Hiatus and the Inevitable Picture Post

It seems the more time I allow to elapse between blog entries, the more pressure I put on myself for some profound illumination on modern motherhood. If that's what you skipped over here for, you'll soon notice that today is mostly a picture post with a little catch up. After the crazy Night of Judah, the sickies invaded our home and decided to stick around.Only Derek avoided the virus altogether, and I'd cringe to think of the state of our home if he hadn't. This was a MEAN bug that hiked up our seasonal tallies for doctor visits, Prime Care trips, pharmaceutical intake, and irritating insurance snafus. One by one, activities in the calendar were crossed out: he sickness in our house kept us from BSF for two weeks, from my dear dear friend and her twin babies, small group meetings, church, and a number of other activities. However, I'm weak with relief to say that, apart from still feeling like I'm talking into a bucket (yep, one of the three ear infections was MINE) we are all nearing 100% and back in the land of the living.

(Photo to the left shows Judah in the only place he'd tolerate for a number of days. The Moby saves the day again.)





Derek has been on vacation all this week, and we're going to be so sad when he has to go back to work! Eden especially loves having Daddy around, and I'll be honest: it's pretty nice having another person to carry the perpetual three-year-old conversation that the child demands. Yesterday, upon my thoughtful husband's suggestion, I got out of the house BY MYSELF for a few hours. (This concept caused a short circuit in my brain for a solid 45 minutes while I carefully considered how best to use my time without two small children attached to my person. It's AMAZING what one might accomplish without the hassle of five-point harnesses and swedish chest saddles.) I met Megan at Target and (mostly) browsed, I scouted Hobby Lobby for paper products and background fabrics, and then I drove to a place that would inspire loathing (read: whining) in any self-respecting tyke: a camera shop.

My motives were pure: I'd been looking at how to best spend the next available monies to visually boost my photographs, as well as the wisest choice for my business (more on this later.) I have a relatively short attention span for online research and comparison for such things, and thought I would prefer talking to a real person. The way it turned out, I left the camera shop feeling more inadequate, less knowledgeable, and with much more uncertainty than I had going in, and not in my technical knowledge, but in my ability to take a good photo.

These are NOT good feelings for someone developing a website and corporate identity for her fledgling photography business.

After mentally working through this challenging interaction, I am reminded of a number of discussions at the Me Ra Koh Photography Workshop I was privileged to be a part of in November. One of those conversations was based around the astounding revelation that nearly EVERY one of the twenty women present had had similar interactions at their local camera shops. More relevant, though, were the dialogues that still run through my head about what makes a good photo, and it basically comes down to what I want to accomplish with my photos. I know that my desire to do my own thing must be tempered to some degree with an acknowledgement of technical knowledge and limitations, as well as an understanding of what a client will pay for. With that understood, I'm not going to listen anymore to What a Portrait Is and How a Portrait is to be Taken.

If I wanted my work to look like Olan Mills, I'd be working for them.

I want my photos to tell a story. Isn't the whole point of photographic representation to capture an AUTHENTIC moment? When I look back on pictures of my children at various ages, I want the image to elicit memories of what that stage in life was really about: not just the haircut, the smile, the outfit, but the pout, the snotty nose, the funny face she insists on making. These stages, these days, these moments are FLYING, and I don't even realize it until I look back at old photos.

So they'd better be genuine.














Okay, I'll get off the soapbox now. Derek is pretty proud of the first fire he's so expertly built in our fireplace, and I don't think I've seen this episode of Elmo's World.

My family awaits.