30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 27 | From a Distance

Kids are pretty much impervious to rain.  Did you know that?
I decided to take my kiddos to the park today.  Both to get them out of our small apartment, and also to try and get my shot for the day.  Just after we got to the park (which is only across the street mind you) it started to drizzle.  Then rain.  I asked my kids if they wanted to go home, but I don't think they even heard me.  They were having the time of their lives.

Due to the rain though, I barely got any photos.  

What did I learn today?
Well, for one: Don't challenge the weather forecast.

And two:  My kit lens has lost its appeal.  True story.

I have been using solely my kit lens (18-55mm) this entire last year.  It does a good job and can capture some amazing photos.  Then a little bit back, I bought my nifty fifty.  And that was the end of that.  What a pretty little prime lens.  What a wonder...

I decided to use my kit lens today solely because I knew how much my kids move and wanted the chance to zoom when needed.  Taking the time to frame the 50mm with my two boys, no one else there helping me maintain them, in the semi rain sounded like a bad idea.

Now, looking back on it, I wish I had just tried.  While I do love the shots I managed to snap before I hid my camera from the rain, I know my 50mm could have gotten such a better final product.

Man, I cannot wait to order my 24-70mm.  I drool just at the thought of it.

Still, it was fun.
Reminding myself over and over to get that "from the distance" shot helped me view my kiddos in a different light.  I wasn't in their faces, fighting for that cute smile or up-close moment.  I just stood back and let them be.

And look what I managed to capture.  My two boys take a juice break, happy as can be.

30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 26 | Close-Up

Today was the first day of the Early Childhood Development Music class I am taking my youngest to.  He loves music.  And I am loving this chance to spend one on one time with just him.  I honestly can't say how often that has happened, and this chance to just focus on him is amazing.  Not to mention I love to see him boogie.

For today's challenge, I could have gone all macro.  What is more close up than an awesome macro shot?

Then I went to class, saw how this little kid of mine reacted to the music around him, and knew I had to take some photos.  As I was going through them once we got home, I decided I wanted to use one of the shots from class as my close-up shot.

It isn't macro.  It is just his little hands, dirty finger nails and all, exploring a new instrument.
Honestly, that is close-up to me.  It is a moment.  A memory.  A snapshot of a first.

I love music.  I grew up being a part of choirs.  Training in musical theatre.  Taking private voice and piano lessons.  My Dad and I have fun making up random songs together with no purpose, singing the words as they come to mind.  I always have a song in my head.  Always.

Seeing how much my son is already embracing music... It means so much to me.
Seeing him boogie... makes my day.

30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 25 | Something Pink

Pink.  This is a color that pretty much does not exist in my home.  I have two little boys, are very very much boy.  My home is littered with blues and greens, spaceships and race cars.  My only smidge of pink that exists here is the few shirts and pieces of jewelry I might own in that shade.

Pink doesn't exist in the world of boy.

So for today, I enlisted my friend Heidi's cute little girl.  We dolled her in pink, head to toe.  Oh my, so much pink!  It has been raining off and on, so I took her outside in rain boots and equipped with an umbrella... and we had fun!  I treated this very much like a lifestyle shoot, and let the little lady lead the shoot.  We had tons of fun jumping in puddles, running around, screaming and giggling.  I was exhausted by the end. But beaming.

Goodness.  I love my little boys.  Don't get me wrong.  But how I want a daughter...

This was a great exercise (literally...) in photographing a child.  You can't just ask them to sit and smile nice.  All that gets is either A) a forced CHEESE or more often B) anger, screaming, and pure camera avoidance.  With kids, you have to get into the shot.  You have to play around, be a fool, and literally exhaust yourself.

Boy, is it fun!
I love this entire impromptu shoot I did today.  In fact, I will be posting a full preview album for it on my Facebook page... soon.  This little lady was a perfect model in the rain puddles.  Especially in that pink.

(Again...I want a girl...)

30 Day Challenge: Day 24 | Animal

For today I wanted to photograph a real, live animal.  Sadly, I couldn't get my clicky fingers on any.  I was bumming at first, until I went to play with my son.  I mentioned in a previous post about my son's love obsession with Meow.  This stuffed toy cat is real to him.  Sometimes more real than an actual cat.  After thinking about it, I realized:  How could I say no to photographing Meow?

We got Meow for my son just after he his the big one year mark.  It has now become a family tradition to take our kids to Build-A-Bear when they turn one, and my son was the one to set it.  We thought we would get him something cute.  Another toy for the stack.  Little did we know that the fluffy, sparkly snow leopard he chose, stuffed, and fluffed would become a permanent part of our family.

