2016

To be honest, I’ve written about 6 different first sentences to this post. This year was… everything at the same time. You know how you come inside from the freezing cold and can feel your fingers thaw? They tingle, throb and feel hot and cold at the same time. Your knuckles ache a little, and you know they wouldn’t ache if you hadn’t scooped some snow in your bare hands to toss to the dog. But you did, and they do, and that’s that. For me, 2016 was my life freezing up and thawing out again. Many photos from my year have hours of a story behind them. The last photo I took of my Paka before he passed away, Easter Sunday the week I came home after a major surgery, my younger brother’s wedding, our nephew driving the boat, the pregnancies and newborns… the whole of life in those photos. I love to share these photos with you, but I mostly need to share them with myself. These photos show me that there was life in that year. 2016 had light and growth and giggles and kisses and water and green and birth and good.

This year I loved:

• a little bit of dark mixed in with all the light
• the imperfect, out of focus, blurry black + whites
• wind
• that moment right before a kiss happens
• almost-symmetry
• children telling each other secrets

This year I took photos in:

• Lancaster, PA
• Seattle, WA
• Chicago, IL
• Ely, MN
• Minneapolis + St. Paul, MN
• Milwaukee, WI
• Whitehall, MI
• Detroit, MI
• St. Ignace, MI
• Grand Rapids, MI

And of course many, many, manymanymany photos were taken on the ever-lovely Lake Michigan in my sweet home of Holland.

I’ll stop writing soon, but must thank Susie Herwig and Kaitlin Grace Photography for second shooting for me; they are kind and talented photographers!

My last and highest tribute is to my husband. Eric believes in me like he believes in the ground beneath his feet. Don’t ask me how, but he does. This year he fought for me. Not only did he fight for our life together and my health, but he fought for my creativity and my joy. This is for you, Eric.