My favourite photos, 2003. Part 2: people

[vaneramos]

Without question, my happiest and most important event in 2003 was meeting djjo almost six months ago. I'm sure I will take many better pictures of him, but this is my favourite I have so far, and it was taken on one of our nicest days together (though we have many fine memories).



October 18


But if I could pick one day in 2003 to relive, it would be May 18. It was simply perfect, and this is my favourite photograph of the year.




Again, I found another picture I had to include, so there are



June 12




mid July




August 19




August 20




August 24




October 7




November 22

Comments

[blue-by-you.livejournal.com]

Those are amazing!! You capture the heart of a moment, the heart of a person, so well, Van. I love the one of dijo and your daughters in the life jackets but all of these bring back days to me -- summer, sidewalks, crowds, moments. Beautiful.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Lisa. It's hard for me to tell; I think the picture of Danny captures something about him, but I see what I know. It's nice to hear someone who doesn't know him say that.

I like capturing the beauty of strangers. The toddler with her mother, the street preacher with his guitar and the little girl playing violin with her mother(?) looking on all have stories to tell.

[theatresumthing.livejournal.com]

Pretty great stuff.

Now where are those photography class brochures...

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Man, the thought scares me to pieces.

Ironically, I don't know how to use an advanced digital camera. All I have is a point-and-shoot.

[ubermunkey.livejournal.com]

the one of your daughters in the grass with the trees and blossoms is surreal. I can almost feel the sun on my skin. Real Beauty.

I also love the black and white one at bottom.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thank you. The blossom picture warms me on the inside every time I look at it.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

And looking back, that apple blossom photo is still my favourite out of about 16,000 shots I've taken with this camera.

Thank you for your thoughtful letter and photo, my friend. I want to mail something to you in the new year.

[poetbear.livejournal.com]

yes! your daughters and blossoms!~paul

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

It was a powerful moment. I saw a row of these exquisite flowering crabs alongside the road and pulled over the take some pictures. The girls went running to the trees.

[sanachan1.livejournal.com]

When I was a little (and not so little) girl, my mother worked at a university. Outside the building she worked in was a plush little valley covered in grass and trees. Every spring the trees would be covered in gorgeous pink blossoms, and I could sit on the lawn and just revel in their beauty for hours. My best friend would sometimes come with me, and we spent one breathless day rolling down the hills in showers of blossoms, laughing until we cried. I'm three thousand miles away from those trees now, but your beautiful picture brings the memories of them very close. Thank you so much for sharing them. :)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

And thank you for sharing that story. How wonderful!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

No question, they will keep coming. Thanks, Ian. You are an inspiration.

[ruralrob.livejournal.com]

I'll be a bit difffrent and vote for the pool table scene - it's really moody and special and the lighting is fab, followed (very closely) by the kids under flowering trees. But they are all really good.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yes, I remember you liking it the first time around. I have a soft spot for it, too, partly because that wonderful lighting is all but impossible to take with this camera, partly because it depicts a child in a grown-up setting, and partly because it captures the natural distractability of a nine-year-old (I took many fascinating pictures of the back of Brenna's head this year). Adults are no different, but our interests change and reactions become modified.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to be so foolish as to try to choose. I'll only note that I must have started reading your LJ later than June 12, since that's the picture I always think of as your "original" userpic. (I'd never seen it full-size before -- it's wonderful!)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I had a different userpic for the first couple of months, but I replaced it when I took this one, my Plumbago picture. It expresses some aspects of how I feel about myself, and I have no other photos that come near to supplanting it as my default.