No longer afraid of the dark

My living room has always been a feared place for me to photograph. Its dark and the lighting is uneven. I avoided the place at all cost because I could never achieve the results I was looking for. Unfortunately its the one place my son plays the most and photographing him there would definitely make the most sense.

After attending Scott Robert and CM Leung's joint workshop, I can say darkness is no longer my fear. My eyes have been opened to so much more possibilities, finding light where I was blinded from before, shutting off bad light and exposing good light.

I will be posting a full review of the workshop by the amazing Masters of Photography, Scott Robert and CM Leung once I get all caught up with work, hopefully before the end of the year (fingers crossed).

First Graduation :)

My son officially met his goals and graduated from his Physical Therapy sessions today. I am very proud of him :)

So you ask, why does a baby at such a young age need physical therapy?

Well, for starters we were extremely worried about him. He wasn't able to sit up unsupported until 8 months, didn't crawl until 11.5 months and didn't walk until 15.5 months. I know every baby is different and will crawl and walk at their own time, but for a first time parent, it didn't help seeing other babies his age or younger advance so much more in the gross motor department.

Being someone who is some what proactive, I did a little research on the internet and enrolled my son in a program called "Early Intervention" which provided him with physical therapy. His physical therapist, Lorie, comes over to our house each week to "play" and do different exercises with him  to help strengthen his muscles. When Isaac started to take a couple steps on his own, we agreed to drop the sessions to every other week, now that he's walking 100% on his own, he no longer needs the service. It was a really awesome experience and Isaac always had a great time!!!

The best thing about this program is that its FREE!! Not many things in life are free especially when its so awesome!! For any parent who is worried about their kid in any way, check out this program. They help kids with all kinds of other stuff including speech and communication. It never hurts to have someone by your side helping you out when your worries take over :)

Falling

I stuck my leg out as my son fell forward running towards me today. He cried and cried because my leg hit his face and it hurt. What he didn't know was that if I didn't stick my leg out, his face would have collided into the corner of our TV stand. There would be blood and it would have hurt a million times worse. 

How many times in our lives are we screaming and crying "where are you God? I thought you promised you would never give me more than I can handle. Why can't you just cut me a break once in awhile?" But could it be that if he wasn't there holding us up, our troubles would be at a completely different depth? Maybe at a depth that we really couldn't handle. 

I am John Smith

I met a photographer yesterday who as as we were talking told me that he was anti-blogging. "Why would I put my best work up on the internet just so another photographer can copy it?" He further goes on to say that he actually went through his facebook friend's list and de-friended every single photographer.

This is not the first time I've heard someone say something like that (ok maybe the 2nd time). I don't think any one person out there likes their work being plagiarized, but when I hear someone go so far out of their way to make sure that doesn't happen, it makes me cringe just a little bit and ask the question "wasn't it the love of photography and not the fear of plagiarism that brought you to this industry in the first place? Whats the use of photographing if you're not willing to share with others the beauty you captured?"

Honestly no photographer or any other artist in this modern day invented anything new. We're not Leonardo Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Mozart, Ansel Adams, etc etc. We are John Smith!! Everything we do is a replica of what has already been done (good or bad). Sometimes I come across images where there is a huge "DO NOT COPY" logo across the entire image, so big and strong that I can barely see the picture itself. Now that makes me chuckle (especially when its not even that great of a photograph).

Blogging is a way to connect and give back to your community. Its your very own personal voice and that no one can take away from you. I spend a lot of my time looking at other people's blogs, sites, work and are blown away by so many creative people out there. There are some amazingly talented photographers. Honestly no matter how much I try, I don't think I can come close to copying their vision, perspective, mindset, thought process of when they captured that image at that very moment.

Do you think God made 2 people with the same set of eyes? I don't think he has or ever will. So then what are you afraid of? If someone wants to copy my work, that tells me I'm doing something right =)

Times are changing and I understand its hard for a lot of old time photographers being annoyed at the new wave of young photographers who know nothing about photography, but are in this industry because of the invention of digital SLRs which makes creating "beautiful" images no longer as technical. What do I have to say to that? I think its time to bring photography to a whole new level. As Jimmy Carter puts it "We must adjust to changing times and still hold unchanging principles".

Girls Think Pink, Boys Think Blue

I never considered gifts as my love language, but recently I decided that thoughtful gifts is indeed a love language for me. I think that should be another category in the 5 love languages book. That being said, for the past 2 years I've been scouting out Tory Burch flats. I look at them every time we're in the mall, I talk about buying a pair, but don't because they're $200. I almost bought a pair at the woodburry commons outlet because they're $20 cheaper than retail, but decided not to because for just $20 cheaper, I have to settle for a color that I'm not crazy about. I hint at my husband saying that "oh I'm not crazy about gifts, but I definitely love being surprised with "thoughtful gifts" because it shows me that you've been attentive to what I talk about and want".

So for every occasion that has rolled around I'm thinking in my head "Oh this time he's going to get me those Tory Burch flats". Of course, I don't end up getting them. The topic of thoughtful gifts came up again a few weeks ago and he was like "yeah yeah I know you like thoughtful gifts, you've said it many times". So in my mind I'm like "YES! For our anniversary I'm fiiinally... getting... those... Tory Burch flats". He leads me on by telling me "Oh I have this perfect gift for you, but I don't know what color to pick and you're going to end up returning it".

Then he finally revealed what he was going to get me......A CAMERA BAG FROM ETSY!!!! Oh the disappointment.

So here is my thought process "uhm, when did I ever want a camera bag from Etsy???? Etsy sells crafts, what do these people know about the functionality of a camera bag??? I've told you many times the camera bag I will eventually get is a Shootsac. Geeze, you never hear what I'm saying or notice what I really want".

So here is hubby's thought process "Oh She talks about Tory Burch flats all the time, she must be saving up for it and since I don't know the color she wants, I'll just leave it up to her to buy them. I've been noticing that she doesn't really have a functional bag for her lenses and camera body, she shops on Etsy sometimes so I know a camera bag from Etsy would be a really thoughtful gift".

As you can see, Girls Think Pink, Boys Think Blue. We both have good intensions, but because we're created so differently, there is no way we will always be on the same wave length or be able to think for the other person. This is from the book Love and Respect. A book worth reading for everyone, not just for those who are in a relationship.

Today we celebrate our 6 years of marriage. Do we still love each other? Yes. Do we at times want to kill each other? Too many times. Do we miscommunicate? Almost everyday. Do we get so frustrated that we scream and slam some doors? You bet! Are we still committed to each other? Absolutely! Will we be there for each other when times are rough? You can put your money on it!

I'm not here to blast my marriage nor am I here to sugar coat anything. I'm only telling this story to encourage hopefully at least 1 person out there.  God has given me the perfect match in every way and I'm so thankful I have a husband who is extremely attentive to my needs and who won't give up on me even when I'm ready to give up. He cooks for me, cleans up after me, gives me massages (I had to train him really hard to do that), takes care of our son, brings home the dough, listens to my not very funny jokes. He's my biggest support and cheers me on in everything I do.

Maybe a good compromise for all of us is to think light purple?

Phipps Conservatory

Gargoyles were the theme at Phipps yesterday, but I thought the flowers were still much prettier.

Little things make me laugh

Every little expression makes me laugh. My son is the cutest, but of course I'm biased. 

Berry Picking

The crop was scarce, but we still had fun berry picking. From now on, every time I eat berries, I will always know how much hard work and labor went into harvesting them.

Buffalo, NY

I would say Tim Hortons was the theme of our buffalo trip...