Continual State of Becoming

So I recently did this:   Finding My Light It's a Facebook page for some of my favorite photographs.  But more than that it's an attempt to figure out what it is I'm doing with photography in the first place.  It started as a way to document my kids, but since half the photos I now take have nothing to do with my children, it must be serving some other role.  My guess is that it's filling a void that was left when I   gave up music (not 100%, just as a serious pursuit, which, by the way, I have no regrets over doing).  Most likely, it's the creative void that I'm seeking to fill.  And I actually feel like I'm having more success at doing this with photography then I ever did with music. It's also sharing a big part of who I am and what I am working through with photography.  The daily struggles of life, and the larger life struggles along with it.  I feel like creating my own personal images, while not perfect, has really helped me ...

"Maybe it’s not the notion of mastery I’m bothered by, but the focus on it. And perhaps, like many other things, I think it’s just the wrong goal. Mastery is a  by-product  of doing the thing we love, with growing skill, over a period (usually a long one. No, a whole year doesn’t count). It is the result of what we aim for,  not the thing itself,  and I think it’s an important difference because mastery gained from years of making photographs for the love of it will produce something very different from mastery gained simply from chasing mastery: heart. The pulse of an artist’s passion. The salt of tears and sweat. The photographs resulting from the one will be technically perfect, and perfectly forgettable; the photographs from the other will be human, resonant, beautiful. Unforgettable, even if imperfect. Perfection is over-rated, and not to be confused with mastery." -David DuChemin http://davidduchemin.com/2013/10/toward-mastery/

Week 20:  Changing of the Season Spring is here!  And what better way to welcome in the new season than with an inch of snow! (and  Snow Day #12)  Followed by a sunny 70 degrees the following day.  March has been warm, cold, windy, snowy, rainy... you never know what to expect from one day to the next.  Except that it's all good for taking pictures.  So I have been doing just that.  I think it's pretty safe to say that at this point, we're done with the snow and freezing weather.  Which means now I just get to play the waiting game until all those little buds open up with flowers.

Today is the 10 year anniversary of this blog (my only blog).  Hard to believe I've been writing here (on and off) for the last 10 years.  In some ways it doesn't feel like it's been that long, in other ways I feel like I started this an entire lifetime ago.

Spring is on it's way (despite the fact that we are forecasted to get 1-3 inches of snow tomorrow morning).  It's been a beautiful week and we've been taking full advantage of this by playing outside as much as possible.  The fresh air has been great. But it's also been exhausting.  And I'm still not really geared up for the increase of activity that I feel spring bringing.  And honestly, neither is Aaron.  He has been going nonstop for the last several days, and yesterday he just crashed (after lots of tears and tantrums).  Today I was going to run a bunch of errands but I cancelled all of that and decided to give the two of us the day off from "doing."  We've been at the house all morning, just playing, reading, building legos, and hanging out.  And it's been very nice, not a tear shed or a scream yelled (by either one of us, which sadly was not the case for either of us yesterday). It's nice to push away the busy every once and while and...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Week 19: My Sons Last week I shared a self portrait. This week I decided to share portraits I took of each of my boys, that are probably also among my favorites so far.  I took both with my new 105mm lens.  Which is now living on my camera.  It is better than I had even hoped it would be.  I can seamlessly move from gorgeous portraits and candids of the kids straight to close ups of things around us (flowers, leaves, things found in the grass).  Which is pretty much how I shoot all the time, so it's been perfect. Dylan, playing in the last of the snow. Aaron, out for a walk.

"Happiness is self sought.  It is life.  You can only bring happiness to others by being happy yourself.  You can only be happy by being on the path of your unfolding potential.  The path will be revealed to you by your own mind.  You must find your own way." -Agnes Martin

I just finished and ordered our 2014 album.  Can't wait for the mail to get here! Click here to view this photo book larger You'll love award-winning Shutterfly photo books . Start your own today.

Enjoying the outdoors on a nice day.  Aaron loves spending time outdoors, and now that it's warming up we're soaking up as much outside time as we can.  This was on a little walk around the neighborhood with a quick stop by the playground before lunch time.  It's wonderful to see all the signs of spring.