Goofing Around

Last night was the final class in my "beginner photography" class. (There is a second series of classes but sadly it is full this session so looks like I will have to wait for the next go around).  As I have mentioned I have really enjoyed the class but I particularly have enjoyed feeling the need to use my camera more and more. When my babies were babies, I felt that I always had the camera out and in their faces. As they have gotten a little bit older and quicker, I haven't taken as many day to day photos of them but save picture taking for "special" outings or occasions.  

After all our learning last night, we sat down and talked about photography - not just how to take pictures. Many things were discussed and as much as I would love to say the discussion was linear and reached a conclusion. It wasn't. But with any open forum you take away a few interesting tidbits and mull them over. Here were a few of mine.   

One. My mom has remarked that she doesn't have a lot of pictures growing up of her as a child.  Bottom line, it was expensive and they couldn't afford it. Fast forward to now with cameras on phones and digital cameras of every price point, pictures taking is accessible for all. Pearson has remarked that our children are going to have 10,000 or more pictures of themselves when they get older. He always asks me "what are they going to do with all these pictures?" The teacher last night brought up an interesting "challenge." She said think about all the pictures of your kids that you have (and will have). Now you are given one shoe box and told to fill it. What would be the pictures you would chose to put in it? Looking at a particular picture can bring you back to a time and place. It can evoke an emotion, a smell, and a feeling. What pictures do I want in that shoebox and what are those emotions I want to be brought back to? 

Two, we were discussing the power of photography and how it can tell a story. This concept is not mind blowing to anyone, I know. However, we did discuss the concept around taking a whole series of photos and the need to edit them. It most cases you aren't able to use 100 pictures and can only use a handful to tell the story. Too often in this blog, I use too many pictures and probably need to be a little bit more selective in my picture choices. 

Three. Building on point number two. The story we tell can be the real story or what we want the real story to be or a part of the story. I tell the beautiful, fun,  funny, and happy stories, generally speaking in this blog. I tell of the happy moments and the moments that bring overwhelming joy to my life. I don't think that I am being false in this blog and in fact, I do think it is rather reflective of our lives. However, there are probably some not so beautiful and sticky moments that aren't being told. Although, I don't want to start focusing on the not so joyful stories I think that I would like to try to capture a few more real stories.  

PS - I know I would not be deemed anywhere near a decently amateur photographer but I am going to keep practicing and practicing so the story that I tell will hopefully be one that is authentic, beautiful, colorful, representational, joyful, natural, and ultimately one that my children and family will be proud to read [look at]. I hope that one day my children go through their shoe boxes and reflect on all the moments that made them uniquely them. 

These photos are from today. Whitaker was napping and I was encouraging Mae to jump on the bed so I could work on getting some action shots. She was bored with jumping so it turned into a hide from the camera/tickle/silly fest on our bed.