You May Now Photograph The Bride

A bride and groom and their attendants pose for a photograph at the overlook at Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, which has a great view of Union Station and downtown Kansas City. The four pylons of Bartle Hall are on the left of the skyline.

I love photographing brides, whether they are relatives, friends or strangers. When I saw the beautiful wedding photographs from around the world in “There Goes the Bride!” by Terri and James Vance, I was inspired to look through my photographs of bridal parties. I’ve posted a few of my favorites here. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to take many photographs at my children’s weddings. Too busy! I also apologize to anyone whose view I may have blocked when I was trying to grab the perfect wedding shot. I lose my head when I see a bride.

A bride and groom relax on a bench along the Avon River in Christchurch, New Zealand.

A wedding party gathers for photographs in Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne, Australia.

This bride laughs as she stops her wind-blown veil with her foot. She’s on her way to a park in Christchurch, New Zealand, to get her photograph taken.

Here’s an elegant newlywed pair heading for their limousine after their wintertime wedding ceremony in the Kansas City area.

An English Cocker Spaniel walks down a garden path with her newlywed owners after their garden wedding near Ithaca, New York.

A bride and groom walk on a beach in St. John, Virgin Islands, which is a favorite for destination weddings.

Newlyweds walk under a pergola at the Laura Conyers Smith Municipal Rose Garden in Kansas City, a popular spot for weddings.

Every guest seems to have a camera to capture the bride and groom as they walk down the rose-strewn aisle in this Napa Valley, California, wedding.

Bridal parties appear regularly at the Nelson-Museum of Art in Kansas City. I saw at least two bridal groups swarming the shuttlecocks on this day.

Brides and grooms love to get their photographs taken in front of one of the shuttlecocks at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. A Kansas City Star photographer was shooting this bride and groom for a feature on the shuttlecocks when I took this photograph. They weren’t the only wedding party there that day being photographed in front of a shuttlecock. There are four of these shuttlecock sculptures at the museum, designed by sculptors Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.

UPDATE: My husband took this photo on Signal Hill, Cape Town, South Africa, which we visited in January 2013. Photographing brides must be contagious!

My husband took this photo while I was looking elsewhere and didn’t see this bride and groom. I think my husband might have been bitten briefly by the bride photo bug. Here, a bride and groom consult with their photographer on Signal Hill in Cape Town, South Africa. Signal Hill provides a spectacular view of Table Bay and the city of Cape Town and makes a lovely spot for a wedding photo.

To see larger versions of these photographs, click on the thumbnails below.

A bride and groom and their attendants pose for a photograph at the overlook at Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, which has a great view of Union Station and downtown Kansas City.

This bride laughs as she stops her wind-blown veil with her foot. She’s on her way to a park in Christchurch to get her photograph taken.

Newlyweds walk under a pergola at the Laura Conyers Smith Municipal Rose Garden in Kansas City, a popular spot for weddings.

A bride and groom walk on a beach in St. John, Virgin Islands, which is a favorite for destination weddings.

An English Cocker Spaniel walks down a garden path with her newlywed owners after their garden wedding near Ithaca, New York.

Here’s an elegant newlywed pair heading for their limousine after their wintertime wedding ceremony.

Bridal parties appear regularly at the Nelson-Museum of Art in Kansas City. I saw at least two bridal groups swarming the shuttlecocks on this day.

Brides and grooms love to get their photographs taken in front of one of the shuttlecocks at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. A Kansas City Star photographer was shooting this bride and groom for a feature on the shuttlecocks when I took this photograph. They weren’t the only wedding party there that day being photographed in front of a shuttlecock. There are four of these shuttlecock sculptures at the museum, designed by sculptors Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.

Every guest seems to have a camera to capture the bride and groom as they walk down the rose-strewn aisle in this Napa Valley, California, wedding.

A bride and groom relax on a bench along the Avon River in Christchurch, New Zealand.

My husband took this photo while I was looking elsewhere and didn’t see this bride and groom. I think my husband might have been bitten briefly by the bride photo bug. Here, a bride and groom consult with their photographer on Signal Hill in Cape Town, South Africa. Signal Hill provides a spectacular view of Table Bay and the city of Cape Town and makes a lovely spot for a wedding photo.

Ode to a McIntosh Apple

 

I love apples, the tasty member of the rose family. These McIntosh apples are my favorites.

 I grasp your smooth curves eagerly between my trembling fingers.  Your skin is so brilliantly green, blushed with bright red.

You minx, how you tease me with your beauty, with the promise of your juicy sweetness.  Are you ripe? I hold you to my lips.  My teeth bite into your firm white flesh. I taste tartness, yet sugar melts into my mouth.  On my tongue I feel you crisp and firm, yet yielding, a dribble of juice on my lips. Piquant perfectly describes how you stimulate my taste buds.

So clearly, I remember the day we first met.  It was a warm early autumn day, a little overcast in a New York orchard. Everywhere, the leaves were brilliant, although yours, I must confess, were a little spotty. Leafy Autumn fire is not your glory.  No matter.  Your abundance overwhelmed me.  The pleasure of your flesh enraptured me.  I am yours forever. (Catherine L. Sherman)

An ancient apple tree at Anita's old house holds a tree house in its stout limbs, which no longer bear fruit.

The McIntosh apple will always hold a place in my heart and in my fruit bin, when in season… My dear long-time friend Anita, her daughters and their friends took me apple picking in an orchard near her home in Binghamton.  Actually, the only picking we did was in the orchard store, but it was fun, anyway.  Children laughed on a small ferris wheel.  A tang of smoke hung in the cool air.  We inhaled the earthy fragrance of wet leaves as we shuffled through the rapidly growing leafy drifts.   Pumpkins were piled outside the store.  We chose some of those, too.  It was early October 1994.  I wasn’t there quite at the peak of the brilliant fall colors, but the forest was still a beautiful sight. 

Anita and her family lived in an historic white clapboard house near Binghamton, surrounded by massive sugar maples that were tapped every year to make maple syrup.  At the back of the yard, an ancient gnarled apple tree embraced a tree house.

The following October my father died.  Anita mailed me a box of McIntosh apples and some jugs of maple syrup.  She couldn’t have chosen better.

Anita and I can't seem to stay away from apple orchards. Maybe we are really daughters of eve. Here's a small orchard we stopped by in Tasmania. We stopped because I wanted a photograph. We were really in the area to see a waterfall and buy some cheese.

For more about the apple family, click here:  Stalking the Placid Apple’s Untamed Kin. This story is about the United States Department of Agriculture’s Plant Genetic Resources Unit, in upstate New York, which is home to the world’s most extensive collection of apple varieties and relatives.  Closer to my home in Kansas City, Powell Gardens showcases Missouri’s finest apple varieties in its Apple Celebration Court.

 John Keats’ “Ode to an Nightingale” inspired me to write this ode, which technically is not an ode, but does praise and glorify a subject.  “Bright Star,” a movie about Keats, was very good. See it!

A scan of my photograph of an area near Binghamton, New York, in October 1994, when the trees are starting to turn. (In the dark ages before digital cameras...)