Life Songs
“The Sound of Silence”
by Simon and Garfunkel

Welcome to a little blog post series that we like to call Life Songs. I am thrilled to be a part of this life stories project with eleven other talented photographers! In this series, we will be documenting our lives with a different theme song each month. The images in the posts will be taken from a less traditional approach, showcasing “real life” in our own ways. This month’s inspiration is ” The Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel. It might be worth finding it and having a listen as you browse our blog circle. See the link to the next photographer in the circle at the end of this post.

I don’t know what it is about this song, but I love it. While listening to the lyrics and trying to come up with some photos to match the theme, the one thing that kept coming to mind is my sleeping kids. I know, I know… more photos of my kids in their jammies. I swear they wear regular clothes, too. Mainly when we go out in public. The only time I hear any sounds of silence in my house is when the kids are both sound asleep. Ahhh…such a peaceful time. My crazy, energetic, fun-loving kids turn in to sweet slumbering angels and I get a little bit of quiet mommy time. My oldest is starting to not want to nap anymore. A little sad for me, mainly because my first “baby” is growing up, but also because I REEEEEEAAAAALLLY enjoy that quiet time. Now we just have some quiet time together while his little sister takes a nap, and I love that (almost) just as much. I can still get my “me” time when they go to bed (the do eventually go to sleep at night), but I also know that they won’t want to snuggle quietly for too many more years. So, I’m taking it while I can get it. These are just some personal photos that remind me of that quiet time. Their pajamas, their blankies they sleep with (at least 5 each), their stuffed animals, their bed sheets…I’m thinking it’s the details in photos like this that will be great memories years down the road.

Please be sure to check out Louise Glendon Photos. Louise’s take on this months theme can be seen here. Each photographer from our group will be linking to the next photographer’s take on it – lots of great posts you won’t want to miss!

As the years have gone by and I’ve been taking more of my family photos with my phone or some other digital camera, I’m finding that my photos are not being printed out like they used to. I’m very behind. Like, 2 years behind. I used to print out all of my photos, write on the back the date and who was in them, and put them in order in an album. I’m 2 YEARS behind! But I’m still determined that it will get done because I have albums full of photos from when I was a baby up until my second kid turned a year old (life got a little crazy with 2 toddlers so I blame it on that, too). Last night I had this fantastic idea that I was going to take some of my favorite photos from over the year and make a giant collage. I was stoked! They’re mostly just snaps from the past year, a lot of them just shot with my camera phone, but I still love them. And now they will all be on a 30×40 canvas in my living room. I CAN’T WAIT for this to come in!  I think I’m going to do one every year (maybe not all 30×40, though) so I can always look back and remember what was going on that year (and wonder why I have photos of goats and Chino Moreno in with our family collage – LOL!). Anyways, just thought I’d share! If you’re bad at printing out photos like I am (which is one reason that I push people towards prints rather than digital – get those photos up on your walls!) this is another option out there. And if you don’t want to do the work, I’m sure I can be commissioned to get a collage put together for you if you have your photos on a disc.

Just had to post one quick one from Eero’s one year session. I love seeing how much babies change from their newborn photos to their one year photos. I totally wanted to talk him home with me – he’s such a little charmer. Just one photo for now, but will be posting more from his one year session soon!

Life Songs
“If you want to sing out, sing out”
by Cat Stevens.

Welcome to a little blog post series that I (er..we) like to call Life Songs. I am thrilled to be a part of this life stories project with eleven other talented photographers! In this series, we will be documenting our lives with a different theme song each month. The images in the posts will be taken from a less traditional approach, showcasing “real life” in our own ways. This month’s inspiration is ” If you want to sing out, sing out” by Cat Stevens. It might be worth finding it and having a listen as you browse our blog circle. See the link to the next photographer in the circle at the end of this post.

I’ll have to admit, I’ve never heard of this song. I still haven’t listened to it. But, I like the title, and with daily life in our house, I knew I’d find something to photograph that would fit. Most mornings, when the kids don’t have preschool, we just goof around and play. We have a late breakfast (my kids love frozen waffles. Not toasted. Just straight up frozen. I figure it probably won’t kill them), and eventually change out of our jammies (see below – my youngest usually just changes into a different pair of jammies, while my oldest loves to dress himself in too-short sweat pants. I keep taking them out of his dresser, but somehow they keep showing up in there). I figure as long as we’re not going out in public, I’ll totally let them dress themselves. And this time of year they need to wear a jacket out anyways, so even less reason to fight their *awesome* clothing choices.

