Dorothy Brown Photography

I get sentimental at the end of the school year. It’s just habit now, since my younger daughter finished high school in 2009. But the parental rhythms are well established and I have so many friends who are still experiencing the proms and the graduations and the getting-ready-to-go excitement of their seniors.

A highlight for Albany High musicians and their families is the last concert of the year at the Ashkenaz in Berkeley. The funkiness of the old dance hall venue is just right for the Jazz Band and the R&B group Rhythm Bound. The bands have worked hard together all year, so the music is tight. But it’s more than that. This concert is a celebration, and you feel it.

There is joy.

The Jazz Band impresses with their accomplished interpretations of many styles.

Then, when Rhythm Bound takes the stage, the party is well and truly started.

The final number had everyone dancing, including most of the singers. Can you feel the joy?

I think this next one might be my favorite shot of the evening. During the encore, Musical Director Craig Bryant took off his jacket and found a spot in the back corner by the stage where he could pick up the tambourine and feel what the band was feeling as they let fly with Aretha’s RESPECT. I love this moment. He might just be the hardest working man in show business.

I know the kids enjoyed the evening. I saw them. And I know the parents did because we are still talking about it. Next year the seniors will be invited to the stage to join in the last number as alums. And if they possibly can, they will.

Rock on!

You can see (much) more of the night here.

Todd and I just returned from a week in London. Though we’ve been to other parts of England more recently, I haven’t spent any significant time in London since 1979. It’s a wonderful place.

This was not a photography trip. Rather, it was an incentive trip that Todd earned through lots of hard work and I was happy to be his date. In between planned excursions and visits to museums, we spent a lot of time walking, especially through the beautiful parks. One day we walked from Hyde Park, through Green Park and St. James’s Park all the way to Whitehall. A lovely way to cross town.

Thirty-three years ago, I took this photograph. I still remember how excited I was to see these riders on Rotten Row in Hyde Park. Moments like these are good for an English major’s soul.

This time around I hoped more than anything for a similar sight. We were rewarded the first time we stepped into Hyde Park.

I still have no idea who these people were or where they were heading, but this was my Lost in Austen moment. I was a little bit beside myself. After that, Todd was on the lookout and from time to time he’d shout “Horses!” He’s a good man. He’s the one who saw this approaching and pointed me in the right direction:

Yes, it was cold and drizzly in London for most of the time we were there. But it was perfect weather for this scene. Makes me want to go watch Masterpiece Theater right now.

I remembered St. James’s Park as my favorite, but this time around Hyde Park won my heart. And not just for the time-traveling. It seems like a park that real Londoners use. It wasn’t yet tourist season, and though we did hear different languages from folks passing by, we saw a lot of locals taking the air too. A lot of them brought their dogs. Dogs really know how to enjoy a park.

Here are a few more images from our wanderings:

There are still a lot of London parks we didn’t get to. Not to mention museums, and plays, and landmarks, and pubs. A week is not nearly enough time, even when you wear comfortable shoes.

I hope we’ll be back some day, London!

When you are the person who takes the pictures, who takes pictures of you?

Some of us are just more comfortable behind the camera. I know I am. I like watching, and noticing, and capturing the fleeting moments. I love it when I can create a portrait of someone that makes them feel good. It’s especially satisfying when I can do that for the women I know — my friends and my sisters who are usually the picture-takers in their families. Because if nobody ever takes a thoughtful portrait of you, you’re left with those candid shots that catch you mid-conversation, with your eyes all funny and your mouth open. I have lots of those.

Recently I was asked to provide a photograph of myself. I was forced to acknowledge that I didn’t have anything to offer that didn’t have a Christmas tree in it. It was time to do something about that.

So my friend Karen, her son Zack, and I went to the park. Zack is a senior at Albany High School who is very interested in photography. He has taken a class at the high school, he took my Learning to See class at the Community Center, and he is becoming the photographer for his family. I handed him my camera and for the next hour or so we played. That was key. Karen and Zack helped me relax and not take the process too seriously. We tried different backgrounds and different poses, and employed my favorite Important Portrait Philosophy: “Hey. It might look stupid, but it might not!”

And Zack got this:

I have to tell you, I’m thrilled with this image. That’s how I think I look. (Better, actually.) It’s a genuine smile and there is life in my eyes. Zack, you make me feel that I am sometimes beautiful, and I’m surprised at what a powerfully positive feeling that is. I’m fine with my gray hair and I actually like the lines around my eyes. I’m grateful for every one of my 57 years. But it all looks softer and kinder when the happy comes through.

So, is it vanity? I suppose. But it’s more too. This is a picture I want my someday grandchildren to see. I hope it will help them know who I was.

So, Gentle Reader, if you are the photographer in your family I urge you to take a deep breath, relinquish control, and step in front of the camera. It isn’t painful and it can actually be fun. And when you get the image that thrills you, print it and frame it. Let it cheer you on those inevitable bad days, and pass it on so future generations can know who you were.

Leave a trace.

(Thanks again, Zack. You don’t even know.)

I love getting the chance to catch up with a family. I first photographed Patricia and her kids in 2010. Patricia is a mom after my own heart because she appreciates the importance of taking a moment to record who her family is right now. This time they took a picnic to Tilden Park and I had a wonderful time capturing who they are . . . together . . . right now.

Four generations. From 4-week-old baby Teagan to his great-grandparents. Family gathered just to spend time with each other. No event, no occasion. I love that.

It was an honor to be a witness. This wasn’t about posing or directing. It was about noticing.

Beautiful little moments.

I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather lately, and like I’ve been a little too busy for too long. Yesterday it was kind of gray outside. Todd was gone for the day, so the house was empty. I took the opportunity to slow down and recharge.

I know Ferris Bueller would have handled it differently, but I’m pretty happy with my day off.

Dance fascinates me.

I have been fortunate this past year to spend a lot of time with musicians, observing how they coax melody from their instruments. It is so interesting to watch a group of musicians collaborate, each one contributing to the sound with percussion or bass or flying fingers on the strings of a banjo. I’ve tried, but I can’t really play anything and I only sing when nobody’s listening, but I love music. And music makers.

But dance is a different experience. Dancers don’t make music. They interpret it through their whole bodies. It was my privilege to watch a rehearsal of the Ruth Botchan Dance Company at their studio in Berkeley. I need a new vocabulary to describe what I saw. Their movements are precise yet free, a seemingly spontaneous response to the music that results in the most beautiful shapes. Three or four individual bodies create a new entity. It truly is moving art.

If you are in the Berkeley area on February 25th and 26th, I invite you to experience these beautiful dancers at a live performance.

Bringing music alive.

Moving art.