breathing

my aunt Rita gave me this poem when I was home.

Taking a Breath by Gunilla Norris

Exhaling, I feel the breath leave me.


When it is cold
I can see this bit of personal steam
Escaping into the air.

Now, . . .if I wait patiently . . .
The breath will remember
to come back.
It will reurn with my life.

Over and over,
my life is returned like this
Because You are breathing me.

This gift is given to me
Countless times a day.
All I have to do is remember!



This is something I do remember, with a mixture of wonder and fear. The emotional repairs from drowning this summer are beginning. It broke through a bit during my yoga practice this morning, while a different philosophy repeated the same thing; be conscious and grateful for this breath.

back to class

Oh, after a few weeks of meetings and previsits and schediling and cleaning, I am finally back in the swing of teaching. Fears of diminished multi-tasking skills, and vocal problems were washed away. It is all going smoothly. My two fifth grades are ready to give me a hard time, and I am ready to give challenges right back to them.

I had one of the moments today that reminds me why I teach. A girl, who had never drawn from observation before, held up her drawing for me to see, and told me incredulously, "I drew this?!" I asked her if she thought she could draw so well when she walked in the door. She gave me that amazing 10 year old face of disbelief, "uh . . no." And then she smiled because she had created something that surprised herself.

I love it when I surprise myself with what I create, when I am in stunned disbelief that I have translated soemthing in my head to something tangible and something that I can share wordlessly.

And when I can encourage someone else to have that feeling, the day becomes, as my yoga teacher said this morning, productive and easy.

joy of assisting

This weekend, I was able to work with both Kristen Peelle (who in fact is turning out to be a regular collaborator) and with Greg Bumatay, assisting at two different and equally gorgeous and fun weddings in one weekend.
With Kristen, we shot a wedding at Paradise Point in Mission Bay. The couple was from Vegas, so they were really on vacation and raised the fun to a serious level after the ceremony.






On Sunday Trent and I drove down to Mexico for lunch, and then I met up with Greg for Stacie and Kirk's destination wedding at Calafia.





It's always such a learning experience to work with other photographers and sync with their styules of shooting. As usual, Kisten and I had a great time, and it was awesome to shoot with Greg, who is so laid back and keyed into the day at the same time.

rough 'edit' of diana and tom's wedding

I had a wonderful time visitng friends and family in Boston earlier this month, while I was on the east cosat to shoot Diana and Tom's wedding at the Habitat in Belmont. The day was perfect, and everything was lush and green - so exciting to my eye now!

I have put up what I am calling a rough edit of a sldeshow of the day



www.allanataranto.com/diana

one gorgeous shot of diana getting ready