the edges

So recently I began meeting with Nate from The Image is Found for mentoring sessions every month or so. It’s an awesome experience and I’m learning SO much. This time he challenged me to start shooting wide angle. It’s a bit ridiculous that I haven’t done this yet and wasn’t even thinking about starting. What’s even sillier is how much panic and uncertainty I felt at the thought of shooting wide and closing down my aperture. Where I live is amazing and frustrating and our home and so not me – all at the same time… Let the edges and corners show? Clear out the pretty blur? How could I still show the loveliness I try to focus on in my life amidst all the crazy mess and circumstances beyond my control? This is my first attempt, just shooting in our backyard where I often do while the kids eat, inspect our garden and collect caterpillars. At first when I looked at these images in Lightroom I didn’t know what to do with them, they all seemed so stark and awkward but then I dived into editing with vsco, the process took over and I connected with our story in deeper ways. Here are just a few bits of all that happens in a few short minutes, eating breakfast . . .

Noticed that I was still taking his picture and decided he preferred not to have any paparazzi around while dining

And then he laughed at his clever joke

I’ve been making banana and zucchini bread every day and they don’t seem to mind

David often ponders the deep things of life – I love this about him

I asked him why he looked so sad. He said “Mom I’m not sad, this is just my sad happy face”

He’s not supposed to be on chairs cause he falls off them like it’s cool, but he wants to do everything the big boys do

Yeah that’s an owl guarding our tomato plants

He brought home a seed from school and grew this bean plant

zucchini

My Mom made him these snakeskin pattern pj pants and even she agrees they are hideous but he thinks they are fantastic

On the other side of that fence is a road, on the other side of the road is a wall, on the other side of the wall is a very loud train that the baby man is obsessed with. As soon as he hears it he jumps up and starts furiously signing and screaming “train” When we are out in town he gets to see it roar by and then he REALLY freaks out. Can’t wait to take him on it for his Bday!

Aaron is teaching his brother the fine art of bug collecting

Patience, good eyes and a ziploc bag are apparently all you need to be a good bug catcher. They spend countless hours in pursuit of rolly pollies, caterpillars and such. Once caught they feed caterpillars the leaves of whatever plant they found them on, watch them make their cocoons and emerge as butterflies or moths and fly away

A freshly found caterpillar

What can I say, I can’t get enough of his hair

Oatmeal with lots of brown sugar coaxed a happy happy face out of him

When Aaron decides he is done with the paparazzi he means it

And he normally convinces my cameral loving David to agree with him at least halfheartedly

Anyone notice a striking resemblance between my son and that scary looking creature on his shirt? Thanks again Mom for the lovely pj’s that he wears EVERY night

We had a quick draw contest to see if I could get one more shot without his hands over his face

He won. I lost. But that’s ok.

I’m getting a cheaper, lighter weight wide angle lens and I’m really excited to start shooting some of our crazy adventures away from the house with it. Also my eyes have started looking in a whole new way this week. I am so enamored with SoCal, it’s beauty and all it’s crazy subcultures. I really want to start taking some me time to go shoot some of it, so hopefully that will start showing up here too . . .

7-22-12 . 24-70mm at 24 . f7-11 . automatic focus . cloudy morning . LR + VSCO