Delivering Porch Portrait Books

I’ve been having fun the last week or so delivering copies of Surviving Quarantine to my neighbors here in Pine Lake, as well as to a few friends around the Decatur area. Pamela Poole was especially delighted to receive her copy.

My niece Kate commented that this photograph is very meta. I can’t wait until I have an outdoor gallery of photographs Pamela can pose in front of while holding her photo in the book. Meta meta. :)

COVID porch portrait book

The book is a collection of porch portraits of some of my Pine Lake neighbors (39 photos total) with commentaries about quarantine from those in the photos.

Porch Portraits in Pine Lake
Comment

Cindy Brown

I'm an Atlanta wedding photographer who takes soulful, quirky and honest photos ...

I'm also an adventurous traveler and all-round nerd. I love to hike with my beagle/cattle dog Roux and best friend/spouse.

I was born in Atlanta, moved around a lot--30 cities and 5 states--and then came back.

After graduating from the Art Institute of Atlanta, I took a job at asmall newspaper in south Georgia, where I photographedhospital teas, pecan farmers, and beauty queens.

I photographed a biker funeral, death penalty protests andTed Bundy while interning with the Associated Press.

While a photographer for two dailies in Florida, I photographed Ronald Reagan, a train derailment and the dedication of a screened-in porch.

An unexpected life turn took me to Vermont where I fell in love with Bernie Sanders and on to Indiana, where I edited photos for a major daily, and nerded out getting a master’s and PhD.

After teaching photojournalism at colleges and universities in Florida, Indiana and Mississippi, I returned to Atlanta to earn myfifth degree--a Master's of Divinity.

My passion for storytelling with my camera and my interest in religious diversity led my to the field of wedding photojournalism.

I have documented weddings large and small, Unitarian and Pagan, indoors and out, Christian and Muslim, in backyards and in churches. The most exotic wedding I have photographed took place in Mexico and was officiated by aMayan shaman.

When I'm not photographing weddings, portraits or corporate events, I work on personal photo projects, visit friends in amemory-care home, and volunteer at a recovery center.

COVID wedding change of venue to parent's backyard

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Due to COVID 19 and the restrictions created to keep it from spreading, Daria and Josh revamped their wedding plans from a big celebration at the Dekalb History Center, into an intimate backyard ceremony and suburban-home reception.

The intimate ceremony, dinner and party to follow was filled with laughter, love, good food, good cake and a little bit (or maybe more) of champagne.

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Daria got help with her dress from her Mom.

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Josh’s best man adjusts Josh’s tie.

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Daria makes Josh laugh during the ceremony.

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The happy couple after they are wed.

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A quiet moment after all the excitement.

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The posed photo session included Gaston, an important member of the wedding party.

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The wedding topper toppled.

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Locking arms for the traditional champagne toast.

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Daria’s bridesmaid makes Daria and Josh, and the rest of the guests, laugh.

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Cheers!

Comment

Cindy Brown

I'm an Atlanta wedding photographer who takes soulful, quirky and honest photos ...

I'm also an adventurous traveler and all-round nerd. I love to hike with my beagle/cattle dog Roux and best friend/spouse.

I was born in Atlanta, moved around a lot--30 cities and 5 states--and then came back.

After graduating from the Art Institute of Atlanta, I took a job at asmall newspaper in south Georgia, where I photographedhospital teas, pecan farmers, and beauty queens.

I photographed a biker funeral, death penalty protests andTed Bundy while interning with the Associated Press.

While a photographer for two dailies in Florida, I photographed Ronald Reagan, a train derailment and the dedication of a screened-in porch.

An unexpected life turn took me to Vermont where I fell in love with Bernie Sanders and on to Indiana, where I edited photos for a major daily, and nerded out getting a master’s and PhD.

After teaching photojournalism at colleges and universities in Florida, Indiana and Mississippi, I returned to Atlanta to earn myfifth degree--a Master's of Divinity.

My passion for storytelling with my camera and my interest in religious diversity led my to the field of wedding photojournalism.

I have documented weddings large and small, Unitarian and Pagan, indoors and out, Christian and Muslim, in backyards and in churches. The most exotic wedding I have photographed took place in Mexico and was officiated by aMayan shaman.

When I'm not photographing weddings, portraits or corporate events, I work on personal photo projects, visit friends in amemory-care home, and volunteer at a recovery center.

What a wedding photographer does when there are no weddings

COVID-19 and the subsequent quarantine has left a lot of couples scrambling to reschedule their weddings. A few have decided to have a very small ceremony right away with a larger get together later. But many have simply postponed until they feel certain they’ll be able to celebrate with friends and family.

Wedding (and event) photographers, like myself, look at our calendars and see open dates from now until we don’t know when.

So, I decided to create my own assignment. Take porch portraits (lots of photographers are doing this) of Pine Lakers showing off something that has been helping them survive quarantine. I’ve been especially interested in photographing artists and musicians with their instruments, art work, journals, sculptures or paint brushes.

In addition, I’m asking each person to write a little something about what’s keeping them going while they’re hibernating.

Here’s a portrait of Amy Pence and a poem she has written about quarantine.

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Amy Pence, Tree Side of the Lake

Ways to Stay Inside the Inside
by Amy Pence

[A softness, as if from everywhere, is touching the earth – Rilke]

Preempt your regular programming to go bullseye into the universe.

Love the muddled memories of your created earth.

By midnight, develop a routine--

--quickly dispense.

Travel down rabbit holes, but burrow lightly.

Enact two dozen varieties of flora—one that billows from your palm.

Make furious love to your shadow. Over a threshold, imagine a constellated real.

Piece together the rough details that cradled your birth.

Watch your fear, but protect the young in their thriving.

Experience one ecstasy a day:

-          the split apple’s tart future

-          the velvet anemones turned to sun

-          the masked fisherman

as he lets the fish go.

Make allowances for the composition of bread and other transcendent materials.

Forget the hands that may have disfigured you & remember the ones that

drew you to beauty.

If don’ts once hindered you, turn them into a softness.

Contemplate the highest ceiling—all the star charts—reconstructed from our rough

anatomies.

Initiate a different touch. Keep going -- 

See previous porch portraits

See next porch portraits

Comment

Cindy Brown

I'm an Atlanta wedding photographer who takes soulful, quirky and honest photos ...

I'm also an adventurous traveler and all-round nerd. I love to hike with my beagle/cattle dog Roux and best friend/spouse.

I was born in Atlanta, moved around a lot--30 cities and 5 states--and then came back.

After graduating from the Art Institute of Atlanta, I took a job at asmall newspaper in south Georgia, where I photographedhospital teas, pecan farmers, and beauty queens.

I photographed a biker funeral, death penalty protests andTed Bundy while interning with the Associated Press.

While a photographer for two dailies in Florida, I photographed Ronald Reagan, a train derailment and the dedication of a screened-in porch.

An unexpected life turn took me to Vermont where I fell in love with Bernie Sanders and on to Indiana, where I edited photos for a major daily, and nerded out getting a master’s and PhD.

After teaching photojournalism at colleges and universities in Florida, Indiana and Mississippi, I returned to Atlanta to earn myfifth degree--a Master's of Divinity.

My passion for storytelling with my camera and my interest in religious diversity led my to the field of wedding photojournalism.

I have documented weddings large and small, Unitarian and Pagan, indoors and out, Christian and Muslim, in backyards and in churches. The most exotic wedding I have photographed took place in Mexico and was officiated by aMayan shaman.

When I'm not photographing weddings, portraits or corporate events, I work on personal photo projects, visit friends in amemory-care home, and volunteer at a recovery center.