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. 



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.