Be Silly. Be Honest. Be Kind.
Be silly. Be honest. Be kind. -Ralph Waldo Emmerson
This kid turned 8 recently. I know every parent EVER has thought this but HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
A Seven Year Old's Desk
"The child has a different relation to his environment from ours...the child absorbs it. The things he sees are not just remembered, they form part of his soul. He incarnates in himself all in the world about him that his eyes see and his ears hear." Maria Montessori
Many times I often think that God chuckles when he sees our little family and how he knew it would be pretty funny sometimes.
This kid... the extreme extrovert who NEEDS ALL THE PEOPLE, who collect ALL THE THINGS, and keeps EVERY SINGLE MEMORY in his head. He's the opposite from me in a lot of ways, which is the funny part. He got a mom who needs to be NOT near all the people a lot, who has a habit of "accidentally" throwing stuff away, and has to take photos to remember things. We have a ton in common too though, like how he sees beauty in so much of the world, what The Hubs calls a "purist." I've been called that a time or two also.
When I see his desk sometimes it makes me cringe, as I'm not a clutter person. But then I look at all the things he's got up there and each one is important to him in their own way, and it makes me love him even more. I didn't know that was possible.
Getting in the Frame
"But the truth of the matter is, we want — and need — to be in pictures with our kids because these are images our children will look back at in the future, and we want them to remember that Mom was there with them." -Rebecca Gruber
There's a reason I'm the one behind the camera... I feel SUPER weird in front of it.
But I don't want my kids and their kids to be looking back at our family's images in years to come and wonder where I was. I want them to remember me... and the "me" they remember isn't always dressed up, with makeup on and hair done. Most days it's shorts and a t-shirt with hair up on top of my head because its too hot to do anything else in the summer where we live. But that's their mom.... those are the memories of me they'll have. So they need to be captured to have an image to go along with them as they grow older.
My friend Lisa, an amazing mom and photographer, has a project called "I Was There Too." She's so inspiring with her images where she's in the frame... I need to follow Lisa's lead and get in the frame more too!
Stillness Among the Chaos
"Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart." -unknown
So let's be honest about something. Being a stay at home mom isn't always cheery and beautiful and everybody loves well and gets along. Especially when mom has a tendency to be sensitive to noises and needs lots of quiet alone time to feel like a normal human being.
There's always a list of stuff to get done. It's never-ending. But sometimes, when they've left the room for a break or to play or do something besides be right there next to me (you know what I'm talking about mamas), I decide to just sit in the silence and forget the task list.
I've learned over the years that this is what MY SOUL needs. Forgetting the "should be doing" and do the "need to be doing."
This image was from one of those moments... after a long morning of school and play and a thousand million questions (again, you know what I'm talking about mamas), they left the room and I realized it was SILENT.
GLORIOUS.
Changing the Oil
"If you only knew how much these little moments with you mattered to me." -unknown
I'm starting a new series, more of a type of visual journal, called "Why I love this image."
Sometimes they may not be "technically" perfect images, but I still love them. I feel like with your own photography, you kind of learn the rules so that you can become better, but sometimes you either don't remember all the rules, OR you intentionally break them to get the art you're trying to create.
When I was making this image, I was thinking a few things. 1. I wanted to expose correctly so that the bright white concrete in the background didn't overpower what was going on in the image, 2. I really wanted the focal point to be on the oil spilling out, and 3. simply trying to tell the story in the frame.
Originally when I edited it I shared it with my Sham of the Perfect friends, just to see if they could even tell what was going on in the image. After some encouragement that you could see what was happening, I decided to submit it for my weekly contribution to the project.
As I was making this image, I wasn't thinking about where I could submit it. All I was thinking about was that my husband was teaching my boys how to change the oil in his big ole diesel engine. It was more about preserving that memory... not about it being a share worthy image.
As photographers who are also moms, it's hard sometimes to sift through "quality images" and those that are just beautiful to us. With my personal images, I tend to lean more toward allowing for technical mistakes as long as I've captured a snippet of the scene so I can look back on it in years to come and be transported back to that specific day.
I know when The Hubs and I look at this series of oil changing images in years to come, we'll remember the day, the smells, the rain pouring down outside, and the way the boys walked around a little more puffed up and manly after helping their dad change the oil.