Well, not that kind. And though I wish we had room for a real pony, this is equally exciting for me. I am still pinching myself that I have a baby girl and I’m enjoying each and every little milestone. Sure, the big ones are fun – Christening, birthday, first Christmas, etc. But the real reason I’m so into photography is to capture the smallest details and moments that might otherwise go unnoticed or forgotten.
The little stuff is my favorite stuff. I’ve been waiting for the day I can put her hair into an elastic and make a little ponytail. And even though this was a little premature perhaps (and the world’s tiniest rubber band), it still worked and I can’t even stand how cute it was! She ripped it out about 5 minutes later but I caught it while chasing her around the house, she’s quick!
Happy new year! Woohoo we’ve now been doing this blog circle since 2013! Hard to believe! I am so glad to be continuing this little circle o’ love with some of my most favorite people. Let’s do this, ladies!
Oddly for January, I have been shooting a lot. This year, it’s been relatively warm and I’ve been out and about a lot more than normal. Early in the month we were in Detroit visiting family and friends. In the past couple of weeks we have visited the Field Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry (my fave), and the Brookfield Zoo…I even went out on a photo walk downtown with some photography friends.
This is not technically my favorite image of the month, but the story behind it makes it my pick for “One”. Well, two images! My boys have been watching “Night at the Museum”, where everything comes to life at night in the Museum of Natural History. I had one day where the starts aligned, the baby was with my hubby and it was just me and the boys. I decided to surprise them with a trip to the Field Museum to see Sue the T. Rex and the mummies (their two main obsessions from the movie).
In the movie, everything comes to life thanks to the ancient Tablet of Akmenrah, belonging to a fictional pharaoh. My sweet guys drew the tablet to take with us to the museum, I’m sure hopeful that even though it was daytime that everything might come to life. The Field Museum has a really extensive and awesome Ancient Egypt exhibit, and they were all over it looking and looking for the tablet, bless their little hearts. And then they spent a lot of time pretending to be mummies. Probably the longest either one has held still during daylight hours.
Please follow me around the circle to see what my dear friend Kim has been up to in January in Georgia!!
This mama wanted me to capture some shots of her (insanely adorable) daughter to document her at two years old. Little A was everything a toddler should be: independent, clingy, defiant, sweet, funny, curious, happy, feisty, shy, half baby, half little kid, all rolled into one. I just love this age! Toddlers are just so all over the place and know no other way than to wear their heart on their sleeve. They still have chubby cheeks and finger dimples, and cling tight to their mamas and their loveys, which sadly fades away all too soon. Part of the reason I love photographing kids at this age, it’s such a flash in the pan. I just roll with it and follow them around as they explore!
I’ve been digging through my photo libraries and external hard drives, poking around looking for shots for some upcoming gallery exhibits that I’m entering. Going back through these thousands of shots is like a treasure hunt, I’m looking for very specific images but I always get completely lost finding so much more as I dive down the rabbit hole that is my Lightroom catalog. With digital photography, we snap away to our heart’s content, and as such, accumulate quite a lot (especially those of us who are bad about culling, not naming names, but that would include me and about every photographer I know!)…Note to self: start deleting some stuff before you fill up another terabyte of space…because at this point you are basically hoarding.
So anyway, I’m digging around and I find some old film scans from a few years ago. The film was expired, making the colors totally wonky, oversaturated in some instances, washed out in others…grainy, imperfect, weird, funky. Each shot itself is nothing to write home about, these are just snaps I took on vacation with my old 35mm film camera. But I love them. I love that they’re rough around the edges and completely imperfect, experimental, fuzzy, and real. Because to me they capture the feeling of hanging out at the lake cabin perfectly. Time stands still. It’s the same now as it was 50 years ago. Simple, nothing fancy, and when you’re a kid, the greatest adventure imaginable.
So hard to believe this year is over! So much has changed in this past year that it’s a little mind boggling. I’m hoping that in 2016 I have a little more time to stop and smell the roses and snap pictures of them perhaps too. Also, is there any way I can get my kids to stop growing? I’m open to suggestions 🙂 Here’s to a happy and healthy 2016!
I will leave you with some kissing cousins from Christmas Eve (no worries, they’re only loosely related…completely legal in some states…ha ha!)
Let’s travel to Texas to see what my wonderful and talented friend Adele has been up to this month! Hope you continue to follow our adventures in 2016!
Such a fun time this year with our boys at a great age for believing in all of the magic, and our little girl was getting in on the excitement too. Hope you had a wonderful holiday!
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