When I was little my parents divorced and I would spend every summer for at least a month with my dad at the family cottage. There was always plenty of room and bunk beds so it could be any one of my uncles there with their kids as well. The cottage had few rules and they were always abided most of the time. Rule #1 Stay out of grammie’s garden – Rule #2 We had to wear lifejackets if we went in the boat – Rule #3 Stay out of the cottage unless it’s raining. So all summer we’d run around catching toads, making mud castles, swimming, fishing, swimming, playing hide and go seek, swimming, playing tag and rowing around in the little dinghy. I really miss the cottage and having those summers of childhood bliss and innocence but though I am no longer a child I carry memories and habits from those summers.
The cottage had this great porch and the entire one side of it was covered in sliding glass doors at least three or four of them that let in a lot of light but also made the living room the best place to watch thunderstorms. I’ve never been afraid of them – I just love the awesome power and beauty of the dramatic clouds, flashes of light and crashes. I have always (long before making this my profession) wanted to capture photos of lighting and be like storm chaser. This past Monday I kinda got my wish – coming home from a shoot at Rockwood I came up a hill and saw the storm clouds gathering and of course got excited – and then I saw a crazy flash of thick lighting and realized that I could see the storm and the lighting from where I was but there was no rain yet. So I whipped out my camera and set up the tripod – Dozens of flashes were passing me by but still no lightning in my shots – I heard a loud rumble and set my timer for a 15 second exposure to try and capture it and FLASH – I GOT IT!!!! A great strong bolt right out of the clouds – I jumped around like a little kid screaming yes! and I’m sure I caused some funny looks from the drivers but I was just so excited! Im sure that if I had read up on how to capture it everything would be sharp and perfect but these photos are perfect to me – they are a dream realized and encouragement embodied in the wonderful power of nature. Check em out . . .
Yes that’s water on my filter!
well. I know there are times at weddings where I have needed stuff and Bryan has raced across the room with it because he tell by my face that I needed something. I can’t train that kind of link with any other assistant (well maybe Sam is the exception since we are practically married anyways) and it’s definitely something I will be building on in the future! Who knows maybe one day it won’t be Amanda Lachapelle photography but just Lachapelle photography! In any case the night chatting and getting new ideas was invaluable and JB & DeEtte – Bryan and I can’t thank you enough for such a great time! (Even if it was hard to get up at 8am after getting home at 2am) See you at WPPI 2009!