a bit of nostalgia

Every summer as a child I would eagerly look forward to our vacations to the beach to visit my grandparents off the coast of Charleston, SC.  Once we arrived my hair would turn white from the sun, our bellies would be full of delicious crab cakes and we would gather around the piano every night to sing and play together.  My grandma would kiss us good night with a "Good night, sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite."  (That bed bugs part seems terrifying to me now.)  It was pretty idyllic and I am so thankful for these memories that my grandparents gave us.  

My grandma raised a family of storytellers and she, herself, was the greatest of them all.  We would often gawk at a story and declare "Can't be true!" but she would get even more wide eyed and exclaim that it surely was.  The taller the tale, the more eagerly we would listen.  I'm still not sure to this day what was fact of fiction.  Along with storytelling my grandma loved her photo albums and would give me the task of putting photos into albums at 5 cents a page.  I loved this job and would always happily do it.  Looking back I wonder now if she wasn't instilling a love of photography, family history, and storytelling more than filling my piggy bank.  

In my "off season" I've been scanning these albums that I so diligently worked on as a child so that they can be preserved for future generations.  I love turning a photo over and seeing my grandma's familiar handwriting Taken and developed by Hank or  Lake Herrington with Buzz at the helm. During these hours of carefully extracting photos from the sticky pages and scanning them I've been thinking about my work quite a bit.  I think it's been just what I needed.  A rejuvenation for the upcoming year, in a way.  I really love what I do - capturing specials days, years, moments - so, thank you.  All of you who have trusted me with your stories.  Who have read this blog over the years, have let me take your picture and have recommended me to your family and friends.  It's something that I feel honored to be able to do. 

And now, in case you'd like to see a few of the memories I've enjoyed working on… 

Bayne, Hank and Beka June 1959 // Johnnie, Roswell, NM 1937 (My grandpa)  // As a wedding photographer, this might be one of my favorites.  My grandparents on my parent's wedding day with my aunt and uncle in the foreground, which my grandma labeled PROUD PARENTS.