Now tatty, tattered, and loved beyond understanding...

Three years later, and Meow Merritt is the cat we never had.

Meow's voice box recently died.  Too much meowing for this kitty.  Luckily, my good friend Tiffany knows how to sew (Okay, I am artsy.  But sewing was the art form that never, ever stuck.)  She came over today to perform a voice box transplant on Meow.  

My son hovered over her the entire time.  Holding Meow's hand.  Talking to Meow.  Kissing the heart and putting it back in.  By the time the surgery was over, he was beaming as he held his Meow and heard her actually say 'meow' for the first time in too long.

What a moment to capture.

We forget that reality is all objective to children.  A cat doesn't have to be living, breathing, and shedding to be one of the most important pets (and friends) in the world.  How fun and touching it is to take a moment and capture this world in a photograph.  To remind them years down the road that the ratty cat toy sitting dusty on their shelf used to be their best friend in the entire world.

I wonder if my imaginary friends miss me.

Goodness, I love this little boy.  I love his imagination.  His excitement for life.  His adventure and spirit.
And yes, I love Meow.

30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 19 | Something Orange

Orange has always been one of my all-time favorite colors.  In high school I painted some of the walls in my bedroom orange.  I had orange on my cell phone, orange blankets on my bed, even wore orange tops that I wore (I later found out how that color didn't look nearly as good on me as I thought.  But I still loved it.)  

There is something about the color orange that just makes me... happy.  I can't explain it.  It is warm.  Welcoming.  Yummy and rich.  To this day I still love the color orange, though I don't deck myself and all my belongings out in it nearly as much as I once did.

So why was it so hard to do my challenge today?
I literally had no idea what to do for it.
Nada.

Finally I gave in to my little boy.  I handed him some orange crayons, put him in an orange top, and let him go at it.  He loves to color.  Just before these photos he was coloring all over his hands with a pen.  (Yes, I washed it all off.  It was just too distracting.)  When mommy even let him climb up to sit on the table, he got even more excited.  We never let him sit on the table, so this was a treat.

His favorite coloring game?
I draw bubbles, and he races to "pop" them (aka color them in.)  That is what we are doing in my main shot I chose for today.  Popping orange bubbles.

Let me tell you though, this was a challenge today.  Orange reflects.  On everything.  What with the morning sun, the light wood table, the orange crayons, orange shirt, overhead lighting... Coloring was a headache with these.  I finally threw my hands up and just let them be.  Let them have an orange overtone, it is all something orange today.  I am sure there was an easy trick to avoid or correct this headache.  But honestly. I am tired today and could barely think straight.

So, orange it is.
Still, isn't he just too cute?

30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 15 | Silhouette

I am not going to lie:  I wasn't feeling the creative flow today.

I have been on a roll so far this month, biting at the bit each day to share my challenge captures.  Today... was another story.  It is rare that I don't want to pick up my camera.  So rare that the few times it does happen, I feel like I better go admit myself for a mental evaluation.  I must be crazy.

Sadly, today was one of those days.

Silhouettes are something I am still learning how to capture.  While it is easy to get them in front of a setting sun, it seems that all other places become much more of a challenge.  I love silhouette shots.  Adore them.  But I still am feeling weak when it comes to capturing the image myself.

I let my youngest climb up to sit on the window sill.  Something we never let the kiddos do.  Oh, he thought it was the most exciting thing ever.  I quickly snapped my shots, enjoyed seeing him giggle, then called it done.

Even my chosen picture for today isn't a full silhouette.  Still, I was at least happy with it.  Mostly.  And the fact that it is a shot of my adorable little boy makes it worth the grumbling I did nonstop in Lightroom.

If any of you out there have any silhouette tips and tricks, dump them on me!  I am all... eyes.

Here are two more photos from today, just because I love that little man.

30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 11 | Something Blue

Something blue.

I sat back and looked around my apartment.  Sure, I have a ton of blue items.  Blue is one of my favorite colors, and it is everywhere.  But I didn't want to snap a photo of a cup or shirt and call it good.  As I have said time and again, I want the photo to mean something.

Then I spotted my son playing.  For his birthday, we gave him a bunch of small Mario figurines.  He loves them.  He carries them everywhere with him, plays with them, talks to them.  (Score with the awesome parent points for picking a gift he adores!)  After watching him for a moment, I decided to take some photos.

