Today I was to be at the bride’s house at 10 am to photograph the makeup session before the wedding. Before I did that, I needed to put gas into my truck, take a shower, get all my wedding gear together (there is a lot of it) and visit Forest Park for my daily photo walk. The makeup session was quite long, keeping me on my feet for about three and a half hours! But, since the house was warm, the company was good and there were plenty of photo opportunities, I rather enjoyed the process. That part and the wedding ceremony and reception wound up keeping me busy until after 7pm.
So, it was a good thing that I rousted myself out of bed and headed to Forest Park about 7 this morning. I had in mind to photograph some of the trees between Skinker Avenue and the History museum, so I parked my car by the Cascades (currently frozen solid) and hiked across the golf course to Lindell Boulevard. Now golfers, they’re not stupid, they knew better than to be outside on a day like today, so it was up to us photographers to chase the light, capture those photons and render the likeness of the sun as it beams itself onto us mortals here on planet Earth.
I managed to do something not good to my back sometime in the past week, as I have been having a lot of lower back pain. Of course, toting 20 pounds of photo equipment around isn’t exactly helping the situation, and today I was barely able to bend over and pick up my camera when I set it down on occasion, to straighten the train of the bride’s dress, for instance. This morning I moved slowly, walking from the Cascades to Lindell, to the History Museum and back to the cascades via Lagoon drive where it passes the Grand Basin.
I did notice, as I walked, a paucity of life forms other than myself, and an abundance of ice. A young woman photographed what could have been her boyfriend, a few intrepid joggers dared brave the frigid air, a grumpy looking starling made rude noises as I passed beneath him and the inevitable Canada geese flew and honked and waddled and sat. I went to my car to warm up and ready myself for the rest of the day.
Moses in the bullrushes.