The highlights of my year are visits with family. Among those are the stretches I get to spend with my grandchildren. There are three grandkids. They are just over two years apart, and they are lively, creative, curious, active, funny, confident, loving, and smart. 

I treasure my time with them, and I look forward to any opportunity I get to photograph them. 

This particular image of the youngest grandchild came about when we all stole away to the beach for a few days. I was showing her my usual boring thumb trick - which for some reason still evokes surprise and delight - and then she showed me how she can make a butterfly by pressing her hands together side by side. That led to me show her the "Junior Birdman" thing I learned as a kid - and which I hadn't thought of in years - and she knew how to do it! I'm sure I taught my daughter (her mother) when she was a kid, so now it has been passed on to the next generation. I started singing the song, and I was flooded with memories of making this face and running around the house singing up in the air junior bird man, up in the air upside down!

That this precious four-year-old was reflecting something from my own childhood back at me was pretty cool. We happened to be standing in the claw-foot bath tub in the bathroom of the beach house we were renting (why? because the light coming in through the window was perfect for a portrait), and I made this picture. 

Later I googled "Junior Birdman," thinking perhaps my older brother who taught it to me had made it up. Here's what I learned:

"The 'Junior Birdmen of America' was an organization for boys and girls interested in building model airplanes, founded (ca. 1934) and promoted by the Hearst newspapers, with the cooperation of the U.S. Bureau of Air Commerce. It is now best remembered for the song 'Up in the Air, Junior Birdmen', which has been sung with a variety of lyrics to mock would-be or inexperienced aviators." 

I also found lots of online videos of people making this hand gesture on their face while singing the song. So, no, big brother Ben did not make it up. And now little granddaughter Lucy knows how to do it, too.

I love how solid and self assured she looks. Like no big deal, G-Lo. Of course I know how to do that.

My Blog

Grandmother With a Camera

7/4/2019

The highlights of my year are visits with family. Among those are the stretches I get to spend with my grandchildren. There are three grandkids. They are just over two years apart, and they are lively, creative, curious, active, funny, confident, loving, and smart. 

I treasure my time with them, and I look forward to any opportunity I get to photograph them. 

This particular image of the youngest grandchild came about when we all stole away to the beach for a few days. I was showing her my usual boring thumb trick - which for some reason still evokes surprise and delight - and then she showed me how she can make a butterfly by pressing her hands together side by side. That led to me show her the "Junior Birdman" thing I learned as a kid - and which I hadn't thought of in years - and she knew how to do it! I'm sure I taught my daughter (her mother) when she was a kid, so now it has been passed on to the next generation. I started singing the song, and I was flooded with memories of making this face and running around the house singing up in the air junior bird man, up in the air upside down!

That this precious four-year-old was reflecting something from my own childhood back at me was pretty cool. We happened to be standing in the claw-foot bath tub in the bathroom of the beach house we were renting (why? because the light coming in through the window was perfect for a portrait), and I made this picture. 

Later I googled "Junior Birdman," thinking perhaps my older brother who taught it to me had made it up. Here's what I learned:

"The 'Junior Birdmen of America' was an organization for boys and girls interested in building model airplanes, founded (ca. 1934) and promoted by the Hearst newspapers, with the cooperation of the U.S. Bureau of Air Commerce. It is now best remembered for the song 'Up in the Air, Junior Birdmen', which has been sung with a variety of lyrics to mock would-be or inexperienced aviators." 

I also found lots of online videos of people making this hand gesture on their face while singing the song. So, no, big brother Ben did not make it up. And now little granddaughter Lucy knows how to do it, too.

I love how solid and self assured she looks. Like no big deal, G-Lo. Of course I know how to do that.