Filed under: home life
I was taking a glorious nap yesterday when The Doc came in and woke me up. He had the cutest expression on his face and so I simply could not find the energy to be mad at him for waking me. I said, “what?”. He stuck out his tongue, which happened to be purple, and said “I found blackberries in the backyard!”.
Ooooh, now this was worth getting woken up for.
I said, “Yummy! I want some!”.
He said, “Oh, there are still some left in the backyard….”
Great. He did not gather them up and bring them inside and wash them off and eat them… Instead he was out wandering around in the backyard, happened upon them, and gobbled up as many as he could eat! Forget his dear sweet wife who was getting some much needed sleep inside!
Ugh.
“So you woke me up to brag about all of the blackberries you just ate, is that it?”
“Ummmmm….. uuuhhhhh”
So to absolve his guilt, he dragged me outside this morning to show me where the blackberries were so that I could help him pick some. What a sweet guy.
Okay, okay, he didn’t actually drag me. I had ulterior motives for going… one, so I could eat some before they were all gone, and two, so I could have an excuse to photograph him (even if it was just his hands).
Filed under: Uncategorized
I got to meet and photograph Jason and Mary Heather yesterday. They took me to Rowan Oak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowan_Oak), which was William Faulkner’s home in Oxford, MS. (For all the years I lived in Oxford, I can’t believe I never visited there!) I loved it so much, I wanted to move in! Heck, I would have even lived in the slave quarters! Before the light was completely gone, we also got a few shots on the Oxford Square.
It was awesome how well we got along. They didn’t seem to mind my ninja tendencies, and I was enchanted with their comfortable-like-your-favorite-pair-of-blue-jeans kind of romance. Mary Heather is a sweet as my Grammy’s sweet tea and Jason speaks photogeek language. He knew what “TTV” meant… how cool is that?! I tried to hire him to help me shoot my August 2nd wedding but he said he’d be busy getting married that day. 
Anyhoo, I had such an easy time capturing their relationship. A big shout out to Amber and Chris, my fabulous bride and groom from a few weeks ago, for putting them in touch with me. I can’t wait until the wedding!
Here is a sneak peek for you two lovebirds:
Off to dreamland,
Bing
Filed under: Uncategorized
I am a little late in posting this blog, I wrote it last week, but am just now getting around to posting it with the photos.
First of all, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… dreams absolutely do come true!
It took a ton of hard work. Each costume took me hours to make, each dance hours to choreograph (and I even had some help!), and every other detail, down to the silk flowers on the special textured paper for the programs all went into one really big day for lots of little people and myself. I could not have done it without my hubby, my wonderful assistant Kalin and lots of awesome dance parents!
We were expecting no more than 100 people to show up…. the theatre had 450 seats… there was standing room only!!!!!!!
Each and every dancer was as adorable as could be. I get calls every single day and people stop me in Wal-Mart to tell me how wonderful the show was.. I feel like I am living in a dreamworld!
The best part was sharing it with my family, my students and their families, and the community. I am the luckiest girl in the whole world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, enough bragging… here are the photos, taken by the one and only, Angie H.
Aaron and I at morning rehearsal:
Kiddos signing a poster that Angie made… and yes I cried when they gave it to me!
Stretching before the curtain opens
A sweet butterfly
Lovely Tulips
Me chatting with some tippy toe students before the show
Butterfly Ballet
The lobby of the theatre
Adorable little Ladybugs
Cute lightning bugs
Gardeners
The tulip group girls are such good friends!
Thanks for looking!
Off to share some sunshine!
Bing
So if I wasn’t already the luckiest human being on the planet, this weekend sure proved it! My sweet sweet assistant Kalin and my equally sweet and thoughtful friend Angie got all the parents at my dance studio together and they all chipped in for The Doc and I to have a weekend away. They got us a suite at the Inn at Hunt-Phelan (a historic 180 year old mansion on Beale Street in Downtown Memphis). Angie and Kalin insisted that I needed to relax after the craziness of the dance recital… and boy were they right! It took me some time to settle down, but I am so glad that I did.
The Inn was gorgeous! It is a bed and breakfast that only has a few guests at a time, so it had a really intimate feel to it. The staff were all so nice and accommodating. The whole place was just incredibly charming.
