More About Easy

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.

4 thoughts to “More About Easy”

  1. Such lovely musings on life with a newborn and how our expectations change!

    And thank you for your comments on light. I realized after looking at houses, houses, so many houses this spring, that what I'm most drawn to in an inside space is the quality of the light (not only for taking photographs but certainly for that too!). And now we have found – if all goes well – the right house. And it is a house filled with natural light. . . familiar light in a new place.

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