Life on Earth

The Traverse City Film Festival just kicked off its 4th year and once again I’m helping out the festival with photography. I took on an additional role this year by monitoring the stream of images from the 16 festival photographers. Each day, those who went out to shoot, will send in a selection to be posted on the Traverse City Film Festival Flickr site. 

Organist Ann Peterson plays on the new organ for a full house for the opening film, Vicky Christina Barcelona, at the State Theatre on Tuesday July 30, 2008. (Image by Gary L Howe)

From the top, the flower girl quickly took a nap shortly after walking down the aisle on July 4, at the same wedding you could see the pride in the best man as he watched the groom finally get married and a family member is given a gift just before the bride made her entrance. Further down, Lauren was glowing on the steps of the church after being presented with James as a married couple in Suttons Bay, Michigan in June. Although Mareesa and Jason were making lots of jokes during their wedding day, her father still was moved to tears during the ceremony.

 FYI: Lauren’s bouquet made by Christine Sleeman at Fischer Design. She’s my girlfriend.

Next post: Portrait Opportunities.

Images  Gary L Howe

It has been a busy season with many freelance assignments ranging from the New York Times to Massey Ferguson Today (they make tractors, and publish a magazine, go figure). I’ve shot a few weddings as well. Last year, I posted images from each wedding, but this year I will post from several weddings at once under themes of the wedding day. Today’s theme–getting ready. Some funny, some emotional and some classic beauty.

(Above) From the most recent wedding, the bride, Amber, took time to complete a friend’s makeup before unveiling her own gorgeous hair style .  Below, Jason anticipates his wedding with Mareesa on June 14th.

And below, an elegant image of Treva just before her July 4th wedding and her bridesmaids and flower girl making their way to the ceremony.

I’ll have more images up soon, but it is hard to be on the computer when the weather is so nice!

Images © Gary L Howe

After all of these years living in Traverse City I finally made it out to the Stone Circle spoken word gathering north of Elk Rapids. Freelance writer Tom Carr, a frequent visitor to the weekly event, wrote an article celebrating the gatherings 25 th summer. You can read it online at: Stone Circle.

Three images I included here include the main image used for the article, 90 year old Bob Bennet performing like he has for many years and poet Terry Wooten, founder of the Stone Circle. Each Saturday night during the summer people are invited to sit around the campfire and simply listen or participate–the only rule for performing is that your work must be recited from memory.