Month: June 2011

CelebrationWe were invited to the park to celebrate the first day of summer.  My friend brought this wonderfully large parachute.  I remember loving when my teachers brought out the parachute when I was in school.  I wondered why they didn’t bring it out more often.  

I thought after a year of choosing photos every day that choosing one a week would be easy.  Not so.  It was still hard.  I wondered which photo was the best.  I ended up making my choice for a couple reasons.  I loved the way the lines on the parachute lined up.  I also liked the memories of playing with a parachute as a kid.  Finally, I am thinking about using different focal lengths.  This one is with my 20mm lens.  This is the kind of picture that I couldn’t take with my old reliable 50mm or my new sweetheart the 100mm.  These next few are also taken with the 20mm lens. 

The First of Many LossesWe were at a family picnic and my niece, Makenna, lost her first tooth.  She was happy about it.  My sister asked if I could take a picture of her with just the tooth in focus.  

The Tooth

I took Makenna outside the party tent for the photo.  The light was better there and the background would be less distracting.  I took this photo and wanted to try another one with her face more in focus.  Before I could do that, the tiny tooth slipped out of her fingers into the gravel she was standing on.  We looked for it and found many little white rocks but no tooth.  

Her mother saw us looking around and knew what had happened.  She sighed.  It was her first child’s first lost tooth.  “At least we got a picture of it,” I said weakly.  

This got me thinking.  As a mother who photographs her children almost daily, I wonder how the recording of moments changes the moments themselves.  A lost baby tooth is not the end of the world, I know.  But, it is funny to think that Makenna’s memory of losing her first tooth won’t be about hiding it under her pillow, but about dropping it when I was taking her picture with it. 

Open It

It’s my birthday this week.  My mother used to tell us on our birthdays the new year that we were beginning.  On my ninth birthday she would have said, “You’re beginning your tenth year.”  I loved this.  It made me sound older.  

So, I’m beginning my fortieth year this year.  I no longer relish sounding older, but I like that it sounds a little significant.  Better than, “I’m turning 39.”  That little bit of significance got me thinking about a new project for this fortieth year of mine.  

In 2010, I posted a picture on Flickr from each day of the year – my 365 Project.  When I began that project, I had no idea what I was getting into.  If I had understood how difficult it would be, I wouldn’t have started.  I also had no idea how alive all that work would make me feel. Now, six months after finishing, I miss it.  

Last night I was rereading Anne Lamott’s book, Bird by Bird.  It is a book specifically about writing, but most of the book is applicable to anything creative.  Anne Lamont’s dad gave her this advice about writing:

“Do it every day for a while,” my father kept saying.  “Do it as you would do scales on the piano.  Do it by prearrangement with yourself.  Do it as a debt of honor.  And make a commitment to finishing things.”

YES.  That’s what I missed about my 365 Project.  Taking photos every day.  Practicing new things and getting better at what I already did well.  Knowing every morning that I had some creative work ahead of me.  And, finishing at least one photo to be posted.  Not surprisingly, my photography improved – a lot.

I still take photos every day, and I post a few when I get around to it.  But I miss the goal of doing one every day.  My project made me think when I got up in the morning about what might work for a photo that day and if bedtime rolled around and there was still no photo: I had to think fast.  

But there are some reasons I don’t want to start another 365.  I found that when I was doing a photo every day last year, the worst part for me was when I fell behind.  The first time it happened was when we went on vacation.  I came back and had ten days of photos to get posted.  But there was no time to catch up because I had to do the photo for that day.  The train just kept rolling and soon I was two weeks behind and it was hard to get excited about doing a photo for the day I was in.  

So, I’ve come up with a project that I’m hoping will bring most of the good stuff from the 365, without the parts that I don’t want in my life right now.  Here it is: forty photos from my year posted on Fridays: 40 Friday Photos.  If I miss a week, I’m moving on to the next week.  There’s some room for error.  

There was also something I loved but didn’t expect about doing my 365 – camaraderie.  My dear brother, Joe, was also doing the 365 Project (he got me started), and some other friends were doing it too.  I looked forward to seeing what they’d posted every morning and if they hadn’t posted for awhile, I missed them.  Because of these people, I didn’t consider quitting.  I was much more inclined to comment and encourage someone who was doing this crazy project too.  I was sustained by the encouragement of these friends as I went through the year.  

I’d love to have some companions this year as I work toward my goal.  You don’t need to be a great photographer (it’s okay if you are) and you don’t need a great camera.  You just need a love of photography and a desire to create some of your own photos on a regular basis.  Post a photo at 40 Friday Photos.  I’ll post my first next Friday, June 24.

I recently heard a story about a man who was considering making a risky but exciting life change.  He asked his dad for advice.  His dad said, “You have to be very careful.  If you think too long you might not do it.”  

I haven’t given this too much thought.  I’m just jumping in.  Join me if it looks like fun.

She was smiling and cooing while I was changing her last night.  It was warm outside and the light was gentle.  I wasn’t feeling like I needed to take more pictures of my dear little one, but why not?  I put on her best outfit (seen here) and went out to the back yard.  She is laying on a changing pad covered with black velvet for two of the photos and with a wooly mattress pad for the other.  I love pictures of her in her environment with family and friends holding her. I also like pictures like these that take away other distractions and focus on her.

Canon 7D: 50mm 1.4: ISO 400: 1/400: f/3.2

After my last post, I started thinking about what is true about the idea that adding a fourth is no big deal.

I realized that it’s like saying that giving birth was easy.  I have said that about birth and yet it’s only easy in comparison to how difficult my first birth was.  Giving birth is never easy in the way that getting my kids to eat pizza is easy.

Something that has become easy after three babies before is listening to people’s questions and comments.  “How is she sleeping?”  Many friends and neighbors ask this question.  When my first baby was new, I was asked this and thought people were saying, “There is a right way and wrong way to get through the night with a newborn.  Are you doing it right?”  With number four here, I still am asked about sleep.  Now I hear, “Look! A new baby!” And, “What I remember most about having a newborn was how little we slept.  How are you doing?”  It also helps that my expectations have changed. I don’t expect uninterrupted sleep.  When I get it, I think of it like a fancy meal: something to be enjoyed but not something that will be served nightly.

Adding a fourth is like sliding on a broken in shoe.  The walking up a long hill is still just as hard, but there are less blisters than when the shoe was brand new.

Canon 7D: 50mm 1.4: ISO 200: 1/200: f/2.8

Both of the photos above were taken on our porch.  I call it the porch studio because it is where I can find the best light for photos at our home.  I was at a friend’s house recently that had big windows on two sides of the room.  I didn’t bring my camera to take (more) photos of my baby, but the light was so nice in that room, I couldn’t help myself.  

Cameras are so easy to use that it’s easy to think you should be able to get a great photo anywhere, anytime.  Photography will always be about light.  Look for more than an abundance of light.  Look for light that comes from several directions and lights your subject gently.