The Story through my Lens

It’s Friday – the day where I join other bloggers and take five short minutes to just write from the heart. Five Minute Friday is hosted by Gypsy Mama and this week’s prompt is STORY.


As I sat here for a second, wondering what direction to take “story” different photos were popping up on my screensaver. And ya know, I think that’s probably why I enjoy taking photos so much; I'm able to tell a story every time I look through my lens and take a photo.

Take the above photo for instance, you probably just see a boy hugging an older man.....

But I see a bigger story. I see a sweet boy (MY sweet boy) with a huge heart with my Daddy. I see that little boy SO excited to see his Granddaddy even though it had only been a few days since he last saw him. I see a boy hugging his Granddaddy with a death grip and I watched through my lens as he didn't let go of his Granddaddy for at least five minutes. I see my Daddy not annoyed that he is wasting five minutes on his knee hugging his grandson, but I see my Daddy soaking it in and loving every minute of it probably more than Noah is!

My photos may not be award winning or perfectly composed but they tell a story. 

My lens allows me to capture the moment and freeze it in time but my heart remembers the stories. 

Fireworks on the Fourth

Like many other people tonight, we headed downtown to watch fireworks. This was our 2nd year of being able to take Noah and we are hopeful that we can perhaps make it a tradition. He once again really enjoyed it. I watched the entire through my camera lens. 

Hope you had a happy and safe 4th! 

Mother's Day Collage

First of all, happy Mother's Day to all the Mommas out there and for those of you out there that this is a hard day for, your in my thoughts. 

This year for one of my Mom's Mother's Day gifts we decided to combine our talents - mine of photography and his of being cute! 

For years I have always wanted to make one of those little photo collages of siblings each holding different signs that make a sentence like "I love Nana" but I just have Noah and thought that might be silly to have him in all the photos but decided to go for it anyways. Since he signs, instead of having him hold a sign that said love, I just had him do the sign for love. It actually turned out super cute! 

And here it is already hanging on her wall.......

Tip: If you are taking photos of a child holding a sign, sometimes it can be difficult to get them to hold the sign where the words are legible and readable so this time I just had Noah hold a blank sign, then in my editing program, I added the words in a handwriting font. I must have done a good job because my Mom had no clue! 

I like how my Mom's turned out so much that I have decided to make one of my own. 

Just need a frame now! 

(Linking to the parties listed in my sidebar)

Noah's 15 Year Old Portraits

About 6 or 7 months ago, I discovered a graffiti wall that local artists painted not very far from our house. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to do Noah's 15 year old portraits there. There are many things about Noah that are not teenager-ish and to me, a graffiti wall seems very teen-ish and I wanted very teen-ish pictures.

Taking pictures of Noah is not always an easy thing to do. He is often uncooperative and doesn't really want to smile. I was hoping he would be in a good mood when we went to take them and luckily he was! They came out better than I thought they would and most of them scream 15 to me!

Enough talking, you want to see the pictures, don't you!?! It was hard to narrow it down but these are a few of my favorites.

Screams teenager, doesn't it?

Sporting the "Angel Choir Boy" pose 

Yep, I brought a can of spray paint to use as a prop. Love the mischievous look on his face!

Pull back shot
(Don't worry folks, he is perfectly safe. It's called the magic of Photoshop.)

Linked to 5 Minutes for Special Needs

 and
5 Minutes for Moms

Quote of the Week: Photography

"Photography is created not by the camera but by the vision and the eye behind the camera." 

- Unknown

Families are Forever Canvas

Back in December, Canvas People was running a promotion where you could get a free canvas print. (You only had to pay shipping.) In November, my BFF took a decent family photo of J, Noah, and I in my "studio" when she was here visiting. (Not that her photography skills aren't great but getting a decent picture of all 3 of us at one time seems to be a challenge.) I knew I wanted to put it on a canvas once I edited and enhanced the photo but it needed something more. A long time ago, I came across a random poem about families and fell in love with the poem and saved it in my files. That poem came to memory and I played around and came up with the idea of putting the poem around the picture. Because we used a black backdrop for the photo, it worked perfectly. I ordered the canvas and have been waiting for it to arrive......


J checked the mail earlier today and came in with a large box and I immediately knew my canvas had arrived! I'm in LOVE! It turned out better than I imagined it would. Honestly, I wish I had ordered it bigger.

And in case you can't see it too well, here's the jpeg: 

Now, where to hang it?

Quote of the Week: Life is Like a Camera

"Life is like a camera, it's what you focus on that will develop." 

