People will say we're in love...

...from a photographer's notebook

Detail from "People Will Say We're in Love" - Love Locks on the Brooklyn Bridge

What do Oklahoma and the Brooklyn Bridge have in common? 

Nothing, probably.

But if I were to rephrase the question by adding “quotes” and an exclamation mark to Oklahoma…and if you know the easily elicited romantic sensibilities of the scribe of this wee bloggie…I’ll bet you can guess what was playing on the ol' gray matter gramophone last month, as I shot this photo of these "love locks" on the Brooklyn Bridge. *

Something like perhaps “Grantin’ your wish, I carved our initials on that tree…”

Sort of an early version of clamping padlocks on a bridge girder, you think?

And, while I’m guessing many of the couples who leave these “love locks” on the Brooklyn Bridge may never have heard of Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones as Curley and Laurie in the lovely 1955 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” I’m danged if that’s going to stop me from sharing with you an exquisitely sung (and scored!) romantic duet.

Enjoy!

©2013 Steve Ember

 * If you’d like to see the full photo in higher definition, please follow this link to its page on Foto-Community. Prints and Photo Note Cards featuring this and other images from an afternoon on the Brooklyn Bridge will soon be available. For information, please contact me at the e-mail address at right.

One for Valentine's Day...

   ...from a (romantic) photographer's notebook

I Only Have Eyes For You...

I have recently been out and about with the cameras, collecting Washington images and “slices of life” for some new photo essays on my broadcast organization’s web site.

The aim of one such shoot during the summer was to capture the after-work ambiance of a summer evening in a city that is often known for taking itself too seriously.

The Mall sees its share of tourists, but as sunset approaches, there is more in the way of “native” activity going on – jogging, bicycling, walking the dog, that sort of thing. And a lot of that, judging from facial expressions, body language, and the like, is right in character with that oh-so-serious mindset.

Ah, but here, across from the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, I saw this attractive young couple enjoying their Starbucks in the waning late afternoon sunshine of this summer day.

They were so charmingly wrapped up in each other that I hesitated before approaching to ask if they might mind if I included them in the foreground of some shots of the Air and Space Museum.

They were as nice as they look here, and told me it would be fine.

And they went right back to being so wrapped up in each other…

which makes me so fond of this captured moment.

And, as music so often plays in my "gray matter gramophone," whether while shooting or in the subsequent editing stages, the photo virtually titled itself.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Photo ©2012/2013 Steve Ember