Target Practice

At the beginning of May I was feeling brave and made an announcement to my friends and family on facebook. I was just getting into my professional photography course (NYIP) and I was dying to use the techniques I was learning on someone besides my poor little guy. Let's be honest, he might think it is creepy in ten years when he realizes that I have pictures of him doing (almost) everything! 

Sleeping, check!
Eating a peanut butter sandwich, check!
Sleeping while eating a peanut butter sandwich, check!
Loading the dishwasher in the nude, check! (Not for sharing, I do have some control.)

Back on topic, I offered free sessions to my family and friends and they graciously (and bravely) responded! They let me invade their lives and sometimes their homes, to practice my photography. And it was absolutely the best practice I could have asked for! Being in a situation where I was entertaining children, adjusting camera settings, and trying to compose for the perfect photograph was difficult. So difficult.

Sometimes I wanted to quit and just forget the whole thing, pretend like I never said anything about anything. I've never heard of photography. Must have been someone else. BUT I had a session scheduled just about every week for two months and I had to keep going and keep shooting.

Driving home after each session I remember thinking, "I totally bombed that! I was all over the place and completely frantic. I will be so embarrassed when I hand them a disk with 3 blurry images burned to it." But then I would get home, get brave and import the photos into Lightroom. That is when the magic happened. Suddenly the moments when I was trying to hurriedly decide between a higher ISO and a slower shutter speed turned into beautiful photographs that I was proud of. 

Sure they weren't perfect, but I was progressing. With each session I became more confident in my abilities. I began to learn how to wrangle children, calm newborns, and get natural smiles all around.

I love thinking that I can capture a moment of time with my camera. A single moment that can take you back to the joy (and fatigue) of having a new baby. 

Back to the smiles and silly songs.

Back to the love of (a rambunctious ) family.

Thank you for letting me share my work and my story with you. Keep smiling!