1. I took over 200 (non-professional, joyously amateur) portrait shots of about thirty-six students yesterday and went through them all today, cropping here, adding some light there, darkening some of them, leaving others alone. I loved looking at these faces and I loved that these weren't glam shots or senior pictures, but were everyday adults going to school at LCC presenting themselves where they wanted their pictures taken on campus and looking into the camera with whatever level of comfort, discomfort, confidence, insecurity, or bewilderment they were feeling in that moment of having their teacher take their pictures. No one will ever see these pictures unless the students post them somewhere. I've sworn to keep them private and so don't post them. I love these pictures, not because I take great portraits, but because the pictures seem so honest to me and the faces are so various and beautiful.
2. After editing all those pictures, I took a stroll in the neighborhood and took some pictures of autumn arriving and stopped off at Sweet Life for an afternoon cup of coffee and a chocolate croissant.
3.. The Deke and I planned on her coming home at four so I could drive out to Costco and have the student portrait pictures printed. In case something went wrong, the four o'clock time gave me time to recover, correct any error, and still get the pictures printed to hand out to my students on Thursday. She texted me that she'd be home at five. I got to Costco about 5:30 and for reasons I won't explain couldn't easily print the pictures. It was my fault. Had the Deke come home at four, I could have made it work because I would have had time to correct an error I made. I wouldn't have been doing things at about the last minute.
So what's "beautiful" about this? I didn't get upset. I didn't blame the Deke for this minor set back. I emailed the pictures to my students. I'll print them for Tuesday. Things didn't go precisely as I wanted, but I didn't act like it was the end of the world. This calmer, accepting approach to things involving day to day things with the Deke, the upholding of the promise I made about a year and a half ago (and that the Deke also holds to) to not hassle the Deke about anything works beautifully. It means that if a real problem arises and I bring it up, we both know that it's something important because I'm not getting upset about small stuff. Nor is she. The students will get their pictures. The fact things didn't go exactly as I wanted them to will fade away into the oblivion of stuff that doesn't matter. And we won't be wounded by unnecessary digs at each other, by needless hassle.
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