Collin | One Year

I met him for the first time at my own engagement and housewarming party. Just a few weeks old and bundled up for the crisp fall weather, his soft little nose poked out from the layers of blankets around him. He was so tiny, so brand new, and so adept at further defining that line in the sand just behind me...that one that separates your childhood from adulthood. Sweet baby Collin was born to good friends of mine, Scott, whom I have known since first grade, and Katie, a high school softball teammate of mine. They were high school sweethearts, and now, proud new parents. When they asked me to photograph Collin as a curious one year old, I was thrilled at the opportunity, as I remembered spending many hours with Scott, processing and developing film in our high school photography classes. Who knew I would be using some of those same skills ten years later to capture his baby boy?

{To see more of baby Collin's shoot, click here to visit his gallery!}

Collin | One Year

Aliza

Wings on Their Feet and Victory in Their Hearts

Today's photos are shared with you not because of their stunning quality, their sharpness, their composition, or prize-winning potential. Clearly, they lack all of that, but I put these types of photos in a category all their own. These are the kinds of photos your great-grandma or five year old niece took...the kind that are over-and-underexposed, blurry, and unintentionally show more of the sky than the people mugging for the shot. These are the kinds of photos that endure and are cherished because of the story behind them. We all have them. And because the stories and the memories themselves transcend the amateur images that illustrate them, we share them.

During my college years, I lived in the great city of Boston. I admired it for all it had to offer: the arts, history, diversity of people and foods, world-class everything. Although I live far from Boston today, I look back on those years and sift through the memories, and a favorite always stands out...Patriots Day and the running of the Boston Marathon. Today was that day for the 114th time in Beantown!


The route of the Boston Marathon snaked it's way through my Back Bay neighborhood. I stood on the sidelines cheering the weary runners on, as they toiled through the last leg of their journey. My house stood alongside one of the very last miles of the race, and so I watched the raw determination of blistered, bleeding, sweating, delirious athletes making their way to the finish line. Above is the men's 2003 winner, Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya, as he flew past me on his way to victory.


Above is Svetlana Zakharova of Russia, the women's 2003 winner. At the moment I captured her, she was literally flying. Both feet off the ground. Her shadow racing to catch up. Honing in on the win.


And with more guts, talent, athleticism, and determination than I'll ever have, Ernst Van Dyk of South Africa lowers his head, grasps the spinning tires of his wheelchair and zooms toward triumph.


The sun sank lower in the sky, its rays bouncing off the Hancock building and the Prudential. Fenway Park sat calmly and stoically in the near distance as hundreds of feet pounded over the bridge into Kenmore Square. I am so thankful to have these photos, blurriness and all, because they remind me that a moment in history was captured and displayed in my dusty college photo album, and that, in a city brimming with legacy, I was there to experience history in the making.


Aliza

Friday Thoughts: Time is Flying

How did it get so late so soon?
It's night before it's afternoon.
December is here before it's June.
My goodness how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon?

~Dr. Seuss

{Image courtesy of www.inewidea.com}

I admit it.
I spent too much time soaking up the spring sunshine on my deck this week.
Time flew by...
So, here's to ensuring a little Aliza Werner blog lovin' before the week is out.
Oh-so-many fun photos coming up next week!
Heading out for some more Vitamin D...happy weekend!

Aliza

It Was a Gray City Day | Part Two

They say...if you don't like the weather here, wait a minute and it will change.

My forearms are still red and tender from a sunburn I received in
sunny eighty-degree weather at the ballpark on Monday.

My fingers are still red and numb from the snowflakes I caught in
thirty-some-degree weather at an outdoor shoot today.

They say...if you don't like the weather here, wait a minute and it will change,

but it's been gray all day.

Shot on C-41 film.
Images from a gray day other than today.

Aliza

Burgers, Brats, Beer...and BASEBALL!

For some,
Spring
means
tulips and daffodils reaching toward the sky
orange-bellied robins pecking for juicy worms
rumbles of thunder and fat drops of rain
new leaves peeking out of the tips of tree branches
early glasses of lemonade and ales in the backyard
pumping up bicycle tires
children chasing soccer balls and toy trucks down the sidewalk
neighbors waving across fence lines
palmfuls of delicate seeds spread across plots of dirt
and
pushing up long-sleeves and long-shut windows,
but for us,
Spring
means
igniting the grill
singed brats bubbling and bursting in their casings
melted cheddar dripping over burgers' curled sides
bean bag toss and comfy lawn chairs
early glasses of lemonade and ales in the parking lot
peanut shells and baseball bats cracking sharply
racing sausages kicking up backstop dust
polka, pitches, and Prince
9 innings, 54 outs
and
sunshine streaming through the open rooftop.

Spring hasn't truly arrived
until we hear the official Opening Day words,

"Plaaaaay baaaaaaaall!"

Happy return of Spring and Baseball!
I hope your Opening Day was as filled with sunshine, good food, and good friends as ours was. The boys of summer are back!

Aliza

Through The Door...A Breath of Fresh Air

Ahhhhhhh....the hubby and I just arrived back to reality after a much needed getaway to one of our favorite little niches of the world, Door County. A visit to this area is literally a breath of fresh air. As a little girl, my dad, sisters, and I would venture up to the northern end of the great Wisconsin peninsula for a long weekend of attempting to accomplish all of our traditions: camping, mini golfing, shopping, fish boils, eating Swedish pancakes with lingonberries...and now this slim slice of land continues to provide a rejuvenating retreat as I have grown older. My patient husband waited for me to capture all of the shots I wanted this weekend, and I will share some of my other favorites with you soon. For now, a shot straight out of the camera...a view of Horseshoe Island from Eagle Tower in Peninsula State Park. Inhale. Exhaaaaaaaale.



Aliza

Friday Thoughts: Epic Beards and Fish Meatballs

The weekend starts early this week, not only because it reached 80 degrees today in our city, which could still very easily be buried under ten feet of snow at this time of year, but because it's finally time for the hubby and me to spend time in one of our favorite places. Photos from this haven will appear in a post next week...we'll keep you guessing until then.

This week also brought our families together for one of my favorite holidays, Passover. It's a holiday during which you can recline at the table, drink four full glasses of wine, and watch the tanned and muscled greatness that is Charleton Heston's portrayal of Moses in "The Ten Commandments". His beard is seriously epic at the end of that movie. Santa and ZZ Top ain't got nothin' on desert-wandering Moses. After celebrating a holiday for decades, many quirky traditions emerge. My dad and I compete to see who can eat more horseradish slathered on matzah without crying, we all dare each other to eat the gefilte fish (essentially a cold fish meatball...ugh), and...it always goes back to Mr. Heston...we marvel at the special effects of the Red Sea parting, the Nile turning to blood, and how they got Yul Brynner's bald head so shiny and smooth! Seriously. Is it turtle wax? Olive oil? Questions for the ages.

While I head off to breathe in some fresh spring air with the hubs, I'm sure many more holiday memories will come to mind. In the meantime, a quick *happydance* for my friends MJ & J on the birth of their new baby boy this week, who will most likely to be found at the other end of my camera within a couple weeks and shared here! Ooooh, how I love brand new bundles! Happy weekend!

Aliza