Happy Birthday Dr. Suess

The month is Dr. Suess month and it seems as if all the schools are celebrating him. Even Erik told me he read "Green Eggs and Ham" in school today. As per tradition, today was the day the three year olds in mommy & me school got to cook. Not only did they get to cook, but they got to cook green eggs and ham. Very exciting.

Elliot isn't much of a chef. I am the type of mom who loves my kids in the kitchen with me and encourage them to help at any opportunity. They can crack eggs, measure flour, mix anything as long as they are learning. Erik is very eager to help constantly and I call him a future chef, Elliot has never had a strong desire to cook, but will have occasional moments of brilliance. But cooking at school, how deliciously fun and different.

The first thing we did was cut up all the ham. Since we eat eggs and ham at home Elliot is a ham cutting expert. We wash, then cut, and its interesting to see how well the kids work with the utensils.  I definitely like the learning that is going on in this process.

   

After cutting up all the ham Teacher Karin lines up all the children and they get to crack two eggs. Some of the eggs make it in the bowl and some end up on the ground. There are definitely some shells that get in the bowl, but easy to dig up. Elliot needs to practice his cracking, but he definitely learned something while doing this.

Then after they all got to crack two eggs the then got a chance to use the hand mixer. Some kids it was a challenge, but since we have this at home and use it a lot Elliot was an old pro and anxious to try.

Then the magic happens. All the kids crowd around Teacher Karin counting out drops of food color and she mixes it all up and guess what, the eggs turn green!

Then the final stage of this whole process, the kids get to read the book and learn how why they are making green eggs and ham. I can't believe how excited they were to read today, they could hardly sit on their bottoms it was so much fun.

Then viola when story time is done the eggs are ready for the children's feast! I had no doubt Elliot would gobble this up because he loves eggs and ham. It was definitely a hit with most of the kids.

 

Here are some other cute moments from today. I needed to shoot some additional shots for Elliot's photobook and here are my favorite gems. 

The boy Elliot's talking too is named Elliot as well, even spelled the same way. These two boys have been in mommy & me on and off since they were 1 years old, but now that they are 4 they now notice they have the same name. They had the most adorable conversation today that went something like this.

"I'm Elliot and your Elliot"

"We both have the name Elliot"

"E-L-L-I-O-T"

"Heehee that is my name"

Silly bell time. Elliot likes to put a lot of them on his arms, but heard the word "no" today so it didn't work out. He was fine with just two!

 

My future engineer. Definitely is heading in that direction at 3 years old. Only the future knows...

Honesty in photography

Want to know a secret, most of us photographers are not honest, we're storytellers. We see a picture, we create it with our lens and then manipulate it to what emotion we want to convey. Seriously its that secret that the greats know best. They understand how to convey emotion consistently in their pictures in order to tell a great story and the best photographer out there do it in every single picture and just understand people.

I was thinking about this while taking this picture today. Here is the "story" behind the photo. My oldest got sent home from school today with a fever. As a result he has gotten a lot of extra love and cuddles from mommy today, which has put him in a cuddle bug mood. While rushing to watch an episode of "The Berenstein Bears" the boys have been anticipating, Elliot slipped on the ground and fell. As a result I kindly asked him "Are you ok, are you hurt?" Then Erik responds "Come here Elliot for a cuddle, I'll make you feel better."

Its a dream of mine that my children look to each other for comfort as I do with my own siblings, and my boys having a strong friendship/relationship is something I feel passionately about and foster in the best way I know how. So when Erik did this I wanted to capture the moment forever but of course said "hold that pose while I get my camera." Then I ran into the other room messing with my ISO and exposures while I ran back, until I thought I had it close enough to just snap the moment. In truth I got the shot, not the original sincere look I was going for. This is why not all moments should be photographed honestly. I did get enough of the photo to tell you my story the way I wanted it to be told and the way I envisioned it.

