365

I so enjoyed my 30 Day Photo Challenge, I came back for more!  Only this time I'm one-upping myself a bit.  In 2013 I will be attempting a 365 Photo Journey.  Go big or go home, right?

I listened to "Just Showed Up for My Own Life" by Sara Groves this afternoon and felt like it really captures my intent with my photos...and this blog.  An opportunity to "open the windows and feel all that's honest and real until I'm truly amazed."  Writing it down, capturing it in a picture...it all helps me to remember and to be fully awake, alert to the wonders of God all around me.

There are so many ways to hide
There are so many ways not to feel

There are so many ways to deny what is real

And I just showed up for my own life

And I'm standing here taking it in and it sure looks bright

I'm going to live my life inspired

Look for the holy in the common place
Open the windows and feel all that's honest and real until I'm truly amazed
I'm going to feel all my emotions
I'm going to look you in the eyes
I'm going to listen and hear until it's finally clear and it changes our lives

There are so many ways to hide

There are so many ways not to feel
There are so many ways to deny what is real

And I just showed up for my own life

And I'm standing here taking it in and it sure looks bright

Oh the glory of God is man fully alive

Oh the glory of God is man fully alive

If there is one human being I know that is truly, fully alive, the baby Monkey takes the cake!

In a tutu.  Eating a popsicle.  In the laundry basket.  Just how we roll.

Aye, matey!

 Day 8:  Someone You Love

 When there are so many, how do you choose just one?  You don't.  Not really.  They kind of choose you sometimes.

 Today this buccaneer asked me on a date.

And I said yes, of course.  Because, as has been stated in the past, he chooses Dad 90% of the time.  But today...he chose me.  And he made me feel loved.

So he gets his picture posted.

If you can't tell, we went shopping for his Halloween costume.

Clouds

Day 7:  Clouds

"The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of His hands."

Psalm 19:1

Embracing the Camera

No, I have not petered out on my 31 day photo challenge.  I have been very busy shooting pictures.  I had a Mini-session marathon last Saturday and have been busy editing.  Loving it!

I am going to break the rules here a bit.  Technically my next installment should be "clouds".  Instead I am going to REALLY challenge myself.  I read an article recently called "Mom Stays in the Picture" by Allison Tate that challenges moms to get in front of the camera more.  I have been pondering this for awhile.  I have sometimes wondered if part of what drew me to photography is my desire to NOT be in front of the camera.

My husband can tell you that I am by far my worst critic.  I mean I can be just down right MEAN to myself when I want to be.  I have never been comfortable in my own body.  Definitely not comfortable seeing pictures of myself in my own body.  But I have found motherhood to soften some of my self-severity a bit.  Partially because the love of another human being causes you to take your eyes off your self a bit.  (Thank you, Jesus.)  Mostly because I just simply don't have the extra energy to expend in thinking about it.  (Thank you, Jesus!)  So...I just avoid it.  If I don't have to see it, I don't have to think about it.  This has been healing for me.  The next step in not thinking less of myself, but thinking of myself less (think about it, you'll get it) is to put myself out there again.  To see the creature that was fearfully and wonderfully made.  A daughter the the King.  And, according to Tate, for my kids sake.  I want them to have record of their Mom WITH them as I record our life.  Hugging them, laughing with them, being with them.  They won't remember what size my jeans were or what color or style (or lack of) my hair was sporting.  They will remember that I was there.  And that I love them.  And that I'm not ashamed.

So here goes..my healing!

 Riv's one request for this shot..."Don't take a bite!"

TBird loves it when we both wear our brown boots.

How do you remember your mother?  

Verde

Day 5/31:  Something Green

It is no secret that I am a HUGE fan of the farmer's market.  It is without a doubt one of my favorite aspects of living in Minnesota.  I love the camaraderie between farmer and consumer, food-laborer and food-eater.  It is a place where they love my screaming kids and my squirmy dog.  I hear stories about their screaming kids and squirmy dogs.  It just feels right to prepare a meal that came directly from the hands of my farmer friends.  