Mario has blue pants.
I kept the focus on that... then snapped away.

The final product I ended up with made me pretty happy.  These are little candid shots of my four year old doing what he loves: Imagining.  If only you could have heard the running commentary as he played with these toys.  These are some of the moments I will miss the most.

And must have the photos of, to help me remember.

I ended up shooting a little bit with a few different lenses.  I used my 50mm for a bit.  Then switched over to my 18-55mm kit lens.  Sure, it is a kit lens.  But I still love the shots I get with it.  And finally I slapped on my macro adapter for the lens and got up nice and close.

Upon seeing my photos, my son happily clapped his hands and exclaimed: "Oh Mom, I love it!  It's my Mario!  Mama mia!"

30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 6 | From a Low Angle

Once again today, we found ourselves up at Grandma's house.  This time: For egg dying.  Easter is just a few days away, and the eggs were begging to be colored and prepped for the Easter bunny to hide.

Before we could dye though, we had to have lunch.  And since I knew I would be more preoccupied with keeping dyes from spilling than photographing once the festivities began, I decided to snap some photos of my boys as they ate their sandwiches.

My mother-in-law's dining room table is right next to a window, which happened to have some awesome overcast light shining in through it today.  Yay for light!

And my boys were too cute.  As always.

The shot I chose actually ended up being one of the last ones I took.  My youngest finally had had enough of his food and decided to climb across the table to get to mommy.  He loves being on the table, and loved it even more when I let him stay so I could snag the shot.

Have you ever noticed that the chosen shot almost always ends up being one of the first, or the last that you take?

Something else I have noticed:  I need to stop using my children as my models.  I am taking way to many photos, because I just love every thing they do.  As a mommy, that is just fine.  As a photographer... I need to learn to scale down how much my finger hits that trigger.  I am working on it!

Here are a few more low angle shots, of my little men:

30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 5 | From a High Angle

Lucky for me, this evening we already had planned to spend time with the family.  My hubby's parents have a great house, with a stair case that I knew would give me the chance I needed to get a shot from a high angle.  Yes, I was excited.

At first I started with snapping photos of all the kids as they played.  I got some super cute ones of the cousins all cuddled together, playing on the Nintendo DS.  Of each kid taking turns looking up at me from the ground floor and making faces.  Of unsuspecting in-laws.

Then my youngest caught my attention.  And my heart.  As always.

One of his favorite things to do at Grandma's is go up and down those stairs.  My little stair climber.  I started snapping some shots of him.  Then I looked at what I had taken... and realized that I had caught a moment that would mean something to me.  I never take photos of him on the stairs.  Something he loves, and I am usually in the other room.

Not now.

The main shot I chose for this challenge touches my heart more than I can say.  Just before I took it, he reached out and held my hand, then softly said "mama" like it was the most loving thing anyone could ever say.  I am so happy I captured that moment.

Sometimes photography isn't about setting up the world's most amazing shot.  It isn't about perfect exposure, perfect poses, perfect framing and technique.  Sometimes... most times... it is about getting into that moment and burning it into an image that will last long after the memory is gone.

That is why I chose this shot for my high angle challenge today.  I am holding my heart in that photo.

Here are a few others...

30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 4 | Something Green

My first thought for today's challenge was grass.  Something green.  Nice and easy.  The rain had stopped (finally) and I was sure I could get some decent bright green shots of those dripping blades.  So I grabbed my camera.  When I turned around though, my mind changed.

There, cuddled on the couch, was my little boy.  My youngest was napping, meaning my oldest was enjoying his Nintendo DS time, along with the new learning games we had just given him for his birthday.  He was snuggled up in his green blankie.  

And my heart melted.

My son has had this green blankie his entire life.  His Grandma made it for him and gave it to him when he was just a little newborn.  And from the get-go, this was his blankie.  It is his love (aside from Meow, the build-a-bear cat.)  This blankie goes everywhere with him.  He cuddles in it for quiet time.  Goes to it for comfort when sick.  Has picnics on it.  Makes tents out of it and even talks to it.

So when I saw my little four year old snuggled in his green blankie, I knew where my shot for today would be.

I couldn't wimp out and get the simple, easy shot of grass.  I had to get this moment that would mean something to me for years to come.  Isn't that what photography is about?  Preserving memories?

Photos mean more when they mean something to you.  And these mean the world to me.  

Someday, these photos will mean something to him as well.

Thank goodness for little boys.  Little toes.  And thank goodness for green blankies.

A few more shots, because I couldn't resist.