Wednesday, January 16, 2013

The Mother-of-the-bride

The Mother-of-the-bride, photographed by Shannon Finney, Alexandria, VA, January 2013

 
The pathway from newly engaged to walking down the aisle can be fraught -
packed with binders over-stuffed with details, and hours of planning. And
while good friends are there to assist, there is one member of the
wedding party who often takes on the Herculean task of project manager and
that's the mother-of-the-bride. She is catering manager, transportation
coordinator, and dresser. I snapped this photograph during a wedding
shoot and I love it because within it is the essence of the bond between mother
and daughter - the constancy of care no matter when and no matter what. 


Thursday, January 3, 2013

An Inauguration Memory

Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009, Washington, DC /Photograph by Shannon Finney

Now that the holidays are over, denizens of the Beltway have turned their attention to the
upcoming second Inaugural celebrations for President Obama (or POTUS, as we
affectionately call him). And as Washington, DC gives itself a good polish, I have been
thinking about the first Inauguration of President Obama, back on January 20, 2009. It was
freezing that day, and as my husband and I stepped out of the warm Metro station and
onto the cold streets of Capitol Hill, I realized that those hand warmers were going to be
insufficient. Security was tight that day, with concrete barriers and chain link fencing everywhere you
turned. And while the throngs of people were impressive, the most visually jarring
thing to me were instances where there was an absence of people and cars. When I took
the above photo, I was having one of those "Vanilla Sky" moments where it was
eerily quiet and still.