Archive for the ‘My Own Twinkies’ Category
Girl with Parasol
July 14, 2010
Girl on Swing
July 6, 2010If you ever think to yourself, “You know, self, I’d really like all the other mothers at the playground to stare at me like I am a total lunatic” I have some tips.
1. Leave the DSLR at home. Everyone has one now, they all know what they are and they are sizing up your lens. Is that a 70-200 in your bag or are you just happy to see me?
2. Instead, bring out a toy camera. Make sure to load the film – what is this film thing you speak of? – at the picnic table. The medium format film will get an extra odd look as it doesn’t look like the film people remember. Then, pull out your roll of gaff tape and tape the sucker up.
3. Lie on the ground slightly in front of the swing set so you can shoot up. Try not to get kicked in the face – it’s best to be back a little bit.
My Kid Again
June 26, 2010Just my own girlie hanging out in a field in a tutu. This is another in my “kids via holga” series.
The Last Morning
May 12, 2010
Making the Most of Location Photography
May 10, 2010When I tell people I shoot on location they tend to freeze. What does that mean? Can I suggest some place? And, of course I can. Parks, fields of wildflowers (aka weeds), old barns all make wonderful, classical places to get a picture taken. But if you want something a little funkier, a little more interesting, well, that’s where location photography really shines.
This one was shot in the Farmington River. Little Miss wanted to wear the “mermaid dress” and get in the water. Dressing up AND getting wet – does life get more fun? I waded out, carrying the 3 million pound camera and the child and placed her on the rock and asked her to just hang out for a few minutes. I stood in the right place, on very painful rocks, and we got this.
This was shot in a diner. I tried to put his hair into a ducktail (hair style FAIL – I can’t style my own hair, why would I think I could style his?) and dressed him up in jeans, a white t-shirt and a faux leather jacket and took him to a 50’s style diner at an off time so it would be basically empty, bought him his first milkshake ever and started snapping.
If you are thinking “I want something like THAT” let me know. There is nothing wrong with parks, wildflowers or your back yard and you’ll get shots you’ll adore taken in your spare room but I am always happy to head out someplace odd to get that one special shot. Like where? How about a carnival? Or an amusement park (though, yes, you’ll have to pay my entrance fee). The candy store. Who IS your child? What does she beg to do, where does he shine? Is your child an avid baseball player? Maybe his Little League game is the best place for a portrait. Does she live to swim? Maybe the pond is where to go. Don’t be afraid to push the boundaries of what a “location” is – that’s the best way to get something that is emblematic of your family and your child!
Twins on Tuesday in the Creeping Charley
May 4, 2010This is, I confess, the holy grail of the mother of twins photographer: both children are in the same picture, looking at the camera and appearing reasonably happy.
Brian once asked the garden center how we could get rid of the creeping charley; they said, “move.” Meanwhile, Fiona adores it as she is allowed to pick as much of it as she wants and last weekend requested that her father not mow it down.
Just My Little Dude
April 28, 2010This child is almost four. This is hard to believe. My last picture of him at this spot he was reaching for the wind chime and couldn’t actually reach it. Now, older and taller, he is closer to the chime and a little further away from being my baby.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Photographer’s Child
April 27, 2010
A Day in the Life
April 23, 2010People ask me all the time how I balance the whole “twin mother/business owner” thing. Darned if I know, is my basic reply. Routines help. So does preschool. I decided to record everything I did one day and thus, a day in my life:
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5:30 ish – James crawls into bed for morning cuddles.
6:00 – Alarm goes off. Brian turns it off.
6:45 – I suggest to Brian he get up.
7:00 – I get up. Fiona objects as she hasn’t had cuddles yet so back into bed with her for 5 minutes. James dresses himself. I help Fiona pick out a dress.
Morning routing commences. Make bed, get dressed, brush teeth, do hair, wipe surfaces in bathroom, gather laundry, take laundry to basement, sort, start one load. Empty dish drainer and dishwasher. Medicate cat.
7:30 – kid breakfast, I check messages
7:45 – Brush hair, dress Fiona, get into car
8:10 – preschool drop off
8:30 – go to grocery store to get crab for Her Highness Princess Fiona who loves shellfish and has requested a crab and shrimp dinner.
8:45 – my breakfast.
9:00 – marketing via social networking. Need to write a new blog post about birth photography but no time right now.
9:30 – gather stuff for photo shoot. 1 Holga. 1 EOS3 with 100/2.8 lens plus extra roll of film and 1 5D with a 85/1.8 lens and clear data card. I’d like the 1.2 lens but it is, alas, out of my budget.
9:40 – leave house and go to shoot site
9:50 – Subject’s mother calls – poor kid is taking her driver’s test and despite being scheduled at 8AM has still not had her turn thanks to DVM backlogs. Return home.
10:00 – Turn on timer and spend 15 minutes cleaning/decluttering living room and dining room.
10:15 – Have a cup of tea and fill out and email my exhibitor feedback form from the La Leche League conference
10:30 – Take clean laundry upstairs and dump it on the bed. Laundry generally gets folded and put away during bath time.
Email a potential client about availability. I have using only email to contact clients – it’s far less personal than the phone and as a wise man I know once said to me “It’s about the personal touch” but people with small children often prefer email because it’s easier for them.
11:00 – leave for pick up. I don’t usually have to leave until 11:25 but I need to stop at the post office and mail a package to a friend and I want to stop and get a frozen coffee slushie too.
11:45 – preschool pickup
12:30 – leave the playground after about 5 mini-meltdowns from James (or one long one with some brief hiatuses). I didn’t push him high enough on the swings, he wasn’t ready to leave, he got to the gate before me, he didn’t want to change his wet pants. Food upped his blood sugar and calmed him down.
Lunch in the car. Not the healthiest or sanest way to eat but sometimes practical.
Target run. 2 more mini-meltdowns from James in the parking lot. He was strapped into the cart. One vacuum, cat supplies and sidewalk chalk later we check out.
1:30 – One episode of Bernstein Bears before nap.
1:45 – Nap. James and Fiona both need changing, both have had accidents, both are put into pull ups for nap. Fiona asks if she can pee in her pull up. I tell her yes, but I would prefer it if she uses the potty. She tells me she would prefer to use her pull up but then, unprompted, uses the toilet anyway. I read the current edition of High Five to each to each of them.
2:10 – My lunch.
Eat. Eat more. Put together my bridal bulk email from the past 3 weeks or so and schedule it. Chat on IRC to photography friends. Cackle like hens.
2:45 – Fiona is up. Go out in yard and take pictures of her and all the flowers currently in our garden. I bribe her to cooperate.
3:30 – James is up. He agrees to have a picture taken so I have a matched set of one of each child. We play in front and back yard, and briefly with neighbor children, until Brian comes home. Well, mostly they play and I sit and make sure they don’t run into the street.
5:30 – Brian comes home. I make dinner and sit.
6:10 – dinner
6:35 – I leave to go get my hair colored, leaving Brian with a dirty kitchen, half cleared table and pile of clean laundry on the bed.
7:00 – The power at my friend’s is out. Getting my hair colored may be problematic if she can’t see it. Sit down and sigh. Try to muster energy to return to the car and drive home.
7:10 – The power is back! She colors my hair. It is darkish brown now, on it’s journey from red/blond to dark dark dark brown.
9:10 – I get home to find sleeping children, laundry folded, dishes done and Brian on the verge of medicating the cat and mopping the kitchen floor. I kiss the sleeping children and start moving old files off my laptop so I have room tomorrow to proof the newborn images that are next in the queue.
9:30 – get the photos from today off the camera.
10:00 – go to bed.