It was well into September when I realized that I had not done my traditional "Back to school" shoot for the newest kindergartner. I admit it, I am slacking so much on the photography side. Somewhere  between more homework, after school activities, a new position at work and something called life...photography slipped. This post was to document my youngest starting kindergarten and how she picked her favorite dress and her favorite books, and fell in love with my dad's old typewriter, but then I found myself going in a different tangent and instead addressing why I have not been blogging frequently.

It started with me changing my purse over a year ago. No longer did I lug 10lbs of a camera in a camera bag with me everywhere which had the added value of stopping my back pain. But it didn't help me document life like I had in the past. I changed my hall display taking down all the photos I used to change out regularly on a peg line, replacing them with ceramic swallows. Visual reminders were gone of a passion I loved so much. I lost my confidence a little too...if you don't practice you don't have tangible proof that your work is good enough to share.

It is easy to get out of the habit of something and really hard to get that habit back. As much as I love photography, I hate editing. I hate spending more time sitting in front of a computer when I do it five days a week already. I'm tired at the weekends too, sometimes I just don't have the urge to grab my camera and run around the place trying to catch the angle I want so bad.

But some traditions you can't miss like this and in truth I needed this shoot. I needed the photo of her balancing the same books on her head that her sister balanced years before her. I never want her feeling like her milestones were less important than her sister's. Bizarrely, I also wanted to use that typewriter badly - it's the same typewriter I hounded my mum for last March in Ireland only to realize it weighed a gazillion pounds. You've heard the saying "where there is a will, there's a way"...well, I know that one intimately now too.

I'm not promising tons of photos, but I will try to continue my photography traditions and make sure to capture important moments in our families lives. Maybe, I just need to adopt the same saying that got that typewriter home in my hand luggage...."where there is a will, there's a way".

 

 

 

She looks so much like her older sister here, except I see her "lovie" in the shot!

 

The title of this book is how I feel every day!

Let's Dance!

Many times on my commute home at dusk I wished that I could capture the setting sun over the everglades with my kids. But I never had the opportunity until January when my eldest was traveling home with me from a weekend Irish dance class. Among other steps, she has been practicing “the bird”, a move where an Irish dancer jumps mid-air with one leg outstretched and the other leg tucked under. As I glanced over at the setting sun, we devised a plan. Pulling off the freeway to the makeshift carpark and with just minutes of available light to spare, we jumped out of the car and ran up the hill.

 

"The Bird"

We started with some skips and captured "the bird,” but the real magic started just as the sun set and I told her to try whatever move she wanted.