We put our bags down in the Magnolia Suite and I couldn’t help myself: *note… no uber fancy antique beds were broken in the making of this photo…
Then we headed downtown for some eats. We went to the Blue Fin , which was nice. The food was tiny and expensive, but delicious and fun. Ceej ordered Japanese Kobe Beef and then found out that he had to cook it himself… it was so funny to watch him! We had to have the waiter demonstrate the cooking for us because we don’t even cook at home!
After dinner, we decided that we needed to eat something more substantial, so dessert to the rescue! I had the yummiest pecan pie and Ceej had some mud pie thing and we both had fruit smoothies.
Then we just enjoyed downtown. I got to take some photographs, which I haven’t had much time to do lately:
We got to the rooftop of the Madison Hotel just as the sun was setting:
And then we watched the bridge lights come on over the Mississippi River:
When we got back inside the Madison, we discovered that the elevators were temporarily going berserk so we decided to take the 17 story trip down the stairs:
After that we headed back to the Inn for the night. I was craving the wine we had on our honeymoon, but couldn’t remember the name of it. We described the flavor to the sommelier and he was able to find one that was pretty close to it, if not better! We each got a big ol’ glass of it and headed back to the room.
The next morning, I almost drowned in the ginormous antique bathtub:
And then they served us breakfast on the veranda. (Boy, I feel fancy even typing that sentence.) I had my coffee; The Doc, some peppermint and tarragon tea:
And then they served us a fantastic breakfast of eggs, bacon (eww, I know, I know, I gave mine to the hottie sitting next to me, which he gladly ate) and the best freakin’ biscuits I have ever had. (except for Lorretta’s, our cook at summer camp). We sat and ate and listened to the best mix of blues, which Ceej sang along with and had me laughing so hard I almost cried!
We had the waiter take the obligatory out of focus picture:
We hated to leaving so much, we decided to express our anger and sadness with a pillow fight:
It is always an adventure with the Ostermans!
Thanks again to my amazing family of friends for this wonderful weekend!
Off to dreamland,
Bing
www.bingphotography.com
I dreamt of my great grandma, “GG” last night. She passed away when she was 90 years and 2 days old. We were pen pals from the time I was 7 years old. I have hundreds of letters from her… but only a handful of photographs.
Photography is an integral part of who I am and how my mind works. It breaks my heart that I never got the chance to photograph her like I photograph my clients… she was an amazing woman.
So back to my dream…
I was told by someone I had never met that she was waiting for me in an old camper trailor. This person said that they wanted me to take a photograph of her. Even though I knew she has no longer alive and there was no way she could be in that tiny camper waiting for me… I didn’t question it. (Isn’t it weird the things we just accept in dreams? How much we will wholeheartedly believe? I think the truest, purest moments of unwavering faith comes in our dreams.) I walked in and there she was, sitting patiently… she was a very paitent person… and I just hugged her. We did not exchange any words.. we didn’t need too. I began to do as I do with all of my portrait clients. I had her sit in front of me so I could study her face and it’s angles and lines and her eyes. Then I set up my lights and decided the best way to light her eyes. It was so natural for me to capture her.
I continued to stare at her and she stared back at me as I took only a handful of photographs. With our eyes and our hearts and our memories and only the space of air and time and breath and my lens between us, we had a wordless conversation that hugged my soul. I woke up with my heart smiling… photographs of her in my head.
I wish I had those to hang on my wall, but I don’t. I have them clear as day in my head… every wrinkle on her face and sparkle of light in her eyes.
About two years before her death, I took this photo of her hands. It was before I got really good with the technical side of things… but it is still a treasured image nonetheless. I have her hands… did not realize it until after she died… no one else in our family has our crooked pinkies and weird finger pads and hitchhikers thumbs except for me.
Off to dreamland,
Bing
www.bingphotography.com
Filed under: home life
The Doc and I are trying our hands at gardening this year. As an organic vegetarian living in the bar-b-que capital of the world, I have a hard time finding super fresh organic veggies in this tiny town. We had a great time this morning replanting our little seedlings into the plot that hubby dug out yesterday while I was teaching.
Here are our little babies!
Carrots:
Broccoli:
Artichoke:
Cucumber:
And my favorite… Watermelon!
Our other babies had a fun afternoon outside. We have to watch Miss Bailey Blue, she tries to “help” us dig up the dirt!
She has the sweetest smile!
Beau was almost too busy to let me take his photo.
Off to catch up on some “Lost” episodes!
Bing
