Thank you.

Just wanted to give a BIG thank you to everyone who came to Evensong on Friday. Standing up there, waiting for the intro for my Bach duet to start and hoping my lucky pasta dinner shoes work magic in places other than the St. Francis basement, I looked around and saw friends in every direction. How could I be nervous when so many people I love were there to show their support. My family might live a thousand miles away, but my Columbus family is right here and I want you all to know how much you mean to me!

Bucket list: hangin' with the captains.

I've always loved airports. All the possibility! All the places you can go. One of my first memories was the massive departures/arrivals board at Frankfurt airport in Germany - one of those old flippy kinds, where all of a sudden the letters and numbers whip into a frenzy, whirring and clicking like a million typewriters, stopping with a new display of far-away worlds: Karachi, Cairo, Tokyo, New York, Dakar...

At the moment I don't live near a big international hub like that, but the feeling is close to the same no matter what airport I'm in: ahhh, the smell of jet fuel, the shuffly sound of hundreds of people wheeling their suitcases, the background p.a. announcements (especially lovely if delivered in more than one foreign language), and the crew, of course, all stripes and uniforms and well-worn flight cases. Emerging from secret elevators and breezing through doors requiring passcodes. What exactly is back there? I've always wanted to know.

So I asked around, and - lucky me - a dream came true at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. With my very own visitor's badge and personal escort, I took a tour of the TRACON room and the control tower, went through several secret doors, found out where the peanuts are stored, and strolled to the gates with the captains. Tim let us onto his plane and John sat me up front and showed me what handles and switches and buttons (don't push the red one!) did what. TOO fun. For a day I was with the in-crowd, feeling like Cinderella. Whenever I'm at an airport now I smile for a new reason: I've had a glimpse of what's behind the scenes. Thank you, John, and Tim, and everyone at Detroit Metro for making a little dream of mine come true.

A few airport landscapes from the day...

(an adventure from November '09 but I'd forgotten to post it)

Juli & Tim.

Having photographed Juli and Tim's wedding at the Franklin Park Conservatory in the fall of 2009, I felt truly honored when Juli emailed to ask if I would be with them at St. Joseph's Cathedral as they celebrated the Sacrament of Marriage. I am so used to the cathedral feeling huge and full of people; Juli and Tim's Mass took place behind the altar, with only a handful of family attending... such an intimate experience and one I won't ever forget.

Claire & Kelly.

Two of my favorite black & whites from Claire & Kelly's wedding in December...

... and a couple more in color...

Coming soon.

Boy or girl? Kate and David didn't want to know right away... instead, they had the ultrasound results sealed in an envelope and waited until Thanksgiving to open it up. "David had to hide it from me," Kate said. "I was looking all over the house for that thing!" With family gathered around them last Thursday they read the news: a boy. Cheers and congratulations to Kate and David! Little James McGuigan - Mick for short - is due in April.