This weekend, I was delighted to attend the Capture Minnesota IV book release party & exhibition at Mall of America. After 2 months of waiting, I would finally learn which of my images was selected for publication. The publishers (Explore Minnesota & Twin Cities Public Television) had 407,536 images submitted for consideration, and narrowed it down to 200 images to be published. To my surprise I had not 1 but 2 images in the book! (The most humbling note was that I did not submit the images for award consideration. The editors reviewed my portfolio and selected them.)

Both were very old images from my profile on Capture Minnesota's website and probably would not have been would I would have chosen on my own from my wider portfolio of work for publication. But, it was such a delight to see these silly moment portraits included in a book full of breathtaking landscapes, macro imagery and beautiful nature shots. So, congratulations to Emily Nelson, Caroline Zrust and Jonathan Mundy.,.. you have been published! (A copy of the book will soon be in the mail to you!)

'Emily' by Christie Rachelle
A quick capture shot of my niece. She was out running in a park enjoying a beautiful day. She fell and began to cry (for about 20 seconds), then stopped and looked around, then began to laugh at herself for being so silly.

'Young Love' by Christie Rachelle
Anyone can be passionate. But, it takes real love to be silly!

Now... to eagerly await the publication of my next images in Samantha Rei's new book on fashion design. What a truly blessed life. . . to spend my days doing what I love and to have moments like this where others recognize it with value.