But here is the truth, it wasn't perfect, this photo worked and it was good enough, but I wanted more. When I first snapped this moment, this is the very first image on my camera. In no way was it showing what I wanted or telling the story I felt emotionally connected too.

 

I tried again, and got the shot that does show my story, but it wasn't perfect and didn't capture that first hug my kids gave each other that was so sincere it melted my heart. So I tried again and got this shot. Sometimes though you have to know when you have enough and walk away from what was in your head.

In all honesty, for every single photo session I shoot professionally, I am trying to tell a story, but honestly it just a posed emotion. Its finding the truth that makes the best photographers the best. You can have all the technical skills, the visions, the location, but its the emotion that makes the photograph. When I am photographing a family I want to show the truth of the love and connection in that family in the best way I can, with the limited knowledge I have about that family. Mostly its a pretty setting with a beautiful family and it works, but its not great until the emotions come out. The same goes for headshots, weddings, what have you. Until there is an honest emotion or an honest moment the picture is just good enough. Let's just say photojournalist have my utmost respect.

End of January

Today is the last day of January and I felt like I have spent this last month in a haze and as it was a beautiful spring day, my haze is over, and its time to wake up and smell the flowers. So what is my favorite method, to take pictures.

Today didn't start that way. I saw it was 80 when I went to pick up Erik from school and decided then and there from 3-5 we were going to be outside today. No arguments, no excuses, nothing. It was just too gorgeous of an afternoon to spend indoors. So we woke Elliot up from his nap, took his snack and went outside.

Here are our escapades from today. A clever way to use an old device. I told Erik "wait I'll take a picture while your in it." Erik says "Mom hurry up I can't hold it very long." haha Not sure what that meant, but it was a fun way to start an afternoon of pictures and of course brother always want in on them too.

 

 

I like this picture because I was working on Elliot's photobook today and commenting to Erik how much I love it when Elliot did this pose in pictures and how cute it was. This was Erik's version.

Then soon after our game we had a total "brothers forever" moment. Today even started that way as they didn't fight all morning and Elliot said to me "mommy I want to wear gray and black today just like Erik." He was really upset when I made him wear the matching pants instead of brown ones.

 

One nice thing that has happened this year is we have made some neighborhood friends. Not the type of friends you need to call and schedule a playdate with a week or so in advance. The kind where you can say "we are going to be outside riding bikes in the front yard today so bring your bikes over and the kids can play for an hour." Its nice not having to plan and for the kids to have a quick playdate. Definitely helps the 5 year olds are the same temperament.

Testing limits to see how high we can go down the hill and still make it into the driveway. It gets higher all the time.

How many kids can fit in one wagon? Apparently 4 today. We'll see what happens next time.

Lastly just having some fun with sun flare and see how far I could take it before it didn't work. Without a lens hood I can't take it very far sadly.

Then here are a couple of gems I found on my camera while downloading today. This picture is one of the "photograph Elliot funny sleep positions." All year we have been talking about doing this and creating a page in his book. Of course once I take just one picture he hasn't done a weird position in weeks. Sadly I think he might have outgrown this stage.

Just a cute picture from Christmas Eve of Carl reading to all the kids. We love books around here.

{Sneak Preview} Prosin Family

Today I had the pleasure of photographing the Prosin Family. They have a 3 year old boy, the exact same age as my 3 year old. As boys are he was full of energy and much more interested in the playground than taking pictures. I need to rethink taking pictures near playgrounds with the under 5 crowd. Its very distracting although the background is gorgeous and we worked with it very well.

Aaron and Amanda were so much fun to work with. Amanda is a fellow academic so we related well and Aaron is also a photofile so we could talk shop easily. Zach, well he was just a three year old with some of the most gorgeous blue eyes I have seen and full of energy. You could easily see how much love and how well this family worked together.

We spent the afternoon in the park trying to capture some family pictures; some in the moment and some posed. The highlight of the day, a tree Zach could climb himself and an old fashioned playground where he could climb everything. This boy was definitely a monkey in his past life.