My wedding photographer

My wonderful friend and former colleague Mark Basse has agreed to photograph our wedding in May. Mark works at Florida Community College, but his real career is photography. He's amazing.

I started working with Mark while interviewing students to feature on the FCCJ web site. After doing an e-mail interview, Mark and I would meet them on campus to ask follow-up questions and take their picture. I would "assist," mainly by holding that reflective unbrella-looking thingy that does something with the light.

Mark's such a great photographer because he puts you at ease, and he takes a great photo of anybody, even students who were visibly concerned about their appearance.

Just fooling around one day, he called out to me: "Hey Jen!" I look up and poof! Photographed.
Can I tell you, it came out so good that I had it framed and gave it to my parents?

I received an e-mail from Mark today - apparently he was going through files and found two photos of me - both silly, off-the-cuff things.

You might recognize this one as my profile photo. It's the one I had framed for my parents:


This is even sillier:


He took both of these with the camera in just one hand, quickly - you should see his stuff when he's actually doing "photography." Looking at them, I get excited about him taking photos for our wedding. I think they're going to be great - what a great friend!

I also think I might want to grow my hair back out . . . .

Pretty in Pink

We have two Gebera daisy plants in our front yard, and they've been surprising me with consistent blooms since we moved in. It's usually one at a time, so each time a bloom dies, I always think, "Oh - that was that." And damn if there isn't another little bud uncurling beneath all those heavy, lettuce-like leaves.

This one came out . . . well, squashed. I thought as the petals unfurled it would round itself out, but it looks unlikely:

Just to the right of the bloom you might make out the new little bud that coming up next.

Close-up:

More on Gerbera daisies at Gardening in a Minute

Flower Photo: Morning Glory

There's a mass of azaleas that grow under a big oak tree that's near my building. In the mornings, you can often see one or two morning glories peeking out among the green azaleas (they bloom in early spring).