My family has a special journal we keep. It’s a beautiful little book hand crafted and stitched paper with a piece of leather that wraps around it to keep it shut. It’s our, “I’ve never seen anything like that before in all my life” journal. Linda and I are constantly amazed at the cool things we see when we’re paying attention. We often comment, “wow, I’m x number of years old and I’ve never seen anything like that. Boys! you are only x number of years old and you get to see it today!” It kept happening and we began to wonder if maybe we had seen some of this stuff but just didn’t remember. So we started to write about it. One thing I remember vividly hurrying to write down was when we saw a cardinal get hit by a car. (I know, it’s really terrible) But, it’s not something you see everyday. I think they must be smarter or faster than other birds. Or something. Anyway, it must have been hit by the car that was about 50 ft in front of us. Just before our eyes, there was this amazing explosion of red feathers. As I’m writing this, I know I’m not doing the moment justice. It was beautiful. It was really something to see. It was like a firework of red feathers. Truly, never was the death of something living quite so beautiful.

So this morning, I was feeling a little down. I’d recently lost a long term client to someone charging a ridiculously low sum. I was sad on many levels. When I work with a family from pregnancy through the birthdays every year… it is just plain a bummer knowing I won’t see them again. Anyway, on with the story! I looked out our front door and into our garden and was stopped in my tracks. There was the most beautiful complete orb spider web attached to our crabapple tree. The morning was heavy with dew and it was cool outside creating the breathtaking affect of steam coming off of everything that was alive. The tree appeared to be breathing. I don’t know if I’ve done the scene justice, but I’ve given it my best shot. Enjoy!

As I was reading through photo blogs this morning, I came across this one concerning fathers and sons.  If you’ve followed me for some time, you know I have a fondness for this subject as I had a solo exhibition in November of 2006 featuring fathers.  The images from Fraction magazine are wonderful.  They are intimate and beautiful and they tell a story.  Typically, in a portrait session, my clients want a beautiful portrait of their child.  I often struggle with myself because I also want to tell a story.  Here’s an image from a recent session that didn’t make the final cut for the client, but oh what a story it tells!

And because pictures that tell a story can also be beautiful.

Thursday was a big day for me.  I was to have my first meeting with my new photography mentor, Gloria Baker Feinstein.  I was nervous in about a million ways.  How should we start this relationship?  What should I ask?  What should I bring to show her?  Would there be long lulls in the conversation?  Would I act like a moron?  I admire her work so much I was partially afraid I’d just sit there panting at her feet and averting my eyes.

So, after getting my kids ready for school, my hair all piled up just right, make up on and- oh gosh, I’m embarrassed to say- at the last moment applying pink toe nail polish to match my shirt, I was ready to go. Every time I looked at those lovely pink toes poking out the end of my sandals, I thought, “you can do this.” and “you are such a moron for painting your toenails.”

I survived. In fact, I had an amazing day. I left with a lightness in my pink toe nailed step I hadn’t had in awhile and the knowledge I’d be back to meet with Gloria again in a few months. I had three ‘assignments’: 1. shoot more. go out once a week and shoot for myself. Walk around, work on my own projects. I have become so consumed with trying to make a living, I have lost touch with other things. This doesn’t mean I don’t absolutely love my job–I do! I love working with children, with families. 2. shoot less. Try to be more thoughtful in my photo sessions with clients. 3. read photo blogs. I came home with a folder full of links to great photo blogs and an intention to spend an hour a day reading different ones. I started yesterday. It was a wonderful way to start my day!

I hope to bring you the fruits of some of this thoughtfulness in the days and weeks to come. We’ll start here, at home. I had a shoot scheduled for this morning, but it had to be rescheduled. Instead we’ve had a totally lazy morning here at the VandePot (my new little nickname for our family) house. Isaac loves to snuggle in when reading stories so this is a regular moment here. He’s making a face to match that of Mrs. Biddlebox’s I left the image in color so you can see his toenails. They’re painted pink.

My only instructions were:  ”goofy.  we want it to be goofy.  definitely not the {big box store name here} family photo.”

ok. I can do that.

out came the instruments and a song and we were on our way. we (any Orr St. artist who was working last saturday) were treated to a fun concert along the way.

outside, it stopped raining long enough for a few fun ones. I love the red window and the bird poop on the wall.

we also made time to grab a few photos for Brodie’s senior pictures. here’s my favorite with a little flourish using one of my cool new photoshop design brushes.

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