Talk about doing a 180-degree turn.  On Monday, I got in my car at 4:35 p.m., having just photographed Barry Schenk for an event, who is the co-founder of the Innocence Project, though more well-known by us non-legal types as one of O.J.'s lawyers from the so-called Trial of the Century.  I only say "so-called" because I've heard that term used for a number of trials even though I've lived for less than a century, so apparently it's a non-exclusive title.  :-)  Anyway, I had a bounce in my step as I walked to my car, feeling excited to have done another high-profile session,  though I only had to take five photos at the end of the event, but the client will be happy.    He was a thoughtful speaker and seemed very genuine with an engaging smile.  And of course, his having great eye contact makes this photographer very happy.

Fifteen minutes later, I signed out my son from preschool and went onto the school playground to pick him up.  He was on the jungle gym with some classmates, laughing and having a good time.  I stood talking to a teacher as he laughed and ran back and forth on the equipment.  Then he turned and jumped from too high a location and my heart nearly stopped.  I couldn't see how he landed, as he jumped off the opposite side of climber.  I dropped his lunchbox and my keys and ran to him.  He was howling in pain and clutching his arm.  I scooped him up and ran to a chair under the awning and looked at his arm.  I didn't see anything though he was howling with such an animal intensity that I knew something was wrong.  I scooped him up and ran for my car, the teacher trailing me with the lunchbox and keys.  I managed to get him into his car seat and drove like mad to the ER.  I called my husband and told him to meet us there.

We got there at 5:15 p.m. but didn't leave for home until 3:05 a.m.  It was really one of the worst nights of my life, second only to a night in December of 2006 in the same hospital, with the same boy, though this time he was still a part of me in utero.   The next morning, my water broke spontaneously and he made an early entrance into the world, six weeks earlier than anticipated, and that is where the ride of a lifetime began.  I swear, this boy is going to put me in an old-age home way before my time due to fright.   I suppose what happened between 5:15 p.m. and 3:15 a.m. last night is a story best left for another time and place, but the end result is a splint made of plaster covered by an ace bandage, which will be followed by a fiberglass cast next week after the swelling goes down.  It  was heartbreaking to have my baby sobbing call my name to make the pain stop and not being able to do anything other than try to comfort him with soothing words and holding him tight.

I'll be sure to post cast photos once he gets it -- he has already decided that he wants a white, purple and green cast with glitter to look like Buzz Lightyear -- which is truly a choice offered to him including the glitter.  There seems to be something very wrong with a society that has that option when millions of children sharing the same planet don't even have clean drinking water but that discussion is also for another time and place.  

I'll catch up with other photos I've done over the past few weeks, but for now, this will have to suffice.  This was my boy long after sunrise, making up for missed sleep during the night.  

It was my privilege to take photos at the Help A Mother Out fundraiser for the Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona today.  It was so well organized, with snacks, face painting, arts and crafts and yoga for the kids, a clothing swap, and some of the most genuine people you could ever hope to meet.  The best part is that lots of diapers were donated which will go to more than 50 agencies served by the Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona.  I cannot tell you what a great honor it is to be able to help and to know Rachel, the organizer.  She is a woman who makes the lives of so many people better, both that she knows and who she doesn't, and I am so very fortunate to call her friend.  Without further ado, here are some of the early photos.  

I had a photo credit in this week's Tucson Weekly, a quick portrait I did for Rachel.  It can be seen here.  Wow, oh, wow -- between the Adorama article, the Eye on the Environment photo contest and Tucson Weekly, it's been a really good month!

I am so excited.  The post I wrote about here ended in a good way!  I won the "Food and Agriculture" category of the 2011 "Eye on the Environment" photo contest from the world-renowned Institute of the Environment with this photo:

It is one of my favorite photos of my dear friend Rachel and her chicken, Snow White.  I was at her house with another friend taking photos capturing movement and we were hopelessly trying to take photos of the chickens running around her yard.  Rachel asked me to take one of her with Snow White, and also another chicken, a brilliant black chicken with red ... what, cockles?  Whatever you call that rubbery red stuff around their heads, LOL!  Anyway, I am quite humbled to be amongst this group of fabulous photographers.  Fittingly enough, the picture will hang in the Marshall Building for a year, and there is a reception to take place soon to honor all of the winners, and the three top photos will be on display at next weekend's Festival of Books, though not mine since I was an honorable mention, not one of the top-three awards (Best Overall, Best Faculty/Staff and Best Student). 

