Sep
10
2013I totally thought about writing this post myself, but I’m pretty sure I can’t top the following post written by Annie at Paint the Moon. So hop on over there to read this post and then come back here for your photo assignment.
Read Find the Light and Sparkly Eyes
Portrait Lighting Assignment
Go on out there and shoot some portraits. 5-9 should be a good number. I know this is a tough assignment for those of you who don’t have a passel of children to shoot like I do. Don’t be afraid to call a friend and say you’d like to shoot their portraits. Or even to approach a stranger with your mission: get the strangers email and send them a couple images as payment. 🙂
I want you to capture at least one portrait with sparkly catch lights in your subjects eyes. The rest are up to you. When you upload your images to the Flickr Pool, please tell us about the light quality in your photo. Was is back lit during the golden hour? Open shade side lit? Tell me why you chose or what you like about the lighting in your image.
Sep
09
2013
I’m curious, how did this little experiment in gratitude go for you? Were you changed? Did hunting for a picture of good things help you change attitude gears from sour to thankful? Please let me know in the comments.
For me, it’s been a crazy 14 days with 10 of them spent out of state. Starting from the big cornfield image and moving counterclockwise, here are six things I documented (and remembered to use a hashtag for… ha!).
- The beautiful cornfields at my friend’s house outside of St. Louis where we stayed for 6 days. I may have left my heart in this land where you feel like you’re in the country with a Target less than 10 minutes away.
- My twins eating donuts for breakfast with Julia’s twins. (and playing together so well all week!)
- My photographs from two years ago all beautiful on Julia’s wall. As well as late night chatter with a friend who gets me 🙂
- Pedicures for my wee ones. Even Sedryn didn’t want to be left out. He points to his toes and says “Blue!” all the time.
- Taking 6 kids under 10 to the pool to serve a friend. The biggest surprise, when I took them all to my house, they all disappeared and played together so well I was able to mop my filthy floor!
- A cormorant at the St. Louis zoo. This is quite possibly Aeralind’s favorite bird ever and it was less than 3 feet away from her inside an aviary. She almost could have touched it.
This visual joy hunt for 14 days… it’s been exciting. It’s turned crazy road weary whiny mama (in response to the children’s same attidue) into a slightly nicer repentant mama. And let me tell you, there’s not much other than grace that can change my heart of stone.
Sep
07
2013Dear Child,
You are loved.
- Beyond what you can imagine
- No matter what
- Just because you exist.
- You don’t have to be perfect because Someone was already perfect for you.
You matter.
- You are created for a purpose
- You are unique
- You are treasured by a God willing to die in your place.
You cries are heard.
- On lonely nights.
- When you are hurt.
- When it feels like no one cares.
- All those tears are caught in a bottle.
- All that pain grows you into a beautiful person.
You were made to dream and live out big God-sized dreams.
Don’t let anyone discourage you.
I believe in you.
Love,
Melissa
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I’m writing every week this month for children in poverty. They’re just lik my children and they’re just like me. The difference is they may not have 3 meals a day and the may not have anyone to tell them what I just wrote.
Do you have 10 minutes and $38 a month to feed a child with both food and encouragement? If so, please consider sponsoring a child through Compassion International. I can’t describe how much our compassion child is changing us.
Sep
06
2013“Comparison is the thief of joy.” Theodore Roosevelt
I’m visiting a ton with a dear friend this week. I’m so thankful to be here. But there’s always that temptation to peer into her life and wish it were mine.
Comparison can thieve joy. And this week, I’m not going to let it rob me. I’m going to revel in our moments and just enjoy the grace of sharing them.
When You Stop Comparing and Start Living your One Beautiful Life
What if we all linked hands and elbows, and sat on the curb of life, and brushed away each other’s tears, and squeezed each other’s hands, and cheered wildly when it went well, and cried a hot mess when it all fell apart, when there was “trouble in paradise.” What if we did that?
What if we sat at the curb, and we curbed our comparing?
Sep
05
2013When Sarah and I talked during her pre-session consult, she mentioned that the story she wanted her Greenville SC Newborn Photography session to tell was thankfulness to God because babies are a gift.
But everything seemed to stand in our way of even getting to this session. We mis-communicated once and had to reschedule, next, there was an attack of the stomach bug for her little girl, and, finally, my babysitter backed out on me last minute and I scrambled to find a replacement. I found one last minute and we finally were able to meet. In case you were wondering, this sort of thing doesn’t normally happen.
But by this time, Shawn was 19 days old. Newborns are best photographed between 5-14 days: at this age the baby still has “womb memory” and retains their ability to curl up tightly without discomfort. After the growth spurt around 3-4 days, they’re also extremely sleepy which makes my job much easier.
19 days is officially the oldest newborn I have ever photographed, but, oh, how hard we worked for some of these images. And Shawn definitely had opinions about how he wanted to be posed. I’ll write about the differences between an under 14 days newborn and a 19 day newborn for an upcoming post. I’m willing to do both, but know that your imagery will be different.
But for now I want you to hear that Sarah’s vision of thankfulness for this precious gift of God was realized in this session. I’m thankful for our ability to capture these images despite our obstacles. I’m thankful that I was able to meet him. I’m thankful that Lily, at almost 4 years old, was able to follow directions precisely for gorgeous sibling shots.
But most of all I’m super thankful for the time I was able to hold this precious bundle of joy and rock him to sleep. I was so blessed to be a part of this family’s story.
And a final one to make you laugh (because it cracks me up every time)! Shawn, I pray you’re bring your family many more laughs and lots of joy.
