natalie

Photographed with Nikon D300, 50mm manual lens.

This is my sister, Natalie.  She was in town this weekend, attending her 20-year high school reunion.*  It dawned on me that I'd never taken a serious portrait of her before, so I subjected her to my camera lens.

A few little-known things about Natalie:

• She has one tattoo (that I know of).  She got it when she was in college, and when she showed it to me, I warned her not to tell our mom and dad, lest the fact kill them dead.  It was secret from our parents until about 8 years ago.  My father still hasn't gotten over it.
• She's been socially-minded since, like, birth.  She was a member of Amnesty International since before she could drive, and when I was a freshman at university and she was in eighth grade, she had to explain to me why Cliff and Claire Huxtable's eldest daughter, Sonia Sondra, named her twins "Nelson" and "Winnie."   I'm not proud of this.
• She's always worn her hair long until very recently, when she cut it all off.  Now *I* can't tell us apart in photographs.

 While I was taking her photograph, I told her to think of her husband, and she did this:

I love this photograph.  This is a typical Sweet Natalie expression.

* It hurts me to type that, because I'm five years older than Natalie.  You do the math.

Song:  Breakout by Swing Out Sister