About My Parents (and Capturing Love in Your Photos))

My Mom and Dad are no longer here, but they will always be with me.  My father passed away just a couple of months before they would have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  It has been a while, but I still get a lump in my throat writing about him and my mother.  I know others feel like I do - that they were the best parents one could wish for.  They gave me total and unconditional love, and some of the best memories of my life.  I will always be thankful for all they did for me; while special days like Mother's Day and Father's Day are nice, they are remembered every day - they deserve no less.  Anyway, many years ago we were taking a trip from Scottsdale to, I believe, the Natural Bridge just north of Payson, AZ, and stopped for a rest at the side of the road.  I think it was in the mid to late 1980's, and I had my trusty Nikon FTn with me, and shot a bunch of pictures of my parents.  One of them was a photo that captured one of those magical images - when you capture more than just a picture - you capture that emotion that makes it more than what you might have hoped for, and a memory of who these two wonderful people were, and the love they shared.  As can happen, I was focusing on the getting a great image, but missed a detail - the bag at their feet.  And so it remained in the photo for perhaps 20 years, until digital and photoshop entered the scene.  I finally got to remove that bag, and fix some of the fading of the original slide.  Below is the before and after of the bag removal.  The feeling in the images is pretty much the same in the before and after, but with no distractions to take away from it.  It is the feeling and personality that can be elusive, but which I always try to get in my photography.

Now, back to health - a recent publicized study said calcium and vitamin D may be bad for you.  I would not disagree with that....if that is all a person took.  In nature, things are in balance, and by taking two isolated supplements, without what would be needed to keep things in balance, you may well run into problems.  I personally would never take calcium and vitamin D (in the form of D3) without taking magnesium and vitamin K along with it.  But check with your health care practitioner (one who hopefully knows about supplements), and do your own research, too.  Some supplements may interfere with some medications, and some medications can deplete some nutrients that you would then need to take as a supplement.  And keep in mind, too, that it is not only what supplements you take, but what form the supplements are in - are they natural or synthetic, are some organically bound to another substance that will help you absorb them better, or might you not absorb them at all if they are not in the correct form.

This is it for now.  Have a great day, and "see you" on my next post.