Today I got a lesson in raising chickens.  All the info I need to know, right there on a picnic bench at the farmers market.  And yes, you can be looking for chicken posts sometime in following months.  Woo-hoo!

When I saw that today's theme was "Something Green", without hesitation I grabbed my camera and hauled it to the Richfield Farmers Market.  

It is sad to see the dwindling green of summer nearing the end of its season.  Green represents life, growth, vibrance.  Soon the snow will come and all green will go to sleep.  But the miracle of green will come again in spring.  And my farmers will be there to usher in the green.

Back-Bending Beauty

Day 4/31:  From High Angle

I took my camera downtown to meet Lee for lunch with the kids in the hopes that I could find some fun photo-ops for yesterday's assignment, from "way up high".  There is a lot of "way up high" downtown.  High rises, escalators, sky ways, hanging shiny art sculptures. I even stopped at an overpass foot bridge and snagged a shot of the downtown skyline, something I say I will do every time I drive under that overpass.  It's one of my favorite views of the city.  Gives a sense smallness in contrast to the vastness of the city.  Sometimes I wonder if feeling small is an intrinsic part of feeling human.  Rabbit trail.

When I got home from my photo escapade, Monkey #1 was in the front yard practicing her cartwheels and back bends.  She has been a gymnastics fiend ever since the summer olympics.  I snapped a few shots of her from our front stoop with my macro zoom lens.

As I was perusing and editing my days work, the images I kept coming back to were the last few I had taken in our front yard.  The downtown images were definitely "high angle".  One of Lee's view from his office (a forever view of everything south of the river).  Impressive, but stale.  A couple art works.  Interesting, but one dimensional.  The cityscape.  Just didn't quite capture the impressiveness I feel in person.  This could all have every bit to do with my growth potential as a photographer.  I definitely want to keep working on the cityscape shot.

However, I find that I keep coming back to people.  Those are the shots that seem to have life, to breathe in their stillness.  They are what draw me in, the story they tell.  I have met plenty a photographer who can make a landscape or inanimate object breathe life.  Ultimately I think it is how we distinguish our gifting.  The stories we tell.

I took a few photography courses several years back. I came in to the classes with the assumption that everyone wanted to take portraits, was good at portraits.  Stupid assumption.  When we displayed our final editorial projects, it was beautiful to see the individuality of each artist, how they told their story.  Landscapes, nature, people, abstract, realist.  I love that about art.  We each get to tell our story, from our perspective.

So today's story...my back bending beauty!  (I like alliteration, too)  When I say she has been a fiend, I mean constant, persistent work to perfect a cart wheel, a back bend.  She does it for her entire recess at school.  She does it as soon as she gets home.  She does it "one more time, please" right before bed.  I love seeing that kind of commitment from my first born.  And here she is, in all of her persistent glory...

What are your favorite stories to tell?  Would love to hear!

Super-babies!

The hubs suggests I remind everyone of the reason behind my sudden, constant presence in the blogosphere.

This would be Day 3 of my 31 Day Photo Challenge:  A Month of My Life in Pictures.  Everyone with me?

Day 3:  From a Low Angle

Technically today's assignment was supposed to be "Clouds".  But it was a pretty gray, overcast, nasty cloud kind of day.  So I chose to shake things up a bit and do "From a Low Angle" instead.  Because I am a recovering chronic rule-keeper it's a good exercise to break the "rules" in harmless ways every now and again. 

I couldn't choose just one.  That's kind of like choosing my favorite kid.  One of their favorite things to do is a good ol' classic Superman.  Who doesn't love a Superman?  Or as the baby Monkey says, "Supermam".  Don't ask me where the male Monkey got the whole Christopher Reeves Superman pose-thing.  Must be genetic.

These were taken one afternoon in the front yard waiting for the oldest Monkey to get home from school. Just couldn't get over that sky and those clouds.  So grateful to have this captured for years to come.  One of those seemingly insignificant moments of childhood that will consistantly bring me to tears when I am old and gray.