Be Our Guest - Pam Donoghue

It is with a heart full of joy that I present our Guest Blogger today: Pam Donoghue. Pam is no stranger here at FOL. She has been a guest blogger before, she's a faithful reader and a frequent commenter. Many of you already know Pam from online photo classes and her Flickr stream.

Last week I had the overwhelming privilege of meeting Pam ... I'll let her tell the story of that day.

                                                                                         ~ Dotti

Friendship

In 2011 I started participating in a series of classes at Big Picture Scrapbooking, taught by Tracey Clark. I didn't scrapbook at the time. In fact, I didn't take pictures at the time. My husband did all of that. It was his idea to give me one of his old point and shoot cameras while we were fishing in an attempt to get my mind off the bugs. He said, "Shoot some wildflowers or something."

It was in these classes that I met many of you. I had no idea which way was up as far as a camera was concerned. I remember shooting the cove one morning and I had it on the wrong white balance so the cove was blue (it was in winter) and I thought it was quite miraculous. I laugh to type this. 

And there was Dotti. Present and caring and witty and wise and shot after shot, she left me kind comments. And it made me want to keep playing. The rest, as they say, is history.

This year I paced the pier and waited and miracle of miracles, Dotti came through the door as part of her cruise trip with her husband. Ask me how excited I was. I shoved my camera into a stranger's hands and said, "Shoot! Wait for the beep and shoot! Shoot lots!" Then I was hugging Dotti. Can you believe it? She said, "Do you know him?" No. Of course not. And he must have been too scared to click at all, he was probably scared stiff and waiting for the beep because he took not one single picture.

I've looked at this wharf and my cove a million times but did I ever think Dotti would be there? Never! And she was! Right there. And now, a week later, I drive by every time and grin and picture her there, shooting the boat for Carol.

Oh, take lots of pictures of the people you love. I'm sure you do. I type this knowing you all do. But get yourself into those shots. I mean it, whatever it takes, prop the camera on books, or a level rock or tables or whatever you need to capture yourself with the people who matter to you.

I can hear our laughter when I took these shots. I can feel what it felt like to be with Dotti, not in a class, not in email, not on Flickr, but real life! Voices! Mannerisms! What an amazing day.

So, I know this is not about word art but it's at least wordy. Get in those pictures, FOLers. Get in them. You look fine! Truly! Look at us, nearly blowing off the rocks at Peggy's Cove. We did not care about our hair. None of that matters. Get in the picture. My word art is this - just do it.

Thanks for letting me share this here.

Over and out,
Fishgirl/Pam