We (my mother, my sister, and I) popped in to see Dad today. Since August last year my Dad has lived in an aged care residence and the last time I saw him was a few days before he moved in. It was great to see him in his new ‘home’. It’s full of photos of family: his three children, ten grandchildren, and 13 (direct) great-grandchildren – and mementoes of a life well-lived.
Here’s another photo that will take pride of place on his wall!!
* Photo by Debbie
A few weeks ago, Tim and I did a fashion shoot. I’ve already featured some of the female models – so today I thought I’d post a shot of Evan. I watched while others had their three minutes taking shots of him, and thought about what I could do to get a different image from the ones they were doing. No one else asked him to take his jacket off … so I did. He was very serious about it!
Rel #3 … if you’re old enough, think back to magazine covers of the 1970s … that’s the look I was going for with this shot. How did I do?
Grace #4 … beautiful in black and white. This was supposed to be a fashion shoot, but I can never pass up an opportunity for a portrait shot!
Grace #3 … have I mentioned that I love shooting in a studio?
Grace #2 … another portrait/fashion shot from my developing portfolio.
I attended a photography workshop on the weekend – a ‘build your portfolio’ workshop. There were models and sets and lights and action. It was fabulous. I felt that I’d found my new home!
Over the next week I’m going to feature some of the (many) images I captured from the weekend. The first image is of Grace …
I haven’t taught pre-service teachers for what seems like a long time … and out of the blue, a former colleague rings and asks if I want to teach a unit on engagement! Yay. The next week I start teaching. One student writes in his introduction: ‘Sharon, you were the most respected and most feared lecturer we had. It is poetically fitting that you are teaching me in my final year, as you also taught me in my first year.’
I had recognised this student’s name as soon as I saw it. As all teachers know, some students make an immediate impression on you. When the students are young, it’s often the students who challenge you the most that make the most impression – those students who don’t sit still, who don’t comply quickly, who ask lots of (what appear to be irrelevant) questions … the students school isn’t designed for. They remain with you for many years, and even ten years later you talk about them fondly (or with residual despair).
When the students are older the ones who make an impression are those who ask lots of questions, who bring a different perspective to class discussions, who don’t sit still in their thinking; the ones who develop tremendous resilience and now call themselves ‘teacher’ effortlessly, when initially that word reached their lips with great reluctance and unease.
A little over ten years ago I walked into the Week 1 tutorial and asked the students why they chose to study teaching. One student, a slightly chubby redhead, said that she’d wanted to be a paramedic. ‘Why didn’t you do that then?’ I asked, somewhat bluntly. Some weeks later I noticed she wasn’t in the lecture. The next week I ‘marched’ (according to her) her to my office to talk to her about the importance of regular attendance. (When you have potential, it’s a shame to waste it.) I taught her again in 3rd year, and then again in 4th year where her response to a literacy paper I had asked students to write was outstanding.
But even though students make an impression on you, at the time you’re teaching them, you don’t expect to end up lying on the grass under an umbrella listening to Ben Abraham and Archie Roach (as warm-up acts for Missy Higgins) on a hot summer’s afternoon in late January with them. Unless they’re Alison, the former slightly chubby redhead, who had come to stay for the weekend.
And then the next day, Alison asks me if I can take her photo.
Wouldn’t that be a great project … to return to all the memorable students I’ve taught and do a photography shoot with them! Who’s up for it?
Despite what it looks like, Tim wasn’t playing hide and seek with the well-dressed men wearing bow ties.
I took this photo on the sly – which isn’t my usual style. I usually like to make sure that my subjects know I’m photographing them … so when I checked it to see what he looked like on camera, I asked if I could take his photo. He shrugged – I’m not sure if he was noncommittal or just didn’t understand me. I asked his name and he shrugged again. I like to think that he didn’t speak English rather than him wanting to ignore me.
But he has a great face, doesn’t he?
There’s another photo of him on my Instagram account.
Musings from the cold 