Life in Progress

PERFECTLY IMPERFECT.

One of the best parts of this photography adventure is what happens at night when the kids go to sleep...

I turn off the tv/music, grab my several-hours-old tea to sip on, turn on the computer and download the pictures I have taken for the day..

and I always find myself enjoying the pictures even more then when I originally took them.

Because usually, when I take a picture there is so much going through my mind....

Do I have the proper camera settings?

Is that my child crying behind me?

Please sun, come out.

Please cloud, go away.

Darn, picture is overexposed.

Ok, whatever, this will have to do. 

Its not until I actually sit down and look at the pictures that I notice the small, beautiful details in the pictures..

the pictures are not by any means perfect..

but they are "perfectly imperfect"..

A-mode, Focal Length: 35mm, f1.8, 1/3200, ISO 200

And though I would normally delete the imperfect ones, I know that years from now they will remind
me of that exact moment in time..
this super-blurry picture above {taken by myself, at arms length}, shows my son exactly as he is..
affectionate, cuddly and so content to sit there with his mama while she fiddles away {again} with the camera settings{even with the sun shining down his cute little face}..

A-Mode, Focal Length: 35mm, f1.8, 1/2000, ISO 200

And while I had hoped that my smallest wouldn't have had her fingers in her mouth {seriously, ewww..} when I took this picture..

it will nevertheless remain a keeper.

It shows the perfect bond that big sister has with her smaller siblings..

she is not only their sister and playmate, but their safety and "base" when mama is not close by.

*******************************************************

ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE.

I just purchased a new lens for my Nikon camera and it is adorable.

Yes, adorable.

Really, you ask, how can a new lens be adorable? {and the salesman at the camera store asked me this as well}

But really, it is.

I don't know much about lenses or f-stops or bokeh but I do know that if I want better pictures

I need to get me one of those nicer lenses.

And I really didn't want to shell out the money for the spiffy 50mm lens but convinced myself {and hubby}

that if I couldn't purchase the 50mm then the 35mm would have to do.

And I love it.

Its shiny, and black and just so very nice.

And as soon as I came home and put my daughter to sleep for nap time, I just knew what I needed to do next.

I practiced with the new lens, took some pictures of my husband {who thought I had officially gone off the deep end} and waited until the end of nap time approached.

I walked into my daughters room

and as quietly as I could

knelt right next to her crib and started clicking away until I was satisfied that I had captured the moment I had been thinking about..



While nap time is not a momentous event in life..{actually, scratch that, nap time is one of the best  parts of life}

I have often tried to remember how each of my children would wake up from nap time...

Were they cranky?

Did they sleep with or without covers?

Were they happy to see me?

And anyone that knows me knows that I do not have a good memory.

I cant blame it on my age.. its just the way I am.

I really do think God failed to include the memory chip feature when He created me.. but that's ok.

Because now I don't have to depend on my over-worked and over-whelmed memory to remind me of these things.

I can use pictures and write about it on this little blog here.

And so that's why I have to practically army crawl into my daughters room in the middle of the day and take pictures..

so that I could record it and refer back to it next week, next month or next year.

And who doesn't want to remember this adorable mess of a girl?





{all pics} A-Mode, Focal Length: 35mm, f1.8, 1/320, ISO 640

{and who doesn't wake up with sweaty, bed-head hair?1}

So, yes, the lens is absolutely adorable..

but the little girl on the other side is even more so.