Mine

100 Days of Me By Them

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100 Days Of Me By Them

I had been contemplating this project for a while, and decided that my five year old daughter and seven year old son would be responsible for capturing the remaining weeks of my pregnancy, the birth of their little brother, and then his time as a newborn. I wanted to see what they see, and to memorialize my last pregnancy through their eyes. I wanted to be inspired by their vision and instinct. I wanted to give them the knowledge and confidence to pick up my camera in the future so that I may continue to be a part of their visual history.

I document my family on a daily basis, but I'm very rarely ever in an image. At this time, I had been photographing my children every day for the last three years. I photograph us living our daily lives, but my presence in an image is from behind the camera. Our documented story has so far only been from my viewpoint. 

99% of these photographs were captured using my professional (DSLR) camera. The majority of the time, I gave my kids the option to choose from a 24mm lens or a 50mm lens so that they would get a feel for the differences. A handful of times they used the 24-70mm lens or Hero4, depending on which lens happened to be on the camera, or what was available nearby when they decided to document. I taught them to focus on their subject, look for the light, movement and slow shutter speed. They documented without question, or they told me what to do and asked me occasionally to pose in a certain way. They only know back-button focus, and the metering was on auto for them, although they would look at the camera's screen for highlights and if I needed to adjust the settings. I've kept the crops of each photo as captured by each individual, and only minimally toned the images myself. The rest was accomplished my them. I am so grateful for my five and seven year olds for capturing my quiet moments, exhaustion, contractions, breastfeeding, and daily routine.

Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different? -C.S. Lewis

Click on an image to view these images in their original orientation using the slideshow mode.

 

Fire

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This month's Project 12 theme is Fire.  My natural response was to capture the 4th of July events.  It was pretty low key, but oftentimes the small things make the biggest impact.  We roasted marshmallows in a makeshift fire pit, and lit the sparklers that Grandma brought.  We drove down the road, parked, and watched fireworks from a distance, and then the kids slept in a tent for the first time ever.  As I was thinking about fireworks and the 4th of July, I was surprised that I have so many memories of this event throughout the years.  I grew up in Bay City, Michigan, which boasts one of the most spectacular fireworks events in the country.  Every year was special.  I can remember watching the fireworks from a boat docked at the marina, in a dingy out in the river, on a picnic blanket in a park, and even the time that I refused to go with my parents and sat on the roof of my house and watched what I could through trees.  There's a void of 4th of July memories through my twenties.  Now I have children, and this time is significant again.  I remember the brilliance and excitement of running with a sparkler, and how special it is to roast marshmallows.  Everything is momentous through a child's eye, and I'm blessed to be able to see again.

I Miss Myself Already

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I told my son this morning that someday he and his sister would be bigger than his Daddy and me.  He said  to me, "I miss myself already.  I miss my body."  I just smiled at him, constantly amazed at the extraordinary things he says.

So I try to catch the light because life moves too fast.

 

sweet things

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Picking out my very own doughnut when I was a toddler was a huge deal.  Typically, this treat was every Sunday after church, and followed with reading the funny pages at the kitchen table when we returned home.  I am amazed at how my own memories come back when I watch these two making their own.

Learning From Leo

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I went on an adventure with my son today.  Leo and I carried our cameras around Platte Street and Confluence Park in Denver.  We experienced the smells and tastes at Savory Spice Shop, watched sushi being made at Sushi Sasa, and finished up with hot chocolates at ink! Coffee.  Along the way there was a lot of searching for bad guys and jumping off of things.  The beginning photographs are taken by Leo with his vtech camera.  He's almost four and he teaches me a lot.  He's looking up and down and finding places to photograph that I never noticed.  I'm amused and intrigued by his point of view... a thirty-six inch high view.  I even admire his clicking of the shutter, just because he wants to.  No bad guys were captured, but a lot of great moments were.

I did tweak the color of Leo's photographs, but I did not change the composition of his original image.

 

This ends Leo's work and begins mine.

 

A Twelve Month Retrospective

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I love all the images I've posted of the families I've worked with in 2012.  When I'm not photographing for others, I am blessed to be with my incredible husband and kids. I started this entry trying to choose one photo to represent each month, but after some editing, I decided that I was being very unreasonable with myself.  I looked back at this last year of documenting my children's lives and I'm thrilled with what I have, however, my New Year's resolution is to capture more of the small everyday moments in life.  I struggle with the balance of making sure I have this visual memory of them, but also wanting to be present and be participating in the current adventure.  Well, I have an entire year ahead of me to practice!  It's amazing to look back and see how we've grown.  A fascination with firemen and playing in boxes has been replaced by a love of everything superhero and fairy princess.  They may be fighting evil doers, but one thing has stayed the same - their excitement for cupcakes!  I thoroughly enjoyed my 2012 and I am excited for the adventures of 2013.