- Unknown

Hospital Photo Walk

I meant to post these photos earlier and just got busy with Noah and forgot. But one day while my BFF was here for Noah's surgery, we took a break from sitting in the hospital room, grabbed our cameras, Sonia and Katie (yes, we named our cameras) and took a walk through the main floor of the hospital and took pictures of interesting things.

I've been to this hospital many, many times before. It's where I sat in the high risk unit for 4 weeks waiting for Noah to be born. It's where Noah was born and where he was in the NICU for 4 weeks. There are some newer parts to the hospital, like the Children's floors and the lobby has been re-done but it all just looks different and more exciting when you are seeing it through the lens of your camera. 

 View as you are walking in the main doors

 Beautiful fountain in the hotel lobby with the gift shop in the background

 A fish in the huge fish tank

 The hallways had different names......

This isn't the best photo but the background that the words are on is made up of little thumbnail size pictures of people who work at the hospital.

Love the colorful ceiling - leads to the children's floor

Statue in front of the elevators to the children's floors

Last but not least, my BFF. Check out the awesome floor behind her.

Creativity Boot Camp Collage

I put together a little collage of some of the photos I took during the 13 days of Creativity Boot Camp. I think I discovered that I enjoy photographing food. Don't get me wrong, people will always be my first choice but food is fun too. You can make it look pretty and take a zillion photos of it without listening to it complain. :)

I Heart Faces: Collage Week

It's collage week at I Heart Faces and since yesterday was mine and my husband's 7th anniversary I thought I'd make a collage with some pics recently taken after a photo shoot at one of my favorite parks. (Click on it for a larger view.)

Check out more collages at I Heart Faces!

I Heart Faces: Angles Week

It's angles week at I Heart Faces. I love taking photos with angles. I'm often known to tilt my camera to the right or the left to give an image a more interesting look. You can take a plain Jane background and setting and make it more interesting by angling your camera. I had a hard time choosing a photo for this week but ultimately chose this angled photo of Angel Abby. 

I'm shooting on the ground below the bench so it looks like Abby's about to fly off the bench. 

To see more angled photos check out all the links on I Heart Faces. 

My Photography = Art?

Recently someone called one of my photographs that they saw on my photography blog "art." No one has ever called one of my photographs "art" before. 

Yes, I view it as my way to express myself and a form of art but I mean come on, a child's scribbles is art too! 

So, anyway, I think that was probably one of the best compliments I've been paid in awhile. It certainly made my heart sing!

And here's the photograph she called art.....

I Heart Faces: Hands On Fun

It's "Hands on Fun" week at I Heart Faces. I had a hard time narrowing it down but finally chose this picture of my niece and great nephew. His little chubby baby hand is just precious.

 
Head on over to I Heart Faces to see more "Hands on Fun." 

Quote of the Week: Life is Like Photography

"Life is like photography - we develop from the negatives." 

~ Author Unknown

I Heart Faces: We Heart Kisses Week

It's "We Heart Kisses" week at I Heart Faces. I had a hard time choosing from two different photos but ultimately decided to enter the photo below from my first maternity shoot for this week's kissing picture photo challenge.

I love this photo. I love the lighting. I love the Momma to be's glow. I love the bokeh going on and I love how tender and sweet the Daddy to be is kissing Momma's baby bump.

For more cute kissin' photos, check out I Heart Faces.

Wordless Wednesday: My Lil' Shutterbug

Recently Noah has shown an interest in using my camera and taking photos. This is something we want to encourage as a form of art and self expression for Noah so Santa brought him a starter camera - it's one of the Fisher Price digital cameras. It's not a top of the line camera of course but such a great starter camera for him and I don't have to worry about him dropping it!

In the photos below, I'm helping him take pictures on Christmas morning. 

For more Wordless Wednesday, check out 5 Minutes for Moms, Special Exposure Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Special Needs,   and  Wordless Wednesday 

I Heart Faces: Tooshies Week

I'm participating in another I Heart Faces Photo Challenge. This week's theme is We Heart Tooshies. Here's a cute fairy tooshie. 

Check out lots more tooshies at I Heart Faces. 

Fun T-Shirts

Somehow I ended up on Cafe Press browsing t-shirts. I found many that I love for a variety of different reasons. Let me share a few with you....

(If you want to see a particular shirt better you can click on the title below each shirt to be taken to that page.) 

(my fave of the photography shirts)
Peace, Love, Photography

Photoholic

Photographer Defined

I Heart Photography

Eat, Sleep, Photograph

A Child is like a Butterfly

(my fave)
Raising a Special Needs Child

Advocate Mom

(Loving this one too)

If you Think my Hands are Full

Birthmother Definition

Make Crafts Not War

(hehe)
I Heart Jason