, I was finally able to afford to step up to a medium format camera. I purchased two Bronica bodies, and all the accessories and gear to complete them.

I had several NFL players and their families on my list of customers. I was in the middle of a session with one such family, with the action moving fast and furious. I was photographing mom, dad and their two very young, active children. My studio was completely set up to deal with this type of situation, with the lights suspended on an overhead track system, I used a radio release so I wasn’t tethered to sync cords and my tripod was mounted on a dolly with wheels, so I could zoom up and down. I went to flip my camera from horizontal to vertical as fast as possible so as not to miss any of the action. I must have forgotten to lock my camera to the tripod head. My beautiful Bronica went crashing to the CONCRETE floor, where it broke into all its separate pieces-parts. I was looking at a couple thousand dollars worth of equipment scattered all over the floor. Defensive lineman Dad’s eyes bugged out and his mouth dropped open. My heart sank, right before it stopped completely. But of course, I couldn’t let this show, because uncomfortable customers don’t make good photographs. So I came back to life and simply said “Don’t worry, I have another one,” and my assistant grabbed the extra body from the workroom and we continued shooting, like nothing had happened.

After they left, I cried. I took it to a camera repair shop to see what the extent of the damage was. Surprisingly, other than a few dings, the camera was still functional. I used it without incident for several more years. The lens survived too. Without a scratch. The film back, on the other hand, never did close right again and would sometimes fly off the camera unexpectedly.

If you would like to read more, check out these articles:

High Key Studio Lighting – Tutorial

Photographing Young Children With Low Key Lighting – Tutorial

Studio Lighting for Headshots – Tutorial

How to Set Up a Photo Booth in Your Home

How to Photograph Large Groups in the Studio

Photographing Babies, Birth to One Year – Tips and Techniques

Using Bold Color in Portraiture – Tips and Techniques

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2008. All rights reserved.| Permalink | 4 comments

That is me up in the ‘cherry picker’ basket of a state of the art, quarter million dollar service truck! Oh. My. Gawd. I thought I had died and gotten a lift right up to heaven!!! I swear to Good Golly Miss Molly, I had SO MUCH FUN I would’a almost PAID the company that hired me to do it! Okay, just how many is TOO many exclamation points?

So, here I am, preparing for lift off with the driver/operator, a really nice guy by the name of Eddie. We’re right smack in the middle of downtown Atlanta on Peachtree Street. This is after Eddie so sweetly and precisely maneuvered that basket right down to the sidewalk, so I could practically walk right in.

Here we begin our ascent.

Going….

Going…..

Gone.

Here I am photographing the ground crew, who was photographing me : )

This is a view from the top looking north on Peachtree.

A slightly different, vaguely queasy making view.

Another shot from the ground crew, showing the scintillating action!

No matter how high I go in life, I still love the little people……down there on the sidewalk.

And here I am , all safe and sound, but completely JAZZED about the whole experience. Most of the people who know me realize I’m really just an overgrown 10 year boy in a 50 year old woman’s body. The 10 year old HAD A BLAST AND WANTS TO DO IT AGAIN!!!

Oh…..before I forget. So, what exactly was it I was photographing?

This:

Now don’t tell me life ain’t grand.

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2008. All rights reserved.| Permalink |