After giving all the plastic animals a bath in the kitchen sink (and making a huge mess), running through their pillow obstacle course, and playing “camping” (which consists of sitting on the counter eating sunflower seeds. Where they got this idea, I don’t know), we inevitably end up having some sort of dance party. What can I say – there’s not a ton to do in MN during the winter with two small kids who hate the cold. Usually we’ll bust out the radio, and if I have my CD’s, they’ll pick some random disc and we’ll all jump around. I sing while they just laugh at me because – well, they don’t know the words and I love to sing at the top of my lungs if no one can hear me. These are my favorite mornings – when we get to listen to MY music. Most of the time, however, we end up listening to some kids CD with nursery rhymes or kid songs (they call it “the orange CD”). They like the animal noises and babies laughing – apparently it’s pretty hysterical if you’re a toddler. This particular morning I decided to bring my camera out to try to get some photos for this series. We started out reading some books that morning, and eventually came across a Cars book. My kids LOVE the Disney Cars movie, and they REALLY love to jump up and down (their version of dancing) to the music in the beginning of the movie. So, reading the book lead to giggles and them trying to remember the words to the song. I put the dvd in and cranked it up and this is what ensued. Pure toddler craziness. They do this every time they hear that song in the beginning of the Cars movie (and also the Mighty Machines theme song – that’s another huge hit in our house). I’m not a rock-star lifestyle photographer by any means, but I had fun with this! I don’t often take photos of my own kids with anything other than my camera phone, so it was nice to actually download some photos and do something with them. I’m really looking forward to the rest of year with this project. Be sure to check back on the 21st of each month for our (the other photographers participating and myself) Life Songs posts!

Here’s how it all started this particular morning…

Which eventually lead to this:

Notice the awesome combo of Thomas the train jammies and horsie bottoms. My kid is SO stylin’!

And when we were all done…SPENT!

This was definitely a challenge, in that I had to crank up my ISO because our house doesn’t get a lot of natural light, and the yellow walls in my boy’s room give off all sorts of color casts. But, I had a lot of fun with it. Might find a different spot to shoot next months session.

Thanks for looking! Please be sure to check out Alexis Shell Photography – Alexis’ take on this months theme can be seen here. Each photographer from our group will be linking to the next photographer’s take on it – lots of great posts you won’t want to miss!

So, I stayed up late two nights in a row working on what was going to be the most awesome Christmas card in the history of Christmas cards. Beautiful, ornate, 5×10 with a pearl finish. Yep, it was going to be gorgeous. Then I realized that Christmas is only a week away, and these things don’t even come with envelopes. By the time I actually got them out Christmas would be long over and my clients would all think I’m crazy. *sigh* I think next year I’ll start working on these in, say, August? I’m horrible with getting out Christmas cards on time (but I am going to do my Christmas shopping today!). Rather than let this awesome card go to waste, I thought I’d at least post it here for you guys to see. Merry Christmas, everyone, and have a great 2012!

Almost exactly a year ago I photographed these two down by Como.  Bryce was just starting to walk at the time.   We met up again a few weeks ago for some more family photos, and Bryce is now a busy 2 year old on the move, and Teagan was the perfect model, as usual.  :)    Here are just a couple of my favorites from our session.

A few weeks ago I met up with Jon, his sister, and his mom for Jon’s senior pictures on a gorgeous Wednesday evening.  We decided to meet in the Mill City area of Minneapolis – so many awesome spots there, and I was not the only one who thought so – there were at least 3 other photographers down there taking senior pictures, too – LOL!   Definitely a popular spot, but worth the wait at the stairs.  :)  We did find a few spots where there was no one else around, which I always like to do, too.  By the end of the night I had so many photos that I just loved – it was really hard to narrow down which ones to edit.  Just posting a couple of my favorites here.

I had such a great time with you guys – thanks again, and good luck next year, Jon!

I always thought my first time shooting twins would be a pair of newborns, but I was wrong (and is it bad that I feel guilty every time I say/type/think “shooting” anything?  I need to start saying “photographing” twins – it just takes too long).  Anyways, I met up with Kelsey and Sarah last weekend for their senior photos, and they made my job so incredibly easy.  I am used to chasing around toddlers and making silly faces at babies to get a smile – it’s a nice change of pace to have someone who listens and doesn’t need to be bribed with goldfish (or an orange shake and some gum if you’re one of my own kids – that’s what we’re up to now with the bribes.  Soon it will be $20 bills…).  These girls are both absolutely stunning, and were super nice to boot.  I had a great time with them, and I can’t wait to finish up the rest of their photos!  I just had to post a couple before I leave on vacation for the week.  Enjoy!  :)

Everybody say it together now, “awwww…”.  Seriously, these two were so sweet together, and despite the humidity and hummingbird-sized mosquitoes (no exaggeration, really) we still had a great time.   I’ve never gotten so bit up in my entire life (threw that bottle of bug spray out as soon as I got home), but it was totally worth it.  It was a beautiful evening, and the colors when the sun set were amazing.

I had a great time meeting you guys!  I hope you enjoy your photos, and congrats on your engagement!  :)

I’ve known Lucy since she was a baby, and I can’t believe how big she has grown!  She was always such a peanut, but man, I think she has my 4 year old beat now!  We got together for some 3 year photos, and I had a great time playing with her in the woods – I’m pretty sure I was hoping around like a frog at one point.   Ah…the things I’ll do to get a smile.