Spring Has Sprung

I have written before about how each spring, once the rains cease and the warm sun breaks through the clouds, I venture outside with my camera in hopes of capturing on (digital) film the delicate beauty of the season's first blooms. For me, photographing flowers is both soothing and invigorating, calming and inspiring. The moment when my camera lenses allows me to see how a seemingly simple element in nature is, upon closer inspection, actually brilliantly complex...MAGIC.

I also photograph flowers because of Hallie, who takes the generic suggestion to "stop and smell the roses" quite seriously. When she was younger, I followed her as she wandered through grassy fields picking weeds and assembling bouquets and sampling scents. I brought my camera and captured each of her discoveries as a way to "force" myself to live in the moment and appreciate how she saw the world. Now she walks alongside me, matching me step for step but still clutching my hand in hers. We search for flowers together, and then she helps me choose which ones to photograph, how to set up the shots, and which images to keep. Flowers are our special spring ritual.

One of my favorite flower pictures of Hallie -
she fell asleep in the stroller, both hands clutched
tightly around full bouquets of flowering weeds.

This year, rather than tour our neighborhood in search of flowering signs of spring, Hallie and I returned to The Gardens on the TAMU campus. The Gardens still have a long way to grow before reaching their full potential, but we found quite a few blooms worth photographing.

Hallie brought her own camera this year, and in between watering ALL THE PLANTS, she took a few lovely pictures of her own.

Spring has sprung, friends - enjoy it!