Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;
These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.

Miracles
by Walt Whitman

I wanted to give you some photos that aren’t focused on people getting married, because I know many of you aren’t necessarily holding your breath waiting for new wedding photos to appear here. Also, lots more photos of the nuptial variety will be posted here in the near future, and I figure even those of you who are in the process of choosing a wedding photographer (and thus becoming professional evaluators of wedding photographs) could use a bit of a breather between glorious love stories.

So I’ve dipped into the personal archives and come up with a few from a day in the forest back in June of last year. I believe it was my first day out with my new macro lens, and I remember how exhilarating that was, and how sore my arms felt after a day of trying to hold the camera steady to practice my flower shots. The legs were sore too- there is a lot of squatting involved when photographing bugs, who often do their stuff rather close to the ground.

Anyway, miracles: all over the place. Don’t forget.

Sara and Chad won a free Red Bat Photography engagement shoot at the 2010 Bridal Expo at Cocoanut Grove. You might win one too, if you visit our booth at the 2011 Bridal Expo, so please stop by if you attend. We give away a few free engagement shoots each year. There’s no obligation to book with us for your wedding when you enter the engagement shoot raffle. It’s simply a scheme to bring fresh energy and new faces in front of our cameras.

When we met with Sara and Chad to plan their shoot, the four of us put our minds together and a light bulb rose up above our heads and thus we came up with the idea of taking pictures at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Both Sarah and Chad love the aquarium and marine life in general. As for the Red Bats, we were excited about the challenge of shooting in a place where the light comes from fishtanks and most of the time you can’t use a flash.

What this story should be demonstrating to you: the Red Bats will do your portrait or engagement shoot anywhere it’s even remotely legal to take pictures.

The aquarium turned out to be very romantic. Lots of kissing happened in the course of this shoot (Sara and Chad kissed, NOT the Red Bats- and let me take this opportunity to remind our readers that we are not, and never have been, a couple of the romantic variety.) Seahorses kissed, and the males got pregnant. It was magical. As so many photographic situations in my life seem to do, it made me think of a famous love poem.

The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one another’s being mingle—
Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdain’d its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea—
What is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me?

Love’s Philosophy – Percy Bysshe Shelley