I couldn't wipe the smile off my face once I heard that my photo was picked.  YAY!   So do you think I can now call myself an award-winning photographer?!  :-)  But seriously, I am thrilled to bits because of the two things I've submitted photos for, my photos were picked both times (the Adorama article and this).  For this contest, there were 494 entries, and it is pretty cool to be singled out.  I'm on Cloud 9. 

It is so fitting that I should win with a photo of Rachel.  She's been one of my biggest photography supporters from the beginning and a great advisor that I ask for feedback from all the time.  I ordered an 11 x 14 metallic print of the photo as a thank you, along with one for my friend Barb, who first told me about the contest and encouraged me to enter.  Thanks, friends.   Geez, you'd think from my Sally Field-esque speech that I'd won a Pulitzer Prize for photography, not just an honorable mention in a local contest.  

Brrr, it was a cold mountain, the one 25 miles up the road, otherwise known as Mt. Lemmon.  The thing I like best about Mt. Lemmon is that we can take our son to play the snow and an hour later we can come home to 80-degree weather, like today.  He's only been in snow one other time before (same place last year), and he loves the snow and thinks it is the coolest thing ever (no pun intended).  We actually had snow at our house once since moving here seven years ago, and it was when he was a month old.  Our friend from Pittsburgh was coming to Tucson to stay with us to help out, and she was really looking forward to a break from the cold weather.  Of course, I had to call her the morning that she was getting on the plane to warn her about the snow, LOL.

Anyway, without further ado, here are some quick snapshots from today.

First, an update about the last post.  The headshot of Rachel will run in the next Tucson Weekly in an article to promote Swap-o-Rama, which benefits Help A Mother Out and the Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona.  And I'll be photographing the event next week and I'm hoping that a few of the photos will appear on the HAMO website.  Rachel gave the newspaper my name for the photo credit, so I hope they use it.  

I spent a very relaxing afternoon at Tucson Botanical Gardens yesterday.  I don't think it's possible to be stressed when you're there.  Located literally in the middle of the city, it is cool and quiet and you forget that a busy street is just on the other side of the Gardens.  I spent some time in the Butterfly Magic exhibit, which is one of my favorites.  We've been members there for years and I always look forward to going back.  I really should go more often -- it's so calming and peaceful.  It must be good for the soul.

I took three pictures today - only a little above snapshot since they were totally on the fly, and I used the new-to-me 5D Classic to try it out.  I am used to a screen on the back of the camera to tell me what my settings are, and I'm going to have to figure out how to set my white balance and change my ISO on the little top screen unless some kind person can help me figure out how to get a menu on the back of the screen.  Hello, RTM, I know.  I will, really.   Anyway, I took three pictures and two were keepers, so I'm happy.  I love her eye contact with the camera.  Be sure to click on them to see it -- she is really connecting with the viewer, don't you think?  

Rachel is the organizer of the Swap-o-Rama event to benefit Help A Mother Out and the Diaper Bank that I mentioned in a previous post.   A number of media organizations are running articles about it and she needed a headshot.  Well, she already has a headshot that she is quite fond of, taken in Italy last year, but now she has two.  I was willing to travel to Italy to take this, but she couldn't work it out with her schedule.  :-)  And without further ado, here they are, two head shots and a crop.  

Because if I post again, I am bumping my smiling boy's photo off the front page.  Maybe I'll just re-post it with every entry, right?!  Okay, so I did something yesterday that I've never done before -- I entered a photo contest.  Entrants were permitted to submit as many photos as they wanted, so I submitted a dozen, spread out over various categories of the ten they had.  I was a little iffy as to whether or not my photos met the criteria for the category, but I really wasn't clear, though the photos in the flyer for the contest looked along the lines of what I entered, so that was that.  They're going to notify the winners at the end of the week, so keep your fingers crossed for me! If you've looked around here, then you've seen them before.  All were taken in the past eight months.  Without further ado --