Photography dates

Riley and I began dating about four years ago. I remember on one of those first encounters he told me that he liked a picture I had posted online, a very simple one. A shot of my boots standing on that first dusting of snow in Michigan. A carved pumpkin was the focus of the shot to show how early we get our Winters in the midwest. I got all of the butterflies just from the fact that he was into my art. Such a simple compliment, but it meant a lot to me at that time. I had obviously looked through his pictures when I became interested in him (ha ha) and saw an album from his college days at MSU. He had walked around campus, capturing snowy scenes with an old camera. I thought this one album was so special, and wondered if we should develop our skills together. And so, “photo dates” were born. Just the two of us, we grab our cameras and go for a drive, or out in bad weather, or to a cool photo location. We allow ourselves to be creative, and capture whatever catches our eye. My favorite part is seeing the different perspectives from the same locations. It brings to light how two different people can view the same landscape, based off of what they think is beautiful. In general, I grab the macro scenes and Riley loves the massive wide angle captures. I love the irony of that because with life, I am the dreamer/ big picture & belief type, and he takes care of all of the details to make sure we are doing realistic things on the way to those dreams. This time was a bit different- the flower and ladybug shots below are his. He was really enjoying our macro lens and just kept shooting. I love how they turned out!

This photo date was from last Sunday, when he asked, “do you want to just take a drive?” and we ended up in Point Reyes, CA. We had been on a date here years ago, and visited once more since then. It was a cold, rainy day that cleared up enough for us to go on a few small walks along the coastline.

The beauty of California never ceases to amaze me.