Grainy goodness

The plan was simple.

My brother Mike was to lure his girlfriend Alisa into a pre-selected spot in the foothills where he'd ask her to marry him. I'd be waiting with a 300mm lens just at the edge of the sight line to capture the moment. They'd leave work after she finished tennis practice, giving me a great New Mexico sunset for light.

Simple plans aren't always simple.

They got away late, showed just after the sunset, only a hint of the days final glory still in the sky. As a result I had to crank up the film speed all the way. A few years ago, with my first digital cameras, this wouldn't have been possible. The result is a grainy, some not-so-much in focus set of pictures. You try manually focusing a hand held 300mm at 1/30 of a second after you've been standing in the cold for a while.

The pictures are technically flawed, yes, yet I love seeing them. They feel like a grainy contact sheet I might have made back in college. But more importantly, it's the love in both of their eyes.

Safe to say that I and the rest of my family could not be happier about having Alisa join ours, and I am so happy to be documenting this part of their lives.