There’s a lot of things you don’t know about “old photographers” – I don’t just mean the retired ones or the ones who did photos before photos were digital. I mean the ones who have been doing it for more than a decade maybe a few decades. That’s “old” in a a creative industry where thousands of new “photographers” get their first camera for christmas every year and lots of “professional photographers” burn out and change jobs like a comet flashing across the universe into darkness. For those of us who have been at this so many years it’s not just what we do anymore, it’s who we are – sometimes we get to do one of those jobs where we call up our photog friends like I did and say “I got to shoot one of those jobs today, the ones that remind you why you started all this in the first place.” We love to share those calls. It hits you right in your WHY. Getting to visit Dominique’s grandparents was that job for me recently.
Dominique and Devon were married this past December, and even though the day was amazing, it was only almost perfect – because two very important people were missing. Dominique’s grandparents were sick with Covid. They were devastated. They had their outfits, their shoes, their flowers all ready to go, but they couldn’t be there. Dominique smiled and walked down the aisle, but I knew it hurt her heart that they weren’t in the front row. Thankfully, they both recovered. <3 And we started talking after the new year about getting together to get some photos with them. Lots of things got in the way for months, bad weather, scheduling, some health struggles for them, but in April we planned a day and decided we were sticking with it even though we’d just be in the backyard and the weather was overcast and threatening rain.
I pulled up to the house and I saw a giant dogwood tree blooming at the edge of the yard and when I stepped out of the car – the clouds broke apart and the sun shone down. And I got that feeling – I’ve learned to tune in when I feel it – that something special is about to happen. Dominique and Devon looked exactly the way they did on their wedding day – she even saved her flower crown for her hair and they did everything the same. Her grandparents were the nicest most gracious people, dressed to the nines in their wedding outfits. Dominique even had their flowers for them to wear. We shuffled out to the dogwood tree and they glowed with pride every time they looked at their granddaughter. After a few smiles, Dominique said there was one more thing they needed to do. Devon pulled out his phone and played the song they would have to at the wedding and she shared a dance with her grandma and her grandpa right there in the backyard. There were tears when her grandma told me how devastated she was on their wedding day when they couldn’t be there. But then happy tears dancing in the backyard with their grown up girl all to themselves that day.
There are things that go wrong in life we have no control over. My own grandparents both died two weeks a part with covid at the end of 2020, so this really touched a nerve for me. Her grandparents were kept away from her on the most important day. But I knew I COULD. FIX. THIS. So I did. And it was amazing.
We are all here for a short amount of time to use whatever spark of fire we have to make brightness in the dark.
