For A Moment Photography

It is your Choice

   

a picture from our walk this evening

As a Mom I talk a lot about choices with my daughter.  Recently it hit me that as adults we forget that we too have choices.  And I'm not talking about the choices like what we wear, eat and drink.  Everyday I'm faced with tons of choices I didn't realize were there.  

I have a choice to get angry at the guy that cut me off on the freeway, I have a choice on how to react to my dog barking incessantly, it's a choice to give up on a project when it doesn't go right the first time  (then blame every thing on that) and it's a choice to let people make me mad, happy or sad.  In my life I've not always seen this...  Ever hear people use the phrase, "I had no choice but to___". 

I feel in my life a lot of how I (have chosen) to react comes from selfishness.   I see these things be done to me instead of just happening.  Dogs bark because they're dogs not because they are put on this earth to drive me crazy.  I have to admit seeing all these choices doesn't necessarily make it easy to respond in the "proper" way all the time.  However, it's made my day to day life easier to handle...

I couldn't write this piece without writing about the lyrics to John Lennon's, "Watching the Wheels".  If you don't know the song or the lyrics do yourself a favor and listen to the song or read the lyrics...  I loved this song because if I remember correctly (I have no idea where I heard, read or saw this) the last part of the song is the noise of his and Yoko's home in the AM (breakfast cooking, radio, etc.).  His guy had access to everything money could buy and all he wanted to do we be at home in his kitchen with his family.  Wow.  I guess I can't be that mad at Yoko anymore...  

Ok back to my original point.  After listening to this song maybe hundreds of times my new favorite line is, "there's no problem only solutions".  We can focus on the problem (and stay there) or choose to look for a solution (and move forward)...  I sort of feel like this is all stuff I should of known by now but some how forgot it along the way.  Or just didn't always applied it...  

By the way I just celebrated my birthday.  Hence the looking for answers on my journey.

Raindrops & Puddles

 

 

watching that silly tree

 

I showed her how to shake rain off a tree.  I still love doing that.

 

 

 

This afternoon we had a welcomed rain storm.  After watching the rain we decided to put on our rain boots and stomp around in the puddles...  By the way, Presley's rain boots are much cuter looking on her then mine on me.

We've been cooped up at home with the both of us not at the top of our game and the rain made being here much more fun.  It also made for an amazing sunset...  I do miss the summer monsoon season, it's been awhile.

 
 
 
 

The Expected and Unexpected

 

 

 Today was an exciting day.  We all were expecting the arrival of Presley's cousin Gavin and Jonas was going to spend the morning with us.  When Presley woke up Jonas was already here, it took about an hour until they were in full swing.  I have to admit two can be easy, on the one hand.  On the other my house looked like 12 kids live here after just a few hours.

I planned a quick trip to the store, just to get a feel for what two kids would be like.  They were very good but it was a little hard for me to stay focused (are you surprised).  Trying to keep them happy and not fighting or feeling jealous is a full time job.  After the store and lunch we returned home to wait for uncle to come pick up Jonas.

At that time both of the kiddos were pretty tired we decided to relax with a show.  Presley surprisingly fell asleep, she doesn't usually fall asleep that easily.  I assumed it was from all the playing so I let her nap.  Not the case...  Fast forward a several hours Presley has thrown up twice, had a blazing fever and made a trip to the doctor's.  She seems to be feeling better, but still running a low temperature.  

I had planned on photographing Presley and Jonas this afternoon.  Instead I have photos of my Lil' Teddy Bear sleeping.  I hope she sleeps well.    

 

Or both...

 

The only photo of her sitting still and looking at me.  And there is no fan her hair just dries like that...  Maybe because she's so fast?

Ahh, I guess never say never.  Because here I am doing studio shots in my basement.  It was just a few months ago I "decided" it wasn't for me.  What has changed between now and then.  Well I've been in Arizona for three weeks and haven't had much time with my camera, it's 108 outside.  And hello why does it have to be one or the other?

I just set the studio up this friday and haven't had too much practice.  My model is not as willing as she is outdoors (no brainer).  It's my plan (today) that I will do studio stuff with newborns and head shots.  Other then that I will still do a lot of location stuff and bring my lighting goodies along too.  I do see the attraction to studio, once you get the lighting down it's just a stream of yummy photos.  I may change my mind, right now my studio (basement) feels so small to me with the backdrop and lights.

I'm more excited of the addition of the lights to my location stuff.  But that will have to wait a month or so.  We are heading back out to California and Arizona will be too hot for location stuff for at least another 4 weeks.  At least for this sun avoiding Arizona native.    

 

Tick Tock

 

Things have been changing so quickly this summer.  Presley is registered for school "college", she will have a longer schedule then I had planned for so we will give it a month and see how she does.  The up side is I will have  the time I need to focus on my goals and business...  It does feel a bit like the pendulum swung from one side to the other, when I just really need it in the middle- you know?

Oh My Bug, My Teddy Bear...  I'm so torn of what is the best for her right now.  During summer break she's asked to go to school and chats about doing projects and taking her projects to Teacher...  I do feel that she will do well in school, "college".  I do have concern I will regret not having her with me.  And my decision should not be what's best for me, right?  The good news is the school is very flexible and I could easily modify her schedule (and still pay of course).

I'm pleased to see the school has monthly parent teacher meetings.  Hopefully we can work together to figure out if this is the right schedule for her.  So for now we will make the most of our summer break together!

 

A Clear Path

 

For at least the past two months I've been trying to figure out the direction of my photography business.  I have a feeling I want to change direction a bit.  I didn't know if I just was ready to learn more and improve on my current style or refocus my business.  What I mean is do I want to continue photographing families and babies or go more commercial business.

The problem is I'm not sure what direction I want to go in overall.  My website doesn't have the feeling I would like and I don't feel it represents who I really am.  It feels to cutesy and unoriginal.  This is a problem because I could be missing out on potential clients...

I was looking forward to the summer break to take this time to refocus and come up with a game plan.  In the next few weeks I hope to meet with a few industry people, pick their brains and come up with a clear goal.  You may see a few changes on my site and photo style while I search for my latest photography endeavor.

  

Mini Photo Album

   

Here is a new product I've had but haven't done anything with for the past three months.  It's a mini album for your purse or desk.  The book is 3x3 inches, accordion style.  The whole album took me less then an hour to put together.  I'm not sure about the ribbon to keep it closed.  I will continue to look for other closure options.  But overall I think it's going to be a great product for my clients.

 

The 4th

 

Pop Pop and Bo.
 

 

and of course horses...

Gabi and Presley

 

 

A bug they found on their hike.

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July.