Lara Kimmerer - photographer

Jen and Peter

We're in Hartford this evening because tomorrow is Jen and Peter's wedding! I know, I know...I have quite a lot to share with you all. I'm behind. I'll catch up after this weekend. Check back for Jen and Peter's wedding photos. For now, here are photos from their engagement shoot back in April. my favorite...

LAM

Circumstances in my life over the last few years have made me realize the many bad things that can happen in the world. A friend of mine often says, "bad things happen everyday." This is true, but good things happen everyday too - it's just the bad things stick with us longer I think.

This year I became aware of a disease called LAM or Lymphangioleiomyomatosis. I was asked to photograph the LAM Treatment Alliance's Seminars at Harvard Medical.

From LTA website: LAM is a rare multi-system disease that mostly affects women who are on average in their mid-thirties. It is sometimes seen in younger and older women as well. It almost never affects men. In LAM, clumps of cells and cysts grow throughout the lungs and throughout other body systems and organs. Over time, these cells destroy the normal lung tissue and block the flow of air. They also reduce oxygen intake by the lungs. 

Approximately 30,000 to 50,000 women worldwide are estimated to have LAM. There is no known cure, but the LTA is working hard to find one. 

A few photos from the last LAM Treatment Alliance Seminar ~  

This is Amy Farber - one of the LAM Treatment Alliance founders. Amy was diagnosed with LAM in 2005. You can read about her story at fightlam.org.

Something new and exciting for the LTA - the seminars are shown live via webcast.  Viewers from around the world can send questions online and have them answered by the speakers in real time

If you'd like, you can help support the LTA's efforts by making a donation.

23 on the 23rd!

I remember very distinctly the morning Mom and Dad called me upstairs - they had a surprise for me.  I knew without a doubt that I was finally getting what I had been asking for for a while - Starlight, Rainbow Bright's horse.

I was sitting in the corner of the couch in the living room.  Mom and Dad sat in front of me - kind of leaning in towards me - and told me I was going to have a baby brother or sister.  I became real shy and may have cried.  A few months later you came home and I wanted to hold you the moment we were in the house.  

I would not be who I am today without you.  I'm incredibly grateful to have you in my life as a brother - best friend - support system and comic relief.

Happy Birthday Graham!

mom must have been so overwhelmed.  she had had just me for so long.  how do you now deal with me! and a baby?

 

ps...I did get the horse a few weeks later.

also, I have things to show.  I've been traveling the last two weekends and have been trying to get caught up.  I will post new photos soon!

Sierra - part two

Autumn came and I feel like I'm buried under a pile of leaves.  I have so many things that I need and want to do - it's a little overwhelming.  This summer I was busy, but the busy-ness had a light and fun quality to it.  What happened to all of my time?

Once again we're traveling this weekend.  Before I left I wanted to show you some of my favorite photos from the shoot I did with Sierra last Sunday.  These photos are going to be used for her upcoming album which should be out in a few months.  I took her to Mass Hort  - and I think it was the perfect place.  We had a lot of different things to play around with and climb on.

I really enjoy it there.  It's calming to walk around the gardens and paths.  In the winter there's a great hill to sled down.  I highly suggest going - especially before the weather gets too cold and the flowers disappear. But...there's always that hill.

Sierra's website is sierrarocks.com, so this large red rocking chair needed to be used in a shot.

I think this is my favorite.

I'm glad you had fun Sierra! I'm very excited for your album to come out.

Layers

I've been wanting to write here for a couple of weeks, but every time I sat down to do it - I didn't know where to begin.  Life has been busy lately - with work and fun things.

Here's a strange work related anecdote:

Often after photographing a wedding, for a few hours afterward, I find that my brain doesn't register that I'm not taking photos anymore.  I'll be sitting talking to someone and I'll notice how in focus the person's eyes are - and my brain will be saying to me, "take the shot - in focus - take the shot."  

I've been very busy editing wedding photos the last few days, yesterday in particular.  Some photos need color-correcting, which, for those of you who are not in the know, means adding and subtracting different colors depending on the shot.  For instance, a yellowish photo needs a little blue to be added.  So, last night I was driving and I was coming up to a green light and my brain began saying, "add more magenta - add magenta!"  Needless to say, I felt a little crazy.

moving on...

Last weekend I had the opportunity to travel home to NJ for the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.  It's a biannual event and is held at Waterloo Village in New Jersey (all except one year - which was a great mistake in my opinion).  Waterloo is not only the perfect backdrop for this event, it also happens to be 15 minutes down a back road from my home.

The weekend was great - despite the rain.  I want to tell you all about it - and Waterloo Village (which, I think, is still in danger of disappearing) and show you some photos too, but I'm off to photograph a wedding in a few hours (which I will also be posting) - and tomorrow I have a shoot with Sierra for her upcoming album (a post with those soon too).

One thing from last weekend that was very interesting was seeing friends whom I haven't seen, in some cases, for 6 years.  Seeing them brought to my attention how much time has really gone by - and how much I have changed - how much we've all changed.  It used to bother me, but I believe I'm growing accustomed to it now - and even learning to appreciate what comes from the passing of time.   Even the many losses one must face, bring changes and experiences that may never have occurred were it not for the loss.

My favorite poet, Stanley Kunitz, who I first heard at the 1998 Dodge Festival (my first), has a poem that comes to mind quite frequently.  I find it very comforting and fitting for my life at this time - and probably always will, no matter what age I am.

The Layers

I have walked through many lives,

some of them my own,

and I am not who I was,

though some principle of being 

abides, from which I struggle

not to stray.

When I look behind,

as I am compelled to look

before I can gather strength

to proceed on my journey,

I see the milestones dwindling

toward the horizon

and the slow fires trailing

from the abandoned camp-sites,

over which scavenger angels

wheel on heavy wings.

Oh, I have made myself a tribe

out of my true affections,

and my tribe is scattered!

How shall the heart be reconciled

to its feast of losses?

In a rising wind 

the manic dust of my friends,

those who fell along the way,

bitterly stings my face.

Yet I turn, I turn,

exulting somewhat

with my will intact to go

wherever I need to go,

and every stone on the road

precious to me.

In my darkest night,

when the moon was covered

and I roamed through wreckage,

a nimbus-clouded voice

directed me:

"Live in the layers,

not on the litter."

Though I lack the art

to decipher it,

no doubt the next chapter

in my book of transformations

is alreaday written.

I am not done with my changes.