Photographers, Kids Click In An Instant
Her friends are licking their lips and fingering their hair, but Sarah is sobbing so hard she trembles with each sorrowful gasp.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” a mother coos into the first-grader’s reddening face. Sarah’s liquid eyes absorb Norm See Photography’s black umbrellas, silver reflector boards and flashing cameras. Ramsey Elementary’s library has never been scarier.
“Some of them are scared to death. They think they’re going to get shot,” Norm says, still able to summon up a sympathetic smile after 25 years on the school photo circuit. “You have to gain their confidence in a hurry.”
A blond boy purses his lips for photographer Wendy Reeves. He won’t say “chicken lips,” but “fuzzy pickles” brings a quick smile. Wendy shoots in that instant.
“They need something silly to laugh at,” Norm says. “I call the girls George, ask them if they shaved, get them giggling.”
He’s tested his technique on his seven children and on 40,000 kids each fall. To reach schools in Lewiston or Orofino, Norm rises at 4 a.m. Driving 50,000 miles a year from his Hayden Lake home to schools in Eastern Washington and Oregon, North Idaho and Montana is standard.
“He’s not sane,” Norm’s 18-year-old son Cory says. “No one in our house is.” The approach appeals to kids. Sarah watches unsmiling as her friends giggle with photographers. She’s interested but unsure. She allows the mother/helper to inch her forward in line, then walks haltingly on her own to photographer Cal Reinbold.
Sarah’s blonde head fills Cal’s camera lens like a Botticelli angel in a frame. He doesn’t waste time.
“Say chicken lips,” he calls to her. In the instant her lips move with half smile and half words, he shoots, capturing her uncertain sweetness forever.
Road to riches
The Kootenai County Arts Council has big plans for the future now that the IRS has deemed it nonprofit. But first, it has to fill its board of directors with 12 people. Kathy Flint is the executive director and wants people from business and nonprofit art organizations, as well as artists and just regular folks on the board.
She also wants to know where the council should take art and culture in Kootenai County. If you answered that question as soon as you read it, you should go to the Summit on the Arts at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday in North Idaho College’s Bonner Room. Call Kathy at 667-0625 for details.
Lend a hand while you can
Hospitals are those places most people avoid until they can’t. But you can start a positive relationship with Kootenai Medical Center now while you’re healthy by volunteering for the auxiliary.
Auxiliary volunteers deliver mail, walk patients, run the gift shop and help with hundreds of odd jobs around KMC. They even raised $12,000 to help build KMC’s new health resource center.
There are plenty of people who could use a comforting hand in the hospital. Call 666-2025 to volunteer.
Why not us?
Now that Spokane doesn’t want the Pacific Science Center, maybe Silverwood’s Gary Norton will consider adding it to his collection just south of Athol.
It would fit nicely with the proposed Walk in the Wild zoo and the vintage airplanes. Plus, it would draw people year-round to a place that hibernates right now through the winter. Just a thought from one of Coeur d’Alene’s science addicts …
What is it in North Idaho that lures you back time and time again? Priest Lake’s wildness? Sandpoint’s shopping? Silver Mountain’s gondola? Sell its strengths to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814; fax to 765-7149; or call 765-7128 and entice me from my desk.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos