Iv been tagged by the lovely Emma over at mummymummymum to discover whats on your piod by selecting shuffle and seeing what shows up. I have to say i am a bit nervous about this as a LOT of stuff on my ipod (i use my iphone mostly for music now) is kids stories and music..so here's hoping some cool looking stuff shuffles up and not Thomas the tank engine stories and Charlie and Lola...
here goes...
shuffling:
first up:
Take that: Beautiful World
Stevie Wonder: Isnt she lovely
David Grey: Say hello Wave Goodbye
Gabrielle and Troy: Start of something new (coughcoughcough)
Billy Joel: We didnt start the Fire
Only slightly mortified that a High School Musical song popped up. The Stevie Wonder song we played over a film we put together for my daughters dedication and she calls it 'her song' now.
the gallery this week is about photography resolutions....as in new year resolutions. I stopped doing new year resolutions because i couldn't stand the pressure but i think im going to roll with a few photography based ones...i could come up with a few...
I want to:
Understand LIGHT - i mean more than i do, natural light, artificial light, Flash wizardry that so may of the top pro's use. LIGHT - its what it is all about right? and very excited to be hopefully going on a training day just about this...
More MANUAL baby - I shoot in manual all the time pretty much. I can't think of a time when i don't anymore but there is more to know, i know it. I know so little of what my camera can do.
Get some tuition on how to create these sort of images:
obviously NONE of these images are mine. Im just sharing them to show the sort of thing i would like to learn. i have had a go with the newborns i have photographed but it would be very good to watch a pro work.
This sort of baby posing is really popular in North America and until recently i was at a bit of a loss to find a UK based speciality baby posing photograher but then a friend tweeted they were going for a training day with this photographer and when i went to her website i got myself very excited about the prospect of spending a day with her, which hopefully i will get to do in the summer. eeeeep...
and on a less professional and more personal note...document my story...our story... more.
Just this last week a professional photographer i have had the pleasure of spending a day with just before baby james 5 was born posted this remarkable photograph of the moment when his daughter was born...
i love this image so much. I love how it is such a faithful representation of that moment when life begins. Natural, messy, raw. I find it really moving and i have seen this moment in real life many many times over ( and no im not talking about my own babies..was otherwise occupied for those moments!)
But funnily enough what i drew from this photograph personally was something that Brett said in a FB conversation that started after he posted it. Some people commented that they felt it was too gory and Brett responded by saying that as a photographer and father he could see past it but also as a documenter of time he could as well. It was those words 'documenter of time' that i really latched on to.
Of course this image shows a fairly HOOGE moment in time for anyone and so it has incredible impact but it made me think about documenting the moments, significant and insignificant in my timeline, my story. With a fancy camera or an iphone. Not important. I want to watermark those moments and leave a timeline in the sand.
1. My 3 year old daughter has caught on to the older kids saying things like 'you are the best baby/mummy/daddy in the world' but when she repeats it she missed out the word best and so this afternoon said to her baby sister. "You are the BABY in the whole world'
2. My youngest has a fascination with our house phone handset. Which for those of you who have ever tried to call us on our land line know how difficult it is to get hold of anyone. Even harder now when you have to try and imagine where a 16 month old may have chosen to stash it.
3.Lots of people on FB and twitter are commenting on the current series of One Born Every Minute. I just can't bring myself to watch it. I saw one episode that was filmed in the hospital where i work and was pretty alarmed at some of the antics of ladies in labour....that and maybe its just a bit too busmans holiday...
4. I was chatting to my son about the how to remember what months have 31 days in them and what days have 30 etc and we were chatting about February and the fact that it has 29 days this year instead of 28. He says 'yeah so there are 366 days this year instead of 365' and then i suddenly worked out why people doing the photo every day challenge this year are all tweeting #366 *duh*
5. Just wondering why a shop that charges a small fortune for its kid's shoes can't give its staff a few lessons in customer service. yes that would be Clarks. The Shoe Mafia... *blowsraspberry*
6. I met a lovely doctor's surgery receptionist yesterday. Yes i know those words don't usually exist in the same sentence but i rolled up for a health visitor appointment yesterday having dragged myself out of bed (night worked on monday) and arrived a bit bleary eyed and asked to be checked in. The receptionish said 'oh we seem to have this appointment booked in for next tueday?" I stare at her...blankly. She has a look of panic and then says 'ill see if she can see you' and rushes off. She couldn't but after i whined at her 'butihavejustworkedanightandhavehadnosleepandimgoingtostartcryinganyminute" she booked me a Dr's appointment. I walked out feeling completely justified that i had made a small scene and then i looked in my dairy and saw that i had my weekly insert thing on the wrong week. which was in fact next week....*oops* i think i might take her flowers :)
7. Some music...of course..
we listened to this album the other day and she has an AMAZING voice but OH MY GOODNESS..this is one bitter chick. Some guy must have clearly done a number on her as this whole album is about having a broken heart. Poor love. Well on the up side, whoever did it made her pretty wealthy :)
8. Speaking of music, my son has got a ipod docking station in his room and has taken to nicking my little ipod to listen to some tunes. Hoping he doesn't come across the PINK album i have on there. Thats one slightly twisted, sharp tongued musician he doesn't really need introducing to at the age of 9 methinks.
9. We need a bigger house PURELY for all the excess coats, hats, scarves, gloves etc that go with winter season. Clearly another very good reason why we need to move somewhere HOT. That and my children could walk about barefoot. See barefoot = no monster shoe mountain threatening your safe exit from the house
10. I mentioned on twitter how i could seriously do without the school run in my life. I got folk we know who live in America/Canada sending me messages saying 'we miss the socialising and the excerise' of walking to school and nattering at the gate. Yeah nice try...i still think the yellow bus system woudld be like gold in my life right now.
