I'm not very good at taking pictures of "big events" like Christmas and Easter and birthdays. Which is strange ,because growing up I had all of the obligatory photos: standing by the tree in the front yard holding my new lunch box on the first day of school, Christmas eve present opening at my great aunt and uncle's house, sisters and their new birthday bikes: all of those moments are captured and I love pouring through all of those pictures. They are full of 90s childhood charm.
But I am horrible at taking those kind of photos. Honestly, it isn't enjoyable for my to get out my big camera on special days . It's just too big and bulky and then I start critiquing the view, which is never artistically perfect in my everyday.
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What I am good about is capturing little moments with my boys in photos; like in the pictures shown here. Asher and I had taken Roman to school in the morning and afterwards he was so proud to show me all the things that he can do now on the playground, all by himself. Then, when we got to the parking lot, I pulled out my camera to take some pictures of him by the fence. Those are the moments that I love how my camera feels in my hands and I love looking at my little sweet boys, taking pictures, creating evidence of the moments between us. Honestly, I'm really not a big "special occasion" person anyway. These little moments are the ones that are the most special to me, that I want to feel and remember forever and ever.
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Sometimes I worry that I don't take enough pictures, that I don't take pictures of the "right things", that I need to hurry and print them all out and organize them into photo albums. I know that as mothers, we all worry about these silly little things, don't we?
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For now, I'll just keep grabbing my camera when I want to, I'll keep capturing these little moments of life as the beauty and art that they are, I'll keep celebrating our days - my own way. :)
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"Celebrate" is the August writing prompt of The Mommy Blogger Collective. In addition to a monthly writing prompt, the collective hosts a monthly blogger featurette. This month we are featuring Nicole of Rose Runs Wild.
A few words from Nicole --- Hi! I'm Nicole from Rose Runs Wild! I'm mama to a teenager, wife to my handsome husband and dog mama to our bulldog and pit bull. I work full time and blog in my free time. I love wearing black and white, plants, doughnuts, crappy pop music and working on our home we just recently bought! My blog is basic, it's just about our life. The good, the bad and the ugly. I try to share as honestly as I possibly can in hopes that one or two other people out there don't feel so alone. Life is rough, life is beautiful and it's all about connection through the highs and the lows. That's all I'm really trying to do, connect and share. And take lots of cute photos of my son (in the rare moment he lets me) and my dogs of course! Connect with Nicole here: Instagram // Pinterest // Bloglovin // Twitter // Tumblr.
/// The Mommy Blogger Collective /// Christina, Courteney, Dena, Erica, Erin, Gillian, Katie, Misty, Nicole, and Renée. ///
I feel the same about holidays- I sometimes even think that people who get perfect holiday pictures must stage it because our holidays are too chaotic!
ReplyDeleteHaha, I agree! I mean I definitely put my kids in certain outfits for "staged" type photoshoots sometimes but for some reason on the holidays I feel like I am frantically looking for something decent to throw together and everything is a disaster!
Deleteugh, yes! holiday photos can look/feel so contrived and forced (though they ARE great to look back on!), but i am with you on the more candid and simple moments captured - they seem to tell a bigger story. this sequence with asher fantastic. that second photo in particular... !! xx
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lucinda! I love that photo of him as well. :)
Deletei think those are the best kind of pictures. just capturing the everyday, little things!
ReplyDelete:) :)
DeleteI'm with you, girly! Half of our holidays I fail to take even ONE photo. Haha. Who cares - the memories are actually what count anyway, right?
ReplyDeleteTrue! I think it might have a lot to do with "being a photographer" vs. not. My parents always took the best, natural, candid holiday photos but I put too much pressure on myself about it so it's better for me to just let it go!
DeleteAwww, he's such a cute boy! I'm bad to hide behind my camera. I have the tendency to take so many pictures I forget to participate. So I've been making myself leave my camera behind these days and only pull it out at designated times- like when we went to the beach, I set boundaries for the camera- using it only the first ten minutes at the beach, for instance, then wrap it up and put it away after that so I could really sink my feet in the sand and enjoy my family. It's important to get pictures, yes! More important to enjoy life while we have it.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Sarah! We live in such a unique generation full of mom bloggers / photographers and it is so important to just enjoy the moments of life and not turn everything into a photoshoot opportunity!
DeleteI totally do the same thing! I try taking photos of "big moments" but they seem cluttered, and I can't deal with cluttered images, I'm too anal for that-haha! I think these photos are just perfect.
ReplyDeleteExactly!! It really is my problem with cluttered images that keeps me from taking holiday photos! Sometimes I feel like I should just grab some disposable cameras or something to use for holiday photos. It is hard for me to break away from capturing an artistic / professional image and just snap photos of memories!
DeleteUgh...the holidays. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, holidays turned chaotic, stressful and sometimes overwhelming. Just me? Maybe I'm doing something very wrong if most don't agree. But anyways, with that being said taking out my camera to capture beautiful memories is one of the last things on my list. I wish it weren't though. Basically, I feel ya :) -Misty
ReplyDeleteI agree. I totally miss that holiday magic and even with kids I have trouble finding that happy / childhood feeling during the holidays! It just feels more filled with stress and obligation! Ugh!
DeleteI am right there with you! I’m horrible at photographing the holidays, but catch all of those in between moments. These pictures of Asher are precious. And yes, I worry about those as well. Just yesterday I read a post from a friend blogger that just finished her daughter’s baby book and I started worrying! I haven’t written much in Mason’s baby book because it’s all here on this blog. But, I need to get it all transferred and in that book so that he can have it when he’s older! And I don’t print nearly enough pictures at all!
ReplyDeleteYes, I get so stressed when I see that these mothers have EVERYTHING organized and perfect as far as photos and memories go. I have to remind myself though that it really is just a pressure that I'm putting on myself. I really don't think our kids will care about this stuff like we do when they grow up! My mom always jokes that she is STILL working on our baby books all these years later. But all of her boxes and albums full of random papers and pictures here and there are seriously just as meaningful to look through as it would be if they were perfectly put together! Regardless, even if all of those photos didn't exist - my happy childhood memories would still exist exactly just as they are. :)
DeleteGirl...I can SO relate!! So many photos are just ordinary moments from my phone, and they're my favorite! My big camera is just too much sometimes!
ReplyDeleteKatie
hellolittlebean.com
Agreed! I don't know how some women seem to have their cameras on them ALL the time. I think it is just a difference in people. I personally start to feel burdened by my camera. I feel much happier when I take breaks from it!
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