Tag Archives: friends

On being behind the camera

I’ve been lagging soooo behind on my picture duties. I’ve just now finally wrapped up the picture processing of Kevin and Katina’s wedding from mid-December (see here for their engagement pictures from last summer and here for pictures of the bride getting dressed), and I can’t wait to share the rest of the shots with you guys! (Katina was glowing. Kevin was dashing. Etc, etc.)

Consequently (since I’m trying to deal with my pictures in chronological order so I don’t get confused all to heck with where I stand), I haven’t made it through any of the Christmas pictures (except for the small batch of James shots), or the complete batch of New Years photos.

If you’ve been with me for a while, you may remember that every year we celebrate the New Year with the same group of friends, and a merry group it is!

I love those guys. Some of them we see throughout the year, and some we only see once, at this party. Due to some pressure from facebook and my own inherent guilt, I finally threw a couple dozen or so pictures up on facebook, with the promise to go through them all later and actually get the complete set made public (task completed as of Monday!). As I doing my quick intial scan of the oodles of pictures, selecting a few here and a few there for immediate sharing, I was thrilled that there were a couple good shots of me and my husband!

(by the way, isn’t my husband’s nose fabulously straight? I hereby wish that nose and that nose only upon any future children of ours)

Being the girl behind the camera at most events in my life, there aren’t that many pictures of me–probably less than 0.01% of the total pictures taken with my lovely Nikon. And having a slightly weird face when it comes to the camera (don’t worry, I’m at peace with my face–it’s just not at peace with a lens), there are even less good pictures of me.

I also feel bad asking anyone to take pictures of me, first because I’m still slightly self-conscious (“will they think I’m, like, super vain???”), and second because I have to explain how to use the camera in order to obtain a focused, non-blurry, generally A-OK shot (“you can rotate this part of the lens to zoom in; yes, you have to look through the eye-hole-thingy instead of just looking at the screen; press halfway down on this button to focus, then the rest of the way down to shoot, but don’t hold your finger there after shooting because it will keep shooting and could burn out the flash; it you want to take a vertical shot you need to rotate the head of the external flash like so so that it points towards the ceiling and bounces off at the right angle . . .”). And frankly, that’s got to be kind of annoying to the poor person designated to take my/our picture. And in the process, I end up feeling like a micro-managing, controlling female fiend.

So thank you to whoever took these!

I think it was Liz.

They make me happy, and my nose doesn’t look 5 miles long. Yay!

More pictures to come!

You’re invited . . . to a ball!

It’s that time, my son.

I promised last year that I would make a special announcement when the time rolled around again for . . .

. . . the annual Regency ball!

Here’s the 4-1-1: it’s in South Bend, Indiana at the Palais Royale. Everyone stop for a moment and say “Palaaaay Roiyaaaal” in your snootiest French accent. Please and thank you. It’s from 11am-3pm Saturday, March 24th. You will learn period dance after period dance, to the tune of excellent live music, with a dance master calling out the steps all the while and helping everyone keep it together. You will learn arm-over-arm thingies, steppity-step thingamagings, and patterns that make your brain twist around and do the polka on its side. You will get a work out. You will sweat. You will laugh. Etcetera. And tickets went on sale Friday!

The catch: you have to come in costume! Or rather, it is “requested” that you come in costume. For a guy, this can be as simple as coming in a shirt and pants and tying a piece of fabric around his neck (the oh-so-sexy ‘cravat’). If you want to take it to the next level, add gloves, a vest, hem and cinch the pants so that they come right below the knees, and wear white knee-high socks (this is the level that I took it to for my husband). Even more committed? Then grow some sideburns, and add a hat and jacket if you want to be nominated Mr. Regency Himself 2012. And of course, you can even get crazier and purchase or sew a full-out costume.

Confused? Let me provide a visual.

Here’s what Eric looked like all dolled up last year:

For the girls, at the most basic level, the costume simply involves a long, empire waist dress. Want a little more? Add some gloves, a wrap, and a hairdo with (if possible) little curls. From what I hear, little curls were all the rage in those days.

Here’s Carrie’s costume, made by Nimblefingers the Great (a.k.a. the blonde one).

 

You can read all about our experience last year in these posts:

1) The post announcing our upcoming Regency plans, which we were forced into by my dear friend Carrie.

2) The post chronicling Carrie’s and my road trip to Erica’s house, who agreed to be our seamstress and sew us up some dresses.

3) A post about a hairdo that got a little out control.

4) A post with some beautiful pictures of Carrie and some awkwardly painful pictures of me, highlighting our lovely costumes. Be forewarned: alien space-doll Jenna makes her first appearance . . . which will also be her last appearance. Or at least let’s hope.

5) A post about the dance itself.

Sadly, this may be the last year for the ball. Even though attendance looked great to my eyes last year, I guess they need more ticket sales to actually get into the black. So come one come all, and save the Regency Ball!

Anyone up for it? Here’s the link to buy tickets–the price is $35 through February 24th (that includes “luncheon refreshments” made by a 5-star chef with “period recipes”), and the price goes up after that. Let me know if you can come! (Erica? Dave? Rowenna and Randy? Nudge nudge?)

If you need further convincing, just look at Eric and Carrie!

So in love. So happy. So at home in their garb. If you come, you will also be in love, happy, and at home in your garb.

Thus endeth my sales pitch.