Truly, no rhyme or reason at all for tonight’s gallery of images, showcasing one of my favorite cities of all time. This post serves a dual purpose tonight: to say hello (yes, I’m still here) and to start a backtrack, if you will, of SHARING old and new imagery that I have let go by the wayside. I think blogging had become such a chore for me during a time when unfortunate life circumstances have gotten in the way and you know how it is……once you get behind, it’s hard to find that place to just START up again. So, this is it……I’m starting to rebuild this image journey and knew that a gallery of a city that I love, that has come back from devastating tragedy, and is rebuilding in the face of those adversities would be simply perfect. This past year has been an incredible journey of ups and downs without enough sharing from me, of my art and my life……both so rich with emotion, hard work, and a whole lot of fun. The colorful, textured, and vibrant city of New Orleans holds so many memories for me and I know in my heart that many more await . Sometimes just the smells or a glance in one direction of the French Quarter can take me back to many a vivid memory made while growing up visiting a city that my appreciation deepens for as the years go by. The thought occurred to me, whilst browsing through the literally THOUSANDS of images from 2009, that I have an awful lot to put out into the world from this past year! I am again ready to start the journey of sharing my art and my images of the life I am building, because you know, if I won’t be fulfilling my purpose of sharing life through my photography than what’s the point? Everyone is intended to DO and to BE something and as the days go by and I watch my children grow up and feel myself growing up alongside them, I realize that my purpose doesn’t have to be just one thing or the other. I have more than one fire burning in my heart and didn’t understand for a long time, how to go about fulfilling those desires and passions that I had about being a wonderful mother, a passionate photographer, an autism advocate, a good friend, a believer in success…….or how to reconcile all of them under one roof, brain, heart. I am learning now, that one woman can be so powerful, even in just her little corner of the world. And that makes me feel more alive, more content, and more happy than I ever thought possible. I guess you could say, I’m learning to love the journey and accept all of the failure as just part of it all. Sometimes it just plain SUCKS. But sometimes it doesn’t. Failure truly does build character and this lesson is one that I hope at the very least to pass down to my children in whatever capacity they can each learn from it.
I am also in the middle of starting a very personal project that I hope to announce in the next few months and have already set up a couple of meetings to invite others in to help brainstorm ideas and run through possibilities with. So many exciting things to share about me, my children, my work, autism, my travels……ahhhh…..I get all jittery inside just thinking of the images that make up the tapestry of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 for me, my business, and my babies. I will also be venturing on to the wonderful world of ETSY soon with a virtual storefront selling my lifestyle/cityscape photographs, so be on the lookout for that announcement as well. Albums will also be sold, as my art, I feel is best showcased in a modern yet simple art book of both my lifestyle portrait, cityscape, and wedding imagery. My exclusive albums have been a huge hit with clients so far and cannot wait to start sharing images of those and getting them out into the hands of my clients and potential partners and vendors whom I work with. So lovely readers……….enjoy my interpretation of New Orleans this wonderful night and know that I have so much coming forward and invite you all to come visit more often!
Side Note: As a Fast Track Founder of the Dane Sanders Fast Track Movement, I want to say THANK YOU to Dane for giving me an old Lensbaby lens of his. He really has no idea what giving me that lens stirred up inside of me…….and it has to do with my personal project coming up…….I’m so happy to have been a part of such a positive movement in our industry. And so thrilled of the ideas that have spawned from the use of such an incredible lens!
Birthday, Birthday, St. Patrick’s day, that is! A few birthdays to mention along with a Happy St. Patty’s and a “go get your green beer ON” wish for today. Also a smooth reintroduction back into my blog after the regular hiatus I seem to take for a few months after each post. The brief time away is surely not for a lack of blog worthy moments OR images for that matter. The lacking mainly comes in the form of TIME, or hours in the day in which to conjur up a clear, concise message with appropriate images to match. So much is happening all the time and I hope to sit down soon and sort out all of the goodness (and even the not so good) and share with you, my lovelies, very soon. I have big news to share on two fronts that will most likely come this week. It’s news a lot of you already know but am still anxious to share. For now, let’s just say that my images are on MSNBC, I celebrated my baby girl’s 9th Birthday in NYC, and my angel baby boy is now in a general ed classroom in a public school for 5 hours every day. Like I said….so much goodness to go around. But back to the post at hand…
Monday night. It is a random Monday night in the middle of November in 2009. He is 5 and a half years old now, as of only a few weeks ago. The halves count for me with him. The years that go by with not as much progress as I would like to have seen by this point, are benchmarked by the half year like somehow it buys him more time. Like because if I can convince myself that he’s only 3 and a half. 4 and a half. 5 and a half. He’s not yet that next year and it’s a reminder that a lot can still happen in six months. A lot of catching up can happen……I convince myself. And then tonight, as I lay there with him for about a half an hour and realize there is so much yet to be done for NYC in three days, I decide to tell him that I will leave the room because he won’t go to sleep and that I need to get some work done. Most of the time I either fall asleep with them if it takes a while or I get to get up within minutes because they are both so exhausted and it only takes about 10 minutes and they are both snoring toothpicks. But tonight it was one of those……”haven’t burned off enough energy because of the nasty weather outside” DAY. I told him that he could go to sleep and rest with Lily and that I would see him in the morning. And, as if for some reason he just wasn’t autistic anymore and that 5.5 years happen to be that “IT” half year……he says to me (or pleads, rather!) with such conviction that almost quit breathing……”No mom…..PLEASE DON’T GO! Stay right here with ME.” And when we have moments like that, where the whole world literally S.T.O.P.S, I try not to stop with it and just roll with the moment. I quickly move past the miraculous scene playing out before me and act and respond as if he’s always done that. Always been that way. Always NOT autistic. I want him to recognize the FLOW of our interaction and hope every single day that he begins to generalize everything that he’s been taught and just BE and DO what 5 year olds do. And tonight he did. Interestingly enough, in my morning haze after having stayed up yet again until almost 2am I almost forgot to mention that when he came to love on me this morning, again as if things had always been typical, he says without missing a beat…….”I love you”……..in a sleepy little cuddly voice that every mother surely wants to bottle up and keep until she is no more. It’s the morning smell, the tassled hair, the half hanging pacifier in his mouth, the big smile that takes up half his face even while he’s still half asleep……….that absolutely makes waking up with my babies one of the most precious times of my life. Grant it………there are plenty of those mornings where there isn’t a rose garden growing all around us and the dog is whining and barking and I’m exhausted and grumpy and rushing to wake and get everything done where those moments are missed. But when they come, I do not forget. And on this tropical storm filled day in November…..I will not forget the moment that I had lying in that bed with him at 9:30pm with the rain coming down outside and his big sister sleeping soundly right next to him. If I could have only snapped a photograph of those words. If words and sounds could be photographed, I would have had my one in a miilion image.”I love you.” “Please don’t go.”
by Evelyn Chauvin Savage
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