I’m in the midst of preparing for a big trip to learn amazing things from one of the top senior photographers in the industry. Busy but so excited! I wanted to post a quick sneak peek of Monday’s lifestyle post as I hurry out the door to pick up a few necessities for the trip (bug spray, sunscreen, and short-sleeves – any guess where I’m off to?).
Have a wonderful weekend!
I’ve learned quite a bit since having my first child 16 years ago. I was the typical first-time mom, referencing my every move in “What To Expect the First Year”. Worrying over every little sniffle and feeding her every three hours on the hour no matter what. Wow! If I could do it all over again, things would look different.
I’m a seasoned mom now, and could probably write a pretty concise essay on what’s important and all the minutia that’s not, knowing what I do now. One thing I have learned is the importance of establishing good homework habits early on. We’re big believers in life-long education at our house and try to teach our kids that education comes first. That’s why our rule is ‘homework first’. My older kids have established pretty good homework habits and will get their school work done as soon as they come home. My youngest, on the other hand, is just learning that first grade means homework, and homework gets done right after school.
He and I sit down every afternoon with a snack, a pencil, and his homework packet and set to work. Some days things go smoothly and easily, and some days it takes everything in me not to “help” him along a little to make time go faster. A few weeks ago I had my camera handy in the kitchen and decided to document this routine. Although it’s somewhat mundane and routine, it’s part of our life right now and it’s typical enough for me to want to remember it in all of its mundane glory. It’s the kind of routine that will soon be forgotten if it isn’t documented somewhere to remember.
I hope this inspires you to slow down and recognize the typical and mundane routines of life, and to document them to create memories.
I love it! Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, our mornings are often blanketed with thick fog. It lasts until just about the time I drop off the last of my kids at school. I can not tell you how many mornings I’ve been driving through the fog on carpool duty loooooonging to stop the car, pile the kids out into the beautiful fog and photograph them. But of course, that isn’t realistic. The kids have no desire to pose out in the damp chill first thing in the morning and I definitely wouldn’t want to try to explain to the office lady why they are late for school. So needless to say, we hadn’t been able to capture the foggy mornings…
until last week. My daughter had to miss school one morning for a doctor appointment across the bay, and that morning just happened to be full of fog. I wasn’t sure if the fog would last until I dropped the boys off at school, but I grabbed my camera just in case. Luck was on our side and there was just enough fog lingering, once my carpool duties were done, to drive up to the hills for a few shots before heading to the doctor. My vision for this image included a billowing white gown, trees, and mysterious fog. Well, I failed to share this plan with my daughter, so she was wearing comfy sweats and sneakers instead. I knew I wouldn’t have another opportunity for a fog session before this {elevate} post was due, so we forged ahead and shot anyway.
I’ve decided to share my before and after images for this post. There are so many steps involved in creating these Fine Art Photography images and I wanted to give you a little sense of how manipulation is often involved in some of the images. Some are more manipulated than others, but this one has some obvious changes.
This is the before, SOOC (straight out of the camera) image I decided to use.
You can see there was a pile of wood on the left side that I removed. I’ve got the trees that I wanted as well as the fog. What I’m missing is the dress. I decided to go with black instead of white since she is already wearing black. I decided to add a skirt instead a dress and found the perfect one when I Googled. I saved it, cut, and pasted it onto her and then played around with it to size it just right. I then had to add some grass to the bottom of the skirt to make it look more natural. Then I converted it to black and white and added a little more fog. I used Florabella’s whitewash texture set to luminosity, smoothed out the fog a bit more, played around with the selective color blacks and neutrals until I liked what I saw, and saved it. I came back to the image a few more times and tweaked a few things that I didn’t like. All in all I’m pretty happy with the final image. I do miss the white billowing gown, but I’ll save that for another foggy morning.
I hope you’ll make the rounds to the other girls participating this month. I can’t wait to see what they’ve come up with! Head on over to Renee Popat | Hyderabad Photographer, the newest member of our circle.
Just in case you ever doubt your creativity… I love this quote. It reminds me that no matter who we are, how old or young or short or tall, male or female, librarian or programmer, artist or salesperson, student or teacher, we all CREATE.
First off, I want to give a big huge thanks to all of my guest bloggers in January! I know how time consuming it is to pull a post together for someone else, let alone (in some cases) pull wall displays together in addition. So, thank you!
Second, I want to thank all of my readers who came by to have a peek, to get inspired, and who left love for each blogger. I know, from comments on the blog as well as emails to me, that this project has been a jumping off point for many people to get their photos printed out this year. That makes my heart sing.
Third, I was also inspired by all the wonderful ideas from the project. I shared a few of them on Tatertots and Jello yesterday, where I will be a monthly contributor this year! TT&J is a mecca of fabulous DIY, craft, home, and life ideas. If you haven’t ever been, stop over and roam around. I shared a sneak peek at one of my wall projects I’ve been working on. And I wanted to share the rest of them today. As is the case with many of you, my walls are still a work in progress. I have a few more ideas I didn’t get to this past month but have every intention of finishing soon.
I am definitely creating a memory book for 2011… eventually… but for now, I found this free template from Paislee Press and created a 12×12 print full of images from the year. I framed it in a 20×20 with a simple white matte from Aaron Brothers.
In the same room I framed several pictures of my kids and our family in black frames, some with mats, some without and included a star and a couple of signs.
In the same room above the fireplace I printed a 20×20 canvas through Black River Imaging of one of our Project12 photos from last year. I love it because it’s totally us, with no pretenses. (BTW, does anyone know what kind of paint to use to paint out the brass on my fireplaces???)
I loved the clipboard idea so I bought several, painted them with chalkboard paint, and hung them in the kitchen. I love the fact that you can change out the photos so often and easily.
Up the staircase I decided to do a wall gallery of black frames with white mats. I’m planning on adding to it little by little and including some of the kids’ artwork as well.
In the living room I have two ledges from my last house that I’ve propped a few larger mounted prints on. I love that I can change those out often as well. (Printed through MPixPro, except for the flag picture which is a metal printed through BRI)
And finally, in the same room I have cathedral ceilings and I knew whatever I hung had to be big! And indeed that is just what I did. I had four 30×40 canvases printed (Black River Imaging) of my kids and hung them right above my entry table. It’s the first thing people see when they walk in our home. I love them! I’ve posted them on the blog before and have had several people comment that they are bigger in person than they look in pictures.
I wish I could incorporate all of the ideas that were shared into my home, but I don’t have that many walls! I’m still hoping to create some sort of ancestor wall like Sara Tegman shared, a beautiful photo box like Gretchen Davis has, a beautiful bulletin board for snaps like Rachel Chaney’s, and an inspiration board like so many of you all have. And that should cover all my remaining walls at the moment.
This has been such a fun project! I’m considering doing something similar in the future so get those walls ready!
Congratulations and everyone who entered the giveaway will be emailed a promo code for your next print order from MPix!
Happy Wednesday!
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