Amy Wenzel Photography

MIDNIGHT TRAIN

Have you ever noticed how late night thoughts can be dangerous? Everything you didn’t want to think about all day long suddenly sneaks in like a thief and starts shaking your heart around. I stay so busy during the day that its easy to put off uncomfortable thoughts, but at night when I’m tired….I can’t stop the train from comin’!

For instance, this little boy in Albania. He was sitting placidly on the bench as I approached him from a distance. I was out with my camera that day just shooting my surroundings on the streets of Tirana. As I came up to him I flashed a smile and asked if I could take his picture. He grinned back and nodded yes. I’m not sure if he understood English or simply knew what I wanted when I gestured to my camera. So I snapped a couple, smiled again and thanked him. “What a sweetheart,” I thought.

It wasn’t until a few weeks later when I was back in the states and pouring over my photographs on my 20″ moniter that I noticed the fine detail of this picture.

For some reason I cannot get over the fact that I never even noticed he was crying. I can’t stop wondering what he was crying about…was he lost? Was he scolded by a parent? Did some other children make fun of him? Here I have captured forever his moment on that bench, who knows what he was going through sitting there all alone. I can only pray that maybe a blonde chic with a camera made him feel special by wanting to take his picture that day.

Alright, let’s move on from the melancholy, shall we? Here is one of my favorite pics of my hubby from Morocco. We stood on jagged cliffs above the Atlantic and watched the surf crashing into the air. The smell of salt and fog was amazing. Yes, fog does have a smell in my world. My husband is a rock star when it comes to supporting my photography and growing business. He is definitely my number one fan! Unless someone out there wants to contend for that position- you’ll have to fight for it, believe me.
To see more pictures from my trip, visit www.amywenzel.com and view my photojournalism gallery.

This little girl from a recent session gets the “BEST COMPLIMENT OF THE WEEK” award. Her mother emailed me tonight and let me know that her daughter thinks I am a princess because I am “so beautiful and nice.” I absolutely LOVE photographing 6 year olds. They are young enough to be goofy and totally real yet old enough NOT to run in circles like a caveman while I chase them with my camera. That category belongs soley to 1-3 year olds!

Here is a favorite maternity picture of late. This was from one of the Los Angeles sessions. They had an amazing house that they had worked on themselves, but I had to drive up what felt like a completely vertical hill to get to it! It was so steep that the other side of the hill was completely blind and when I inched my way to the top my car was facing a vertical hill down that went straight into a lake. My palms are sweating just typing this. But whatever I have to do to get there, I love sharing in the joy of these expectant mothers. It is such a special time laced with emotion. I have some great new maternity pictures that I need to get on my website.

The next few shots are of my sister-in-law who has no idea how gorgeous she is. I loved the look of astonishment on her face when I showed her these pictures. It is so awesome to be able to show people how I see them. As women we can be complete perfectionists with our appearance (and the media definitely doesn’t help!) With my camera I feel like I can bring out the best in anyone and show them how truly lovely they are if they will just look through someone else’s eyes.