Thanksgiving with the Zooks
One of recent year’s highlights, as far as I’m concerned, is celebrating the bounty that is Thanksgiving with Dan and Monica.
Most of that has been about knowing great friends. Some, however, has to do with Dan’s simply-amazing turkey:
Check Twice, Eat Once
That title is a play on Norm Abram‘s approach to construction, someone whose name has come up recently due to my current remodeling “fun.” (Which is more than a week out of date — apologies. Will catch up soon.)
Applied to turkey, and with several people working for hours on complimentary items, we had more amazing stuff than really any of us could take in with just one pass.
Awesome:
(Thankful for the) Bountiful Table
Meanwhile, I was actually there on a mission: I hadn’t taken a good photograph of Dan, Monica, and Connor together in … well, too long. Plenty of the boy in this year’s catalog, sure, but little of him in the last couple of months, and absolutely lacking in shots together with his parents.
When you’re coming up on three, a couple of months means big changes — so I wanted to make up for lost time and try to get a shot or two.
Not surprisingly — at least to either me or his parents — Connor hadn’t forgotten. When I got out the camera, he immediately responded. Better still, he kept it up as long as he could:
Ham #2
The two shots I really want to talk about, however, are of Connor and his mother. Two in a row, as a matter of fact — my first-ever back-to-back four-star photographs. Fantastic.
Starting with:
Monica and Connor #2
Look at that: the ability to picture “joy.” Effing amazing.
Then, moments later:
Monica and Connor #3
Picturing “love,” as a compliment to the “joy” shown above. (With some awesome natural light thrown in, as some sort of benefit…;)
It’s subtle — with Monica’s slightly-arched eyebrow and, especially, her smile — but very nearly perfect.
These shots literally represent the reasons I do what I do; capturing these great scenes is both a great pleasure and great privilege. I’m delighted to see anything like either of the above shots — let along two in a row, which is a gift. Wow.
Further, it’s incredibly satisfying to have gotten those two shots with just Monica and Connor. I haven’t done enough good Mom-and-son photographs with this family, IMHO.
That said, adding Dad resulted in the evening’s third favorite photograph:
Zooks #2
Four-star photographs occur less than .1% of the time, FYI. To get three in one night meant, well … that everyone was having a great time!
Along the way, caught a great action shot — a harbinger of some sports scene to come, perhaps:
Connor’s Sweeping Run
After dinner, I set the camera aside, in favor of sneaking by the leftover turkey plate — and dipping several pieces into the Hollandaise, which someone had foolishly put immediately nearby. The combination of grilled turkey and that sauce may have been more than decadent … but it was also astonishingly addictive.
Let me tell you: I gave up some damned tempting desserts for continued samples of the turkey-with-sauce — and it was absolutely worth it.
Many thanks to the Zooks, along with everyone from this great holiday. See the 2009 Thanksgiving gallery here.
Bonus: Later on in the evening, Kim stopped by with her two young girls, causing me to break out the camera again. Last time I saw them, the curls prevailed. This time, however, her big sister wanted the spotlight:
Guitar Girl
Naturally, Dan and Monica had a kid-sized guitar handy to set up this great shot from Meghan — nice.
One great night, with 208 raw images taken — resulting in 40 multi-star photographs posted. Talk about giving thanks.
Up next: an update on my house remodel, which has progressed significantly — and is surprisingly popular. As always, thanks for stopping by.