old friends that aren't scary...

So, several months ago, Chris and I had a really wretched experience with an old friend that I decided not to write about on the blog. This is a PG blog, I keep it for my mother and the few friends whom are curious, and so I use it to highlight the joys of being alive... there's a ton of crap that I'd love to bitch about, but do you really want to hear it, most of the time I'm sulking it's because I don't even want to listen to myself bitching about it in my head!! So, that's the main reason I didn't say anything, the other reason is that I just didn't want to spit out a lot of hate and disappointment about this person in words. It's not worth it, and I'm sure the person isn't too thrilled with me either, so we've both kept our silence like adults and I'm pleased by that.
OK, so, here are some of the great parts of living... old friends...
This is Samantha. We were fast friends in elementary school and junior high but then were drawn to different crowds in high school and lost touch. Amazingly, we are still very similar, she's a TV producer and I'm a photographer... we're basically the same exact size and we still had a roaring time with one another. I am so glad she came by 2 nights in a row, and can't wait to talk more about her, since I hope very much that we stay in touch. Oh, and my Mother made this picture and I love it!
This one too! Hahaha, I'll have to find a picture of us when we were kids, we look the same, just not as conservatively dressed... hey, it was Miami, wearing orange and red striped shirt with neon blue shorts was completely in fashion... (ugh.. I shiver at finding those pictures, they may be better off at rest...)
aah, yeah, I accidentally goosed her while my Mom was making pictures of us... hahaha!! Good times with old friends!! Sorry Sam!!
So, here's another great old friend I got to hang out with while in Miami. This is Eric and we were fast friends in high school. We were in the same photography class (the only one I ever took) and we also had sign language together. Eric, amazingly dug out a high school portrait he made of me (we were partners, so I'm sure I made one of him too, but the hell if I know where it is, sorry old friend!) and brought it over to the house... my Mother laughed out loud and started reminiscing about what a rotten kid I was, and Eric laughed and laughed while I tried to hide in the closest cabinet with the pots and pans...
HAhahahah!! really!! Why Eric ever spoke to me, or how I had any friends at all is amazing!!
Anyhoo, Eric is now a father to a 7 year old little girl, who is the most charming and social little person I met all trip. He's doing an incredible job raising her, and it's astonishing to see kids that I was kids with having kids that are little people and not babies...
Eric and I had set up a formal portrait making session before I got to Miami, and here are some of the images I like the most...
Eric is a big man. he's touching 6'3" or 6'4" and has very long features. When we were in high school together, he was really shy and thin and gangly, but now in our mid thirties, he's become quite handsome, and having a child has made him very warm and comfortable to be around... he's got a charisma that wasn't there in high school and it's so good to see him flourishing!
I made his daughter run around with a flash light. I was telling her about the blog and I asked both her and Eric about their comfort level in using her name. Eric said he didn't mind if I used her name, and so I asked her, and she said that she preferred to be called Veronica on my blog, because even though that was no her name, it was her friends name who'd recently moved away and she missed her. Aaah, to be young and fresh and in love with everything... how wonderful.
Here's 'Veronica's' formal portrait. I then gave the camera to her, set up the focus and light and told her what to push. Even though she had a vocabulary far beyond her years, she still has little girl arms, and it took both of them wobbling to balance my camera. The first couple of images were out of focus and then...
she NAILED IT! I love this image of me, made by a 7 year old!! Hahahah!!! Brilliant. I'm laughing at something her father said... what a moment... Thanks' Veronica'.
Cheers!