Thursday, December 03, 2009

Theme Thursday - Friend

I don't usually take pictures of people, so I don't have very many pictures of my friends. There are some exceptions, though.

Below is the only shot of my friend Jackie that I have in digital form. I have more, but they're from the days when I was using film and sending them out to be developed into actual hard-copy photos, and at the moment my scanner is dead. This one was scanned as well, but it seems to be the only one I scanned at the time. Well, there are others, but they're not very good and Jackie's threatened me with a slow, painful death if I ever publish them. I went to high school with Jackie down in Maryland, and we hooked back up in 2002 through our graduating class's Yahoo Groups mailing list. She lives in Colorado now, but she came east that year for the Newport Folk Festival to see Dylan's return to the festival after years of his boycotting it. This shot was taken after the festival was over and we went to Horseneck Beach in nearby Westport, MA, one of the best beaches in the area. Yeah, I was giving her the tourist tour!


In 2007 I met Elizabeth Evans, known to just about everybody as "Bob" because her Dad wanted a son after a string of daughters; when his wife presented him with another daughter he rebelled. Bob was a fellow photo essay enthusiast posting on Gather.com, and since she lives only about 45 minutes away in Massachussetts, we started doing photo trips together. But the first time we met in person was for the 2007 Norman Bird Sanctuary Harvest Fair on September 29 of that year. Bob and her husband Bill, fondly known as "Papa", had made a trip down to the NBS earlier that year after seeing a two-part photo essay I'd done on the place that July. So when I phoned them and told them the Harvest Fair was coming up, they were all set to go. The following picture is of Papa (in the chair) and Bob (sitting on the ground) watching Jim McGrath and the Reprobates playing at the music stage.


The next shot is from the same Harvest Fair. This is my little buddy Waylon; he was 2 in that shot. Waylon's parents, Nikki and Vic, are friends on mine, so Waylon's been a buddy since he was born. In this instance he's hanging on to Bill, who he'd just met, because I was just on the other side of Bob with a big bag of Kettle Corn, and Waylon loves him some Kettle Corn! Nikki was sitting behind me regretting her son's appetite. Heh, heh! And yeah, even though the shot was taken deep in the Red Sox Nation, that's a Phillies cap on Waylon's head - Nikki and Vic are from Philadelphia.


The next shot is of my friend Virginia, who has gone on quite a few photo safaris with me, including hiking in the snow at Weetamoo Woods, where this shot was taken. V and I both worked at the local Home Depot and were both unemployed after having been relieved of our duties there. V decided a cheesecake shot on this bridge over the creek in the park was a good idea. Despite all her snow-bunny regalia she still got chilly lying still in the snow on that cold, cold stone!


And just so y'all don't get confused as to who this is posting this, I'll get back to my usual subject matter with a shot I took of two buddies sharing a branch - two Mourning Doves in Ballard Park in April of 2008.


Music time! Okay, so given the generation I was born in, the first "friend" song that popped into my head had to be Carole King's "You've Got a Friend". Seriously, when the Tapestries album came out, I'd learned all the songs on it in a week. And "You've Got a Friend" is just one of those timeless classics. This video is taken from a 2006 PBS tribute to James Taylor, who turned Ms. King's already hit song into something that launched into the heavens and lit the night skies. And wouldn't you know it, ol' JT came up on stage and sang with her. Obviously a grand time was had by all that night!


The other song about friends that popped into my head simultaneously with the Carole King song was Bette Midler's "Friends". I looked on YouTube but couldn't find a concert clip I liked, so I picked this slideshow backed by the song because it describes the song so well. Enjoy!


Photos & text © 2009 by A. Roy Hilbinger

21 comments:

  1. happy tt roy...and cool friends...dove included. smiles.

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  2. As soon as you said the first song that you thought of was Carole King's, I, being almost your age, also thought that you might have thought of Bette Midler's song, which I first encountered in the film The Last of Sheila! So I was right, and I was wrong.

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  3. What a wonderful post. Great photographs, fine words, memorable videos : all the usual Roy Hilbinger ingredients. Happy TT my friend.

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  4. Another of my favorite "Friend" songs you chose...great pics

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  5. Wonderful portraits, Roy.

    I have a special fondness for mourning doves.

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  6. After all the cool pics you just gotta toss in the Taylor tune :) Happy TT Roy!

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  7. Your pics made me smile. I remember when you and Bob hooked up and the articles that came from both of you afterwards.

    I love the snowbunny. What a great shot!

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  8. Great pics! Some great friends you have there. :)

    Gonna listen to the Midler song now.

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  9. good friends! I love morning doves...some years i get babies in my back yard, and they usually stick around for around a week. precious...happy TT

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  10. Nice to meet some of your friends and you should take photos of people, you're damn good at it. Although I do have a problem poking the camera in people's faces sometimes. Great post. Lovely photos as usual.

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  11. Looks like a group of wonderful friends! There are quite a few doves in today's theme! ;)

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  12. You really should take more people shots, Roy. These were wonderful and thanks much for sharing them and the music.

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  13. Fun to see your friends, Roy. Great pics.

    (Hey, I posted the answers on the truth or fiction post. Just scroll down! :^)

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  14. Lovely tribute to your friends. The photos are priceless.

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  15. The photo of Vickie really captured the chill of the weather. Made me brrrr just looking at it. I hear James Taylor and Carole King are touring next summer!

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  16. My favorite is the one of Virginia -- the pink cheeks and pink gloves against the winter chill! Fantastic, Roy.

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  17. Yes! That Photo Of Virginia Is Superb. You Have A Lot Of Photogenic Friends!

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  18. As usual, your blog is very interesting. Keep on blogging please.

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  19. how nice to have an introduction to some of your friends

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  20. although I love your wildlife and nature pics, fun to see some humans.... I absolutely love the one of your friend on the stone wall! it's magical

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  21. What a wonderful collection of friends! You are a lucky man Roy and I think I am lucky to have you as a blog friend!

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