Welcome to my blog site!
I wish I had more time to add posts, but I've been too busy making memories and taking portraits to make memories for everyone from newborns to folks celebrating 50 years of marriage!
Impressions in the Heart
Original Post - August 27, 2016
The carpet near the door still holds the impressions of where numerous plastic bins, boxes and bags sat at the ready just a few days ago. The impression in my heart will take longer to fill back in.
Two of my daughters' rooms are now perfectly tidy, beds are nicely made and that would normally make a mom happy. Within a week I sent two daughters off to college so those clean rooms mean that temporarily they are living somewhere else. One is a college sophomore and the other one has just begun her college journey. Last night on the way home after hugging my second daughter goodbye, I glanced in the back seat expecting to see her sleeping soundly as I've seen her hundreds of times. A vacant seat and empty boxes was all that remained. Cue tears. Nothing. Wait, what? No misty eyes. What lingered however was peace... peace they she was in the right school and more than prepared and capable for the challenges ahead. I remembered feeling the same thing after I dropped off her older sister for the first time at college a year ago. Did the lack of outward emotion make me a heartless mom? My friends all spoke of their tearful, difficult drives home. Where was my sobbing heartache?
Sand went through my hourglass faster than I would have liked. My husband and I did our jobs and we were blessed to raise confident, independent, bright girls that are ready to take on the world, starting with college. There are colorful experiences ahead of them, friends to make and no reason to look back and cry. I smiled and left to go home. I couldn't wait to hear about their adventures.
An AfFAIR to Remember
Original Post - August 14, 2016
We spent a little family time visiting the Indiana State Fair today. I of course brought my camera. The weather had other intentions for our outing. It rained... and rained.
When I was a kid and it rained, my brother Andy and I would look at each other, grab our boots and raincoats and a few buckets and would run outside to go play with the rain as it gushed out of the downspouts. It was like a huge faucet and we would happily fill our buckets and run around in the rain. A recessed area in the backyard or rushing water in the street meant glorious puddle jumping.
This afternoon, thanks to a faulty umbrella and gym shoes that were rapidly taking on water, I was not as keen on jumping in puddles and getting more wet, so I quickly danced around them as best I could.
The animals are always a highlight of the State Fair and my family begrudgingly satisfied my need to admire prize winning farm animals. I'm sure the chance for the family to duck out of the rain was a plus in my favor.
A horse is a horse, of course of course... but it's more special to see them when they are all dressed up at the State Fair.
When my baby smiles at me I go to Rio, DeJaneiro...
Alright, I didn't go to Rio, but I could pretend to go to the Olympics through the display at the Fair.
The Midway always intrigues me: the bright colors and lights, the large signage beckoning me to eat things I shouldn't, and the ever spinning rides all call me to explore. But not this day, the rain had us all soaked, my camera was getting wet but I decided to catch a few shots of the Midway before we left. I'm still capturing the ever falling grains of sand as they pass through my hourglass. It was an AfFair to remember. I was with my family afterall. So I smiled, appreciated my time with them, took a few more pictures and jumped in a puddle.
The sign said Midway as in midway through the fair, but it was time to go.
A fellow fair-goer decides if she should leave the shelter of the tractor pulled shuttle for the pull of the Midway.
www.SueEcklPhotography.com
Colorfully "Band"ed Rainbow
Original Post - August 23, 2016
Tell any child to draw a rainbow and they will cheerfully grab their box of Crayola crayons and grab five or so of their favorite, boldest colors and with firm pressure and confidence, scribble them in specific order in separate but adjoining arcs. In reality, one of my favorite things about rainbows is the blur of hues that occurs when the colors blend together. The softness and subtlety of those mingled colors is underscored by the lack of ability for a camera lens to focus on the illusion. It is a rare visual when just the right elements of rain and sun materialize in a spectrum across the otherwise grey sky.
This past Friday, the Carmel Marching Band performed for the first time this season at a home football game. As they advanced out to play the "Star Spangled Banner" before the start of the game, they processed under a spectacular rainbow. Like the mingled hues of a rainbow, the band boasts people with skin colors in every tone, people of every size, personality, economic backgrounds, mixed religions and sexual orientations. The beauty comes in that co-mingling when the sound of the band and mutual performance of the color guard and band harmonizes and adds depth and richness of sound and visual display to the overall creative concept.
This is my 6th year taking photos of the Carmel Marching Band and it never gets wearisome. The ever-changing colors and themes are are always bright, the sound bold and the performance stellar.
The diversity of the band is one of the secrets of its strength.
Delicate sounds of the flute intertwine with the bright tones of the mellophone.
The color guard knows the importance of displaying color as a vibrant element to every show, even if it's just with their practice uniforms.
It's the drum major's job to bring unity through diversity.
Likewise, the cheerleaders enthusiastically rally the diverse and colorful crowd at the football game to chant in unison with a common purpose.
As the show grows and evolves through the season, it will continue to blend and coalesce to a colorful crescendo.
March to the music on your rainbow trail and you'll find that the pot of gold is not at the end, but was with you through the richness of your journey all the while.
www.SueEcklPhotography.com
Sand Catching
Original Post - August 10, 2016
A memorable soap opera intro proclaims, "As sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives." As I get older, the sand seems to be moving quicker from the top of the hourglass to the bottom. At times I wish I could turn the hourglass over and start again. But really would I? Would you? It's those particles of sand in the bottom chamber, for better or worse, that have made us who we are. Furthermore, it's taking a step back and remembering those moments that make up those days makes us appreciate the "sand" or moments that are still left to come.
One of the reasons I love photography is that it is my attempt to "catch the sand" as it falls through and to take those moments to remember those grains of sand that make up our precious hours and days we share.
Last month, I took a few days away with my three daughters to go to the Michigan dunes to reconnect before school was soon to begin. I know I can't put a "stopper" in the hourglass to halt the descending sand, but sometimes I like to take time to watch it go through. My second daughter is about to go off to college for the first time, and that will make two daughters in two years to leave the nest. More than ever I want time to slow down. So in those few days in Michigan I put my hands through the falling sand and watched it move past my outstretched fingers.
The photo above shows a sand weathered tree trunk we passed while on a dunes tour. While petrified, it was smoothed over time by winds of sand. Though overturned, it is life's harsh weather and pummeling sand has made it beautiful. If you look hard at it you might see an alligator or swordfish.
You can imagine the silhouette of the state of Michigan in this strikingly beautiful, overturned tree trunk.
So that is why this blog is called "Sue Eckl, Sand Catcher". I encourage you to let me help you "capture sand" for you with my photography of your special moments. Contact me at SueEcklPhotography.com