My Unexpected Everyday Day 21 | Manual Photography Week Three

Life happened this week. I caught a cold. My son is all of a sudden a blaring 3. My husband has a nasty stomach virus and somewhere else to be this weekend. I’ve been working a lot on the launch of This is Bossy. Life happened. And while life was happening, my manual photography wasn’t. But it was always there, bubbling and gurgling in the back of my mind. And it kind of felt like my hands should’ve been doing other things. I noticed the light on Max’s face as he sat at the dinner table. I missed the seconds when they both ran across the yard to their school in their super cute backpacks. I missed it. The moments and the picture taking.

When I did get back into these photos, I had to double up tips and prompts on some days. So these technically aren’t a photo-a-day kind of things. But they are my photos and they do show me learning, which was my goal in these 30 Days.

Tip 14

I used to get upset when people told me my baby was beautiful. Boys weren’t supposed to be beautiful, I didn’t think. But look at him. He’s a beautiful boy. Period. I love the morning light on my sunporch. It took a bit to figure out where the shadows were falling before I moved Max to the other end of the white couch, focused down the edge of the pillows and got this sweet shot. I like the contrast of dark to light, color to no color. And I like the depth here too. This photo pulls you in.

Tip 15

See? Beautiful. So my house isn’t the best for natural light. It’s a brick ranch, and while I love it, and it’s home, the opportunities for dramatic natural light are slim to none. BUT school has an amazingly dark hallway with a door at the end that leads outside. And the door has a window. I felt like an idiot at preschool drop off with my Nikon, but with a capture like this, I’ll take it. There’s a little bit of noise, which means my ISO is a bit high. But I’m so happy with how this turned out.

Tip 16

Julia is learning to jump rope. And I love watching her try. She jumps WAY too early. But like the hula-hoop that she’s mastered, she’ll get this too. This photo, though, has to be a classic because it shows how hard she’s trying, exactly what’s not quite right, and how determined she is to get it right. The stop motion is ah-mazing, and I love it. I’ll let you know when she gets it, too.

Tip 17

He love his tools, this kid. And the night that Jason got out a screwdriver set to fix Max’s plastic SCUBA diver that goes in the bath tub, Max had to get out his tool set too. I love that he’s cradling the wrench in his arm like a baby. And I love that his fingers are busy holding the tiny screws that came off his toy. (You can’t see them, take my word for it.) And the way this photo is filled up with his boyness, makes me so happy. My white balance is still off in my den, though. Better, but still off. I’m working on it.

Tip 18

Funny story. This tip was all about getting down on the floor to photograph your kids there. Well, like I said, life happened, and my didn’t weren’t so much on the floor when I was taking photos. So I decided I’d take photos of Molly instead. Molly, though, doesn’t so much like the camera. And anytime I’m on the floor, she wants to be with me on the floor. This is as good as it got. Lets call it minimalistic. And yes it does represent our life and my sweet pup, but I do like the other end of her better.

Tip 20

In The Unexpected Everyday, Courtney says that sometimes it’s nice to get out of our kids faces and photograph them in a more nature environment. And that’s what I captured here with Julia. She is my color queen, and is forever drawing rainbows. I love her long legs and her pink boots on the wrong feet. And I love that this is just as she is. She’s not posing or pretending or acting. This is Julia being Julia. And that makes this series of photographs beautiful.

Where’s Tip 19? Well, it’s all about shooting silhouettes. And I didn’t have the time to set that up this week. Bu I will for next week, that’s a promise.

So which is your favorite photo from this week? And if you’re looking for more, here’s my pictures from Week Two and Week One of Manual photography.