Sometimes, that second set of footprints in the sand isn’t Jesus’s. They are your brothers. And he isn’t wearing any pants.
…..
We just spent the week in Idaho. In Rexburg. Oh, sure the weather was a bit chilly and the wind blew some times, but that didn’t stop us from having a grand time.
Rexburg, that place is a change’n. It’s not the same as when I grew up there. But there are a few things that are still the same. It still only takes twelve minutes to get to the sand dunes. Once there, you might be the only one around for miles. Standing on the big ole dunes, you can watch a sunset on one horizon and see the mighty Grand Tetons on the opposite horizon. You can still see the hand of God in such a beautiful place. Those things haven’t changed one bit.
Today one of my favorite people on planet earth will get married. Miss Ashley Shaum. Ashley spent a few months as an intern in my office last year. While in Provo, she met Alden. A few months after they met, he moved to Hawaii for school and she went along with him. Not long after that, he proposed to her on the beach. In Hawaii. At sunrise. Now that’s romantic.
And today, in Rexburg, Idaho, her hometown (mine too!) they’ll be wed. And I get to photograph the big event. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.
Last night, Christmas Eve, a couple hours before everyone showed up for dinner (Taco Soup) I took the Gator down by the river. It was cold. 11 degrees. I was wearing gloves and a hat but still, by the time I got inside some time later I could barely move my fingers. Away from the house a little bit, down in the cottonwood trees with a couple Sandhill cranes and a handful of magpies, it was still. The river isn’t frozen over and that water, moving slow, was about the only sound. A near silent night.
Kids are involved, so it doesn’t stay silent forever. And later, back in the house, after dinner and chocolate cake, with the kids dressed up like wise-men and shepherds, we sang some holiday favorites. At one point during the second song, we sang on key.
This is Rexburg. This is the town where I grew up. It’s good to be home.
Thanks to everyone that came to the Art Seminar lecture at BYU Idaho last Thursday. I really did have the time of my life. It was great to meet everyone that came up after and I really appreciate what Kelly Burgener, dean of the art school said. “That was as good as any Art Seminar we’ve ever had”. A sincere thanks to you for having me.
Thursday, October 22 at 6pm I’m giving a lecture at BYU-Idaho for their Art Seminar series. I’m going to be telling the story about the first time I kissed a girl (it was during the TV show Family Feud) and about the time a guy was walking around Rexburg without a coat when it was twenty below zero. (I’m going to leave the swear words out of that story. It still works without the swears. I mean, it’s not like I’m giving a lecture to pirates). I’ll also show some of my work and talk about how I got started in photography, why I do it, where it’s taken me, and the photographers that have made an impact on my craft. My goal is that listeners will be both entertained and inspired.
I may even work in the following quote from the book No More Secondhand Art:
The greatness of a poem or a painting is not that it portrays the thing observed or experienced, but that it portrays the artist’s or the poet’s vision cued off by his encounter with reality. Hence the poem or the painting is unique, original, never to be duplicated.
Maybe I’ll see you there.
Smith Building – Room 240 – 6pm
I’m up in Idaho right now for the Memorial Day weekend, and it is good, good. Anyone that thinks Idaho is lame is right. In fact, never come here. You won’t like it. You won’t like all the trees and moose and fresh drinking water. Stay there in Ogden and I’ll just see you at Lagoon.
I swam in the Teton River and rode a jet ski on Island Park Reservoir. Kissed my wife. Visited my grandfather and gave my two boys a ride on a four-wheeler. I ate fresh trout. Got some mosquito bites. Layed in a hammock. Had pleasant dreams. I didn’t see a moose, but I did see a couple sandhill cranes and a muskrat.
Now I’m home, so I’m going to email and call you back.
For a while, Julia and Ben have been the first thing you see when you go to my website. The image was taken when we were shooting their engagement pictures way back when.
They’ve now been married six years and look as young and beautiful as they did back then. I was thrilled to hear we were in the same town for the holidays and even more thrilled to be able to shoot some more photos of them. Julia and Ben revisited. Let me tell you, Julia and Ben are so on the ball. After you hang out with them for a while, you’ll want to exercise more, eat right, and do something great, like sky dive or learn how to drive a race car. Thanks, Julia and Ben. It was sure great to see you and catch up. I’ll be posting a few more from our shoot, shortly. In the mean time, enjoy this one.
When Bruce went to the hospital they told him he had cancer. They told him that he had one month to live if he didn’t take the treatment, eight months if he did. That was nearly two years ago.
After the doctors told him the news he kept working for another year. Retiring early was difficult for him. He sold his airplane and his work equipment. He told me it was harder selling his equipment than his plane. He and his wife still have the Harleys.
Four or five years after he graduated from high school he got a job doing what he loved, what he was good at, and where he could make a lot of money. Bruce spent his life as a drilling engineer and has traveled all over the world on account of his profession. Next month, he’ll be sixty years old. Merry Christmas, Bruce. It was great to see you.
I drove to Rexburg for the weekend. There’s a new Wallgreens on the corner, just below the hospital. The shop that sells wedding dresses is still there but the jewelry store has changed hands. The blacksmith on Main Street is gone, but he’s been gone for years. I wonder how many people even know he was there. Or that there used to be a seafood restaurant in the space the city offices now occupy. I had my first taste of shrimp in the same room where I later got my marriage licence.
Rexburg is small, so you can always been sure you’ll see someone you know when you go to the grocery store. So I went to buy some cookies but I didn’t see anyone I knew. All the people I saw were waving and talking to other people I didn’t know. And I wasn’t looking for someone that would hug me and tell me I look good. I would have settled for someone I hate. On my way out of town, I thought, this is not my home town.
Think back: 1985. The devil comes out at midnight, they’ll tell you, so you better be home before 12. But sometimes, you can stay out pretty late and avoid the devil if you’ve got some good friends and you know where to go. So we got a stereo and some cassette tapes and drove up on the dry farms. We pulled off the road, and drove to the middle of a potato field. There were six of us. Three boys and three girls. We put the stereo on top of the car and turned it up real loud. Then we danced. It was a little chilly, but that’s why you bring the girls.
Amy and I talk about whether or not we romanticize our past and what it was like growing up there. But it really doesn’t matter, I guess, because it’s changing, and there’s no going back to the way it was.
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Hi there! I'm Justin Hackworth and I'm a wedding and portrait photographer. Feel free to check out my main website: www.justinhackworth.com
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