Its that time of the week again and this week its our 4th baby's birthday. She is 3 today. So in honour of her birthday..see if you can come up with a caption for what she might be thinking here...
As always you can go to the fabulous mammasaurus blog to see more.
The theme for the gallery this week was 'eyes' and again i was a bit stumped at what photo to choose as this is so much of what i photograph. I love eyes..(not the whole squishy membrane thing....*gag*) but the depth to them, the emotions that flow from them sometimes despite of what the rest of the face is trying to portray. In children it is perhaps my favourite thing to capture.
So i have hundreds of photographs of my own kids wide eyed and other people's who i have photographed. So i was somewhat stuck until i thought of this image..
this is not actually one of my photographs, it was taken by our friend and photographer Richard Joyce. It is my first daughter when she was probably just over two. Richard was doing a photography degree and was doing some family shoots to raise a bit of money and this is my favourite.
What i love about this image and what probably started my fascination with capturing emotion is even though you can see little else of her, her hand is concealing her mouth and there are no clues as it is such a close crop to her face. Her eyes tell you her story, you can see her cautious curiousness of what the photograher is doing. A little playfulness lingering, twinkling. The sweet honesty and wonderment of little toddler characters. I remember she was happy as long as we were all in the front of the camera with her but this was taken when Rich had caught her on her own.
It is still one my favourite pictures.
It also gave me that valuable insight that, as a photographer, you need to be able to see past the 'everybody look at the camera and smile' snapshot and try and help your clients too as well :).
As her mother i can look at this image and tell you that there is a more true and honest capture of who my child was then when she was so little and still is in many ways now she is 7 than there would ever be in a 'cheeese' shot. It has depth. You can capture a complete story in someone's eyes without ever needing to say a word.
that this little girl is a healthy and happy (okay not all the time) but she can run, climb, fall, follow, copy, dance, shake, cry, scream, pout, giggle, grin, hit, reach, tickle, strop, play, skip, feel, shout, whisper, sleep, read, kneel, be tender, be hard, fight her corner, love on her siblings, smile and frown.....
she can do all that and she is nearly three....
Today im thankful that she has life and mindful of just how fortunate we are...
1. I noticed the other day that my daughter, who had got a lovely two pack of PJ's for christmas, wasn't wearing the second pair. When i asked her why she was schlepping around in old, ill fitting PJ's when she had sparkly new ones in her drawer. She said to me a bit sheepishly...'well...um...it takes a long time to get them back'
me: puzzled "from where?"
Her: 'when you wash them it takes such a long time before they are back in my drawer again that i thought i wouldn't wear them so you won't wash them'
Yeah..so the washing turn around isnt always the fastest in this house but seriously......
2. So i mentioned last week that my youngest school goer has switched to school lunches...did i also mention that i suspected that the other two would eventually start to develop an interest...? huh? Can i get some sort of award for how well i know my kids. Less than a week before we 'can i be a hot dinner?' from the other two. pffftt.
3. I worked normal office (ish) hours today. Thanks to a study day at work and it made me realise why i work nights. Good grief...rush hour traffic, I am clearly not suited to it. That and having to navigate two drop offs, splitting the kids - no-one has a big enough car to take all of them plus their own!
4. Music? Yeah...go on: my son loves this song at the moment and watches the end of the movie over and over to listen to it. Really does anyone here say 'bobbies' anymore?...anyone?
5. Talking of Pixar..we have a developed a game at our dinner table called the Pixar Quiz (imaginative huh?) but each of the kids takes turns to answer Pixar movie questions. Even our soon to be 3 year old can answer the basics 'what colour is Holly Shiftwell?' 'Who is Woody's best friend'...
Yep.. who needs reading and maths when you can know the important stuff like this......Mwahahahahaha
6. Whats that you are looking at sweet girl?
cute isnt she? yeah but the thing is i walked into the bedroom and found her standing on that ledge and banging on the window. ;-O
7. My OH is a member of a forum for Gaggia coffee machines....yes..i know...
anyway....our inbox is clogged up with updates from threads of people worrying about things going wrong with their special coffee makers. *knocks head on desk*
8. I watched Call the Midwife on BBC1 early this week. I have actually read the book, i found it at work once and picked it up absent mindedly and read it through really quick. Such a fascinating look at health care in the 50's. Just as the NHS was being born. I really enjoyed the BBC version. I think its on sundays but its always on the iplayer.
9. Today, for tea, we have been reduced to tomato soup and toast...there is nothing left to eat and i can't be bothered to shop...that isnt the truth but thats what my kids probably think.
My son was suitably put out that he had to use the 'baby toothpaste' AGAIN!...because i haven't yet got to a shop to buy some more. #badmother (you know with the hash tag it means its not really true right!)
10. This was one of the games that went down ever-so well at my daughter's birthday party.....all you need is a mattress and a slippy floor. Simples...
Just check out my baby girl at the side..yes she did that ALL the time, we largely ignored it or laughed at it...AHEM! i think the sports coaches were worried sick...heh heh..chaos!
Im a worker-bee. Wife, mama to 5 kids, yes they are all mine,yes i know how it happened & we do have a TV! ;) Part time NICU nurse, I do love my job but don't always like the NHS a whole lot. I am a photographer and observer of life. Some days I feel like I know what im doing and others I wonder who left me in charge of all these kids! I believe that cake should be its own food group. Id like to be on large aeroplane flying somewhere hot or cold just not grey.
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