Thanksgiving Day With My Family

The American tradition...Thanksgiving.  A time to get together with friends and family to participate in the annual tradition of finding out how much food you can eat before you feel sick.  This year, my Aunt Lynne decided that we should all meet at the San Diego Zoo for a thanksgiving meal.  I had no idea that the zoo was open on Thanksgiving, much less that they were serving meals.  I joked to everyone that they would most likely be serving the animals that have died that year at the zoo.  Many people took that seriously so I stopped saying that.  However, it wasn't far from the truth. They were serving other animals that weren't fortunate enough to have residence there.

Throughout the week, I watched traveling stories of horror on the news about how backed up the freeways were so I decided to travel on Thanksgiving morning.  I drove to San Diego to meet my cousin, Wendy at her house in Linda Vista.  Earlier in the week, she posted pictures on Facebook of a dead raccoon on the side of her neighbors house.  For days it laid there and she was completely disgusted that nobody properly disposed of it.  After a while, it didn't smell so she figured it was a taxidermy raccoon.  Once I saw a photo of it on Facebook, Mr. Raccoon had to participate in their family portrait. When I arrived, Wendy and I took a walk to the neighbor's house and I knocked on the door.  The music was blaring and once the door opened, I didn't see who was on the other side from the metal screen door but I said, "Hi, we're your neighbors and I am a photographer...may I borrow your raccoon?" The voice on the other side said, "sure" and the door closed.  Mr. Raccoon fit in just perfect with the family of Wendy, Don, Pasa, Goldie, Colin and Jennifer! The following day, we went back to the house and Wendy asked if we could adopt the raccoon.  It is now a part of my family.  It's me, Max and Mr. Raccoon!

After the family portrait photo session, Wendy and I headed to the zoo to meet up with my mom, her mother and their partners, Allan and Erick, respectively.  After our meal, we wandered around the zoo looking at some of the animals.  I am fascinated with people watching animals at the zoo.  It's a bit sad and makes you wonder if there are any other species on this earth that have pets like humans do.  I know the animals at the zoo aren't considered "pets" but do other animals have pets?  Anyway, as I walked by the gift store, I saw some animal masks that would be perfect for  some "couples portraits" of my mom and Allan as well as Lynne and Erick.  They were good sports to play along, even though it might seem a tad creepy.

After the zoo, Wendy and I headed to her father and step mothers house.  I don't get to see Dick and Judy very often so it was nice to spend some time chatting and having a piece of pie.  Dick makes me laugh and this photograph of him taking a photograph seems to fit his personality well.

I am thankful of my loved ones on this holiday, as well as every day in between.  I know we are all nuts (perhaps I may be the freak show leader), but I wouldn't want it any other way.

Here are some photographs from the day...

A Good Bye Gathering And A Family Reunion Portrait

I went for the ride and joined a gathering for a good bye party and a reunion of sorts.  Since I was a passenger, I really had no idea where I was but I believe I was somewhere in the state of Massachusetts.

I thought a going away party would be around 20 people at the most, sitting around chit chatting about the weather or what was going on in everyone's lives.  Well, yes...people were chit chatting but I was taken back on how many people were there.  Then I started asking who everyone was and for the most part, everyone was related!

 I can count all the direct members of my family on one hand.  I am not used to a family gathering that looked like this!  I asked how everyone knew each other and the response typically went like this: "that is my cousin and those are her kids and that guy next to her is my cousin's husband and that kid is his son but the other kid next to his belongs to my cousin's aunt who is over there talking to my other cousin's sister in law."

As complicated as it sounded, I think questions would have added to the mix of complications so I nodded as my brain tried to mix and match kids with parents with siblings with parents.

I met Anne Maxon last year while I was in Boston and she has such a beautiful family so I wanted to take a portrait of her, her husband and their four beautiful children.  Her kids are naturals.  We walked behind the house and I pointed to the ground on where to stand and as soon as I put the camera to my eye, they were all smiling and posing.

Later in the evening, the entire family started gathering together to take a group portrait.  I heard one woman say, "there is a photographer that is going to take our family picture." Instantly, I was excited to see who was going to take their picture to meet the photographer and talk about pictures but I soon realized that everyone was looking at me.  I was the photographer they were referring to.  I haven't taken many group portraits, especially this size but I was willing to snap away.  I then took a group photo of the kids in the family which was challenging.  Lucky for me, I had the parents behind me snapping their fingers and clapping away to get the attention of their kids to look at them.

Everyone at the event was very kind to me about my photographs.  I was thrilled to be approached by people I've never met before to tell me they enjoy viewing my images. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of the family, if only for a little while.