is a work in progress

Today I went to Butterfly Gardens for a recreational photoshoot with Lara Eichhorn.

It was so nice to get out of the cold rainy weather and into a warm tropical environment… even if it was only for 2 hours!

All shots taken with a Pentax K20D, FA* 200mm f4 Macro, with a monopod and external flash.

Do you remember that feeling? You know, the feeling you had on the last day of school when you were 10 years old?

Imagine: it’s a perfect sunny day. You’re out in the field behind the school with all the other children. Some of them are older than you. Some are younger. Some of them are your friends. Some are your enemies. Some are your neighbours. Some of them you don’t know at all. But none of this matters. In this moment you are happy. Everyone is. Everyone is excited; smiling, talking, running, jumping, playing. Basking in the warm summer glory of the last day of school. Everyone is connected then, in that moment, by that feeling.

I had almost forgotten about that feeling. I didn’t think I’d ever experience it again. But I did! I found it! Or rather, Rich Aucoin aroused it from within me.

Describing a feeling within a moment, or perhaps a moment that creates or awakens a feeling, is quite difficult. Words don’t really exist to describe the complexities of how everything can come together to form a perfect moment in time that you instantly recognize in your heart and soul as happiness. Yet it’s not exactly happiness either. It’s more like being at peace with the universe and truly living in that moment.

All I can do is describe the scene, and you can judge for yourself whether it’s comprehensible:

We’re in a small night club, with hundreds of strangers all around us. There is a white bed sheet hanging on the wall behind the stage. The sheet is covered in images and lyrics being projected in sync with the music. A strobe light is flashing. Everyone is jumping up and down with both hands in the air, shouting along with the music. Some people know the song. For others it is their first time hearing it. It doesn’t matter though, everyone is singing along. And jumping.

Oh, and did I mention that everyone in the room is under a giant rainbow–coloured pinwheel-patterned parachute? It floats up and down in the air as it glides over our outstretched fingertips. It feels as though the whole crowd is moving in sync, not just with each other, but with the universe. Everything seems to be going as planned. We can’t argue with the universe, so we keep jumping and singing along. The parachute is like the pulse of the music, floating effortlessly through the air as the sound fills the space between us all. We feel like a single entity then, as if we’ve all become the physical embodiment of the music. What if the music goes away? Will we remember this perfect moment when it’s gone? Will we ever feel this way again? We can’t take any risks, so we keep dancing, jumping, singing, and smiling as furiously as we can.

That’s the best I can do to describe the experience of Rich Aucoin’s live show. Please just trust me and go see him; you have to experience it for yourself. I wholeheartedly agree with words of Kirk Hamilton:

Without a doubt, and without hyperbole, Rich Aucoin’s live show is one of the best I have ever seen. It’s fun, and uplifting, and will leave you with a full heart and grinning for days on end. One of the lines he had everyone chant was “When you give it all up, you get it back”, and I can’t think of a better way to sum up the show; Rich more that gives it all up, and deserves everything he gets back.

Thank you for the experience Rich. In your own words: WE ARE SO LUCKY!