Sharing A Passion

I feel so very, very lucky to have a friend with whom I share my passion for photography.  You may remember seeing photos from last February when Tracy came into town and we spent the day together in Chicago, visiting a photography museum and then taking pictures of each other and the beautiful city!  Well, this time it was my turn to go visit Tracy in her neck of the woods in Iowa. So, I set off on Thursday morning after I got my kids to school.

Tracy had asked me to take some photos of her and her daughter while I was there. Happily, I agreed.  As a fellow mom and photographer, there is very little proof that I exist in my family in my library of photos. That's because I'm always the one holding the camera. The same goes for Tracy.  I'm sure many of you can relate.  So, after I arrived and her daughter woke up from a nap, the three of us headed out to find a good spot to take photos.  As we were driving, I noticed a field with tall, yellow grasses.  We parked the car, got out our gear and spent the next 2 plus hours taking photo after photo after photo.  (I took 444 in all.)  Tracy's daughter was a very willing little participant and did a great job when we asked her to do some specific things.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Tracy also snapped a few photos of me and her daughter.  These two were taken by Tracy.

After we got home from this shoot, Tracy's husband came home and just us grown up girls headed out for an extremely yummy dinner.

The next day, Tracy's daughter went to Tracy's sister's house so we could have a bit more time for just the two of us. We went to this fantastic little French cafe owned by a French woman and the food was incredible!  It was cute and quaint and so, of course, we whipped out our cameras and snapped away.

We lingered for about 2 hours, eating and talking over lunch, coffee and then we shared a delicious dessert.  As it was raining outside, we weren't in any hurry to head out into the miserable weather.

However, in true photographer fashion, we did head out into the rain and drove to an abandoned, literally falling down house, that was purchased by Tracy's sister and husband a little over a year ago.  They purchased the place for the property, not the house, which you can't even enter. But, through our lenses, this was a GREAT subject for even more photos of our adventure together!

This is a fascinating house.  Oh how I wonder about the people that lived there and what happened in life to make the house end up this way. And, I wonder where these people are now.

I started to say to Tracy..."These types of cellar doors always remind me of...." and she finished my sentence for me with..."The Wizard of Oz?". Exactly.

As we walked around the property, Tracy pointed out these 4 little crosses hanging on the back of the house, seemingly in perfect condition. A stark difference to the rest of the property. And, I think, such an odd place to hang crosses.

We started to drive away and I glanced out the window.  I suddenly spotted these buds, way up high in the tree and realized this was a blooming magnolia.  So, the car stops again, I hop out and snap about 10 photos. This must be quite the site with this tree in full bloom.

From there, we decide it time to move on. Driving back up the road we came in on, we spotted a wild turkey roaming through the woods. I kid you not. But, I'm not posting a photo because everything I took was blurry.  But, it was definitely a turkey.

Having not yet taken any photos of the two of us, we thought the long road surrounded by trees would be a great  place to stop and use my new wireless remote.  It took us a bunch of tries (about 15 or so) to get it right...hence one of our "bloopers" below.

This next one was fairly decent.

And FINALLY, the one we liked the most!

The time Tracy and I spend together is so inspiring and motivating. We get to geek out over everything photography and completely understand where the other one is coming from.  We've gotten pretty good at planning trips to see one another and oh how I hope this continues.  I feel so very, very lucky to call her my friend. After meeting as dancers many years ago and then losing touch for awhile, it's so funny how life comes around and now we share a new, different passion.  So unexpected and so completely amazing.

Thanks for a fabulous couple of days, Tracy! See you in a few months...