It is a cruel, ironical art, photography. The dragging of captured moments into the future; moments that should have been allowed to be evaporate into the past; should exist only in memories, glimpsed through the fog of events that came after. Photographs force us to see people before their future weighed them down – Kate Morton
Should moments be allowed to pass without photographing them?
What’s your opinion? If not all what might be some that we should allow to pass?
This trip started out as a trip to NYC, but as things have it… that trip got postponed, but, when you really want to get away, you just do what you have to do…
Change plans!
These were not even my plans… my friends Amanda and Madi asked me to go…believe it or not I did have to think twice because I am traveling the weekend I get back. I decided to go, I needed a break and shooting Florida would be fun!
Okay, do you know how long it is to drive to Florida from Saint Louis? Just asking! It’s a long long long long long time. I personally was not much of a help driving. I took my shift sometime in the early morning, was encouraged by a few friends to try the 5 hour energy drink, so about 15 minutes into it, I chug down an amazing taste alike of cough syrup. 15 minutes later I feel as if I’ve been sedated and I can no longer drive. I try to do what I can but finally cave in, crawl into the back seat and literally pass out for hours! What the crap is in that stuff?
We drive to Orlando to visit Ryan and Madi asks him to go with us to Miami and from that moment on Ryan was our driver! Ryan has an amazing nascar driving mentality. Can’t complain much, he did great and did not complain when he had to drive 4 starving woman around downtown Miami while we decided what we were going to eat for 2 plus hours!
We met up with Madi’s cousins who were wonderful hosts and I got to enjoy some amazing authentic Mexican food!
Woke up early to watch the sunrise and hooked up with Don Verger, who at the same time in Maine was photographing the sunrise! Check out Don’s website HERE!
I did get to see the new basketball (can you say HUGE) stadium being built for the “dream” team!
I got to the beach…we picked a beach in a very nice area of Ft. Lauderdale, pitched our tent (yes we did) and my goal.. tanning! Ryan and I stayed on the beach and learned some new phrases and Madi, Amanda and Lucy took to the water. The sand was soooooo hot!
The Keys: We went all the way to Key West and I’m sorry to say I am not impressed at all, its way too commercial. We stayed over night at the beautiful Key Largo Hilton, and that is where we caught Ami his Gecko!
I also made a pelican friend, I was shooting him at the end of a dock, left and was almost off the pier when he flew behind me and seriously was only a few inches from me. He was way cool, and I love these special encounters I get ever now and again!
It’s also where I photographed Amanda for her portfolio. Very tropical and beautiful!
We’re on our way home now, I’ve been blessed to be able to work in the car a little bit. Anxious to get back home, get the next weekend shoot done and back to life as usual for a bit, but that seems to be changing constantly!
So here’s to you Florida! Thank you for entertaining me!
Every so often I get a chance to shoot with my best shooting buddy James. For some reason James always comes up to Saint Louis, I so owe him a trip to Springfield, Mo.
Every time we hang out, we love to find new places and people to shoot. We challenge each other to capture tough shots and strengthen our image taking capabilities.
We visited: Forest Park, The Graffiti Wall, City Park, Union Station and we even found a cemetery (yes we all know I love to shoot cemeteries)
Forest park we challenged each other to get flowing water from the fountains…This is mine:
We also took some promo shots of each other:
Beautiful colors, and it was Missouri hot that day!
Did you know STL had a Graffiti Wall, a legal Graffiti Wall? It’s a mile long and it’s way amazing, you can expect many more images from me down there! I’m actually working on a shoot project down there as I type!
We then headed over to city park, an amazing multi block wide city park. While looking for people to shoot we were approached by a group of kids asking us questions about the art in City Park. What I found amazing about these young people was their maturity and this cool fact…they don’t take many tests (okay I’m so cool with that ) yet they seemed poised, mature and handled themselves well. They were a class from The College School, Seventh Grade Urban Experience. What a great group of young people, gives you hope for the future when you see class like that!
and lastly… This amazing cemetery, it’s huge and amazing.
Calvery Cemetery offers so many different opportunities.
We had a great time and I look forward to many more shoots and seeing much more of Saint Louis, and yes Springfield, Missouri.
I love rocks! One of my most favorite rocks is a Geode; do you know what it is?
On the outside it’s very plain not an outstanding rock, it’s “just a rock.”
That once you cut it open, the inside is breathtaking, beautiful, shiny, and brilliant and it glows.
So often I hear people say how they don’t like to be photographed or they don’t like the way they look in any picture.
Photography is more then just a snapshot. I believe it’s more then capturing your “shell”.
It’s about capturing YOU, the real you that glimmers and sparkles.
It’s my job as a professional not just to take a pretty picture, but to bring out what is on the inside and capture that as a lasting memory.
That is what a professional should do.
It’s what Lisa Nikole accomplishes!
