“I am not interested in shooting new things – I am interested to see things new.”
– Ernst Haas

The whole point of “Photo-Friday” is – essentially – to give myself the opportunity to share pictures that had not found their place in previous posts.

Another thing I like to do at the end of the week is to point back in case any readers missed anything extra special.

I felt good about every day’s post, and readership numbers are encouragingly strong at the moment; but it was my writing around last weekend’s Mozart Festival that seemed to grab a wider interest. If you missed out, Part One covered Saturday’s recitals and the Part Two featured Choir and Orchestra singing Mozart’s Requiem.

Hopefully some of my new readers will hang around and allow me the privilege of speaking grace and light and love into their lives on a regular basis.

This week’s collection:

First, I can’t help but notice how vividly green everything is right now. We are moving, inexorably, from what’s left of springtime (we had a few days in the 70’s) and into the summer. The Town Common, above, and then the woods down by the river are great examples.

The more leaves come out the more I would like to re-shoot the Tarboro Photo Tour I did back in early December. Now everything looks completely different and I need to capture the seasonal change.

The Orlando Grands:

I can always count on our daughter Naomi to share amazing images of our Orlando grandchildren. This week’s collection is prime.

First, Geoffrey in the middle of water play (photo above). You can see the joy and the vibrant life literally pouring out of him. He is still a classic three-year-old force of nature – a handful and a half!

The next photo is David with his daddy, Craig, on his way to 6th grade awards night. He has had a stellar beginning to his middle school career and we love the young man he is growing into.

Then (below in the gallery) Beks playing with the neighbor’s puppy. Our almost eleven-year-old continues to shine and, while I am more than confident she will excel, I am nowhere near ready to think of our granddaughter going to middle school at the end of the summer!

That’s a wrap!

The other images feature Rebekah, and the Tarboro home we are renting.

Finally, this quote from famed photographer Annie Leibovit:

“A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people.” – Annie Leibovit

I really hope that, as you scroll through the images I share every day, that truth will be evident at the heart of my photography too. And it’s not just the people I fall in love with, it is the community.

The choice to love, we have both said many times, is one of the most important gifts we can give – both to the church where we serve and the community where we live.

In love, and because of love – DEREK