Some pictures to tell the story

I love to write, and I think my love for writing comes in the storytelling. That others can read about people or events or moments in my life, and through my writing can then experience some of the same things that I experienced, is, well, very cool to me.

One of the greatest feelings for me is that infrequent occasion when I write something that truly captures the spirit of my experience. I imagine that the writers whom I regularly read (both published authors and friends whose writing appears in blogs and elsewhere) have the same feeling when it happens for them. Sometimes you just know you wrote something good.

Photography provides the same rush for me. “A picture is worth a thousand words” is true…but it’s not true for every photo. I take thousands of photos a year (seriously), of family and friends and ballgames and landscapes and trivial stuff. Most are discarded (gotta love digital) because I didn’t really capture "it." I do keep many, not because they tell a story, but because they contain a snippet of an experience I want to remember – I have lots of those...snapshots.

And then some, they tell a story within that one frame. Again, sometimes you just know you got it right.

So while I haven’t posted in a couple months, I have been taking photos. Lots of photos. So rather than tell you about the last few months, I thought I’d show you a few photos that tell me the story:

Yvonne patiently waiting for our flight at Chicago O'Hare airport after we spent a weekend together in Sun Vally. I love that she received the spotlight she deserved on Mother's Day (thanks to my frequent flier status, and Yvonne being mom to five kids, we both got upgraded, too)...

Melissa and Levi, our oldest and youngest, sharing a moment before Mel's prom date arrived. I love that even though she is all grown up, she remembers how to be a kid with her brother...

Melissa making a play at second. Her footwork says she has sound fundamentals. Her eyes say she is intensely focused. Her tongue sticking out says she's done this a thousand times in practice. And her arm says...you can quit running, 'cuz you're as good as out right now. What a great senior year...

Number 14 is Melissa's TJ High School teammate Hannah (I shot photos of the entire team for an end-of-year slideshow). Like the runner being tagged out below, other teams always seemed to come up short when they played TJ. They had a great season...

Ah, the perks of non-stop travel: a free rental car upgrade to a sporty convertible, and an unexpected free afternoon to explore the California coast north of San Francisco. Also notice that no one is around to enjoy it with me. Yep, business travel is glamorous -- neat places, but no one to share it with (and this was my seventh trip in 10 weeks)...