22/52

nicholas: I know you have beautiful eyes, but every time I see a photo of them like this, they take me by surprise yet again. I think you enjoy your sandpit time for the opportunity to sit quietly and contemplate life. I’m not sure you wanted to be interrupted.

sam: You were very excited to be going to a school friend’s birthday party and we loosely translated the ‘dance/disco’ theme into a rocker style costume. You’re not as into the dressing up scene as Charlie, so I was surprised when you fully embraced it and even put your outfit on again the next day. You must have thought you looked pretty cool. 

charlie: Our cubby doesn’t get a whole lot of use, but it had a new lease on life this week as we took our cash register and food toys out there and you created a cafe. There were some dubious items on the menu (like icecream with salt and pepper), but we did enjoy a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast and a coffee, all delivered on a tray. I think it cost about $117 though 😉 You discovered the mix and match animal egg game and thought it was pretty hilarious creating a ‘cat-pig’ and other crazy animals.

Photography answers from a novice

I have been learning so much committing to these weekly portraits. For all those who have asked various questions about the photography side of the 52 Project, I use a Nikon D7000 DSLR camera, usually with a 35mm or 85mm lens. While I am loving experimenting with the camera and taking better photographs of the kids, I am very much an amateur and won’t be giving up my day job. Last year, I did a day DSLR workshop with Learn Photography at South Brisbane. It was such a great day and it’s really given me the confidence to take the camera off the automatic settings and utilise more of its potential. I learnt things I’m sure my poor husband had been trying to teach me for years to no avail 😉

Sometimes I’ll pull the camera out and manage to get shots of all three boys that I’m happy with it in one session. Other times, I’ll see a nice light across their faces and run to grab the camera,and take a few shots here and there across a whole week. Sometimes I think I’ve taken a fabulous shot and when I import the images on the computer (I use raw images in Adobe Lightroom on our Mac), I’ll find that it’s actually a bit blurry or just not that fabulous. Sometimes I’ll take just a few photos in the week, and other times it’ll be closer to 40-50 before I find the ones I want. That half hour that I spend looking through and selecting shots in our ‘parent cave’ is such a beautiful part of my week, and I really look forward to the quiet time when the boys are asleep.

I actually don’t like having the camera out all the time or for long periods, as I find it’s too easy for me to be so busy behind the camera that I’m not actually engaging with the kids. And, at the end of the day, it’s more important for me to be in the moment than to record it. It is lovely looking back over the shots and watching their faces grow and change over the past 22 weeks, though and I am hoping to use all the shots at the end of the year to make a photo book.

Joining in the 52 Project at Practising Simplicity ~ a portrait of each of my boys every week in 2014.