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Deep Dish – Photo 52 Project [Week 49]

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After two days of hard work in the city of broad shoulders, Jesse and I could use a pizza recharge. On Friday and Saturday we were working late at a client site so we had Sunday to enjoy the city. Gino’s East has always been our Chicago pizza establishment of choice. They let you write on the walls with markers and sometimes they even have white out bottles for you. My gamer handle is buried on one of these walls from a few years back.

Our customer has a lot of work for us and I will be returning within a week. Hopefully I will be well enough. Mari Ann is upstairs now, sick with a stomach bug. She was visiting her parents while playing with the day care kids. Slowly but surely, the kids, then her Dad, then her Mom started the trow up. I thought maybe she missed it until I got a text from her at class that she was not feeling well. I hope she gets better soon.

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Relish Tray – Photo 52 Project [Week 48]

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We held Thanksgiving at our house for the first time this year. There was turkey, casseroles, gravy, stuffin’ muffins, and this relish tray. The dish is apparently made out of carnival glass and is a prized family heirloom. I can remember going to my grandma’s house for family get-togethers and if there were eggs, they were on that tray. It brings up a heaping helping of nostalgia when I use it now. I always wash it gently by hand, then tuck it high in the cabinet where it can rest, undisturbed until the rare occasion it is called upon again.

This thing is so ugly but yet stunning at the same time. I wonder if there actually was a time when it was perceived as conventionally modern. How could it be? It is a gold hued egg tray for Christ’s sake! How does something so dated and hideous become a prized possession? It must be all about our lust for permanence in an inherently temporary world. One of my computer science professors gave a lecture talking about how there is no such thing as permanent data storage. We are just keeping the ball in the air until we decide to stop. Too often the decision is made for us.

It is why I am writing this blog. Why I have thousands of photos on my computer that I may never look at again. That relish tray does more than hold eggs and pickles. It is a tiny physical thing that has been imbued with the essence of someone we loved. We can’t touch or talk to the matriarch that once owned it, but it is still here and that will just have to be enough. In time, the tray will break or be discarded, my photos will be lost, and I will no longer endure. For now though, I am going to enjoy my eggs.

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Phone – Photo 52 Project [Week 47]

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Lighting as been of some interest to me lately. For dramatic photos, I have been using a single source of bright direct light. This allows me to get dark shadows and moderate highlights. Not bad for only using a 500 watt work light.

Mari Ann was nice enough to be my model tonight after getting her hair done and night class. She got a call from a friend just as I was starting to shoot and I encouraged her to take it. She can be very self conscious and I think talking to someone took her out of the present enough for her to relax and just be her natural self.