Challenges of Motherhood

Being a mother is a lot more challenging and plain out HARDER than I ever thought it would be. A baby is a walk in the park compared to when they get to be around 6-7 years old in MY book. I will not make this blog post a list of all of the things I have found challenging in the past year. . .

Instead, I will discuss one thing that has been a thorn in mine and Spencer's side. Teaching Liam how to ride a bike.

{{SIGH}}

Now I will admit that I had my own challenges when learning to ride a bike. But, honestly, those challenges came once my training wheels were off the bike. Hmmmm, whereas Liam's have come from the time he started riding a tricycle.

First, his legs were too short, then it was just too hard for him to push the pedals, then his legs were too long for a trike and they kept hitting the handlebars.

Okay, then he inherited a bike from a good buddy of his. Spencer and I went out and got training wheels to put on it. Somehow he never could ride it though. I don't blame him on that one though. I tried riding it myself and the pedals really seemed stuck.

(Feel free to go ahead and picture me on a kid's bike now)

NEXT, I tried him on a bike at Wal-Mart to see if the situation were hopeless.

He rode it fine. Good news. So my mom and dad got him the bike he wanted for a gift

on Spencer's and my wedding anniversary.

Well. . .my dear, dear, DEAR boy has fears. Fears that his Transformer helmet and shoulder and knee pads can't seem to fend off. This could be because I made the mistake of letting him ride it one time without the knee pads and he scraped his knee. Or it could be due to my misguided effort to make him feel better about falling by telling him about my own war wound.

When I had learned to ride my bike I had issues making U-turns while riding. Instead, I would stop the bike, turn it around, and then keep going. Well, one day I thought I had conquered this inability and decided to show my dad. Well, let's just say my U-turn was more like an L-turn. . .right into a tree. Long story short, one trip to the emergency room, eight stitches, and about 20 years later I am fine and have a fine scar to show for it. But the important thing is I survived.

(I also didn't ride my bike again for years after that, at which time I got stung by a paper wasp that had built its nest under my seat,

but I left that part out of the story to Liam)

Unfortunately, the only thing Liam got from this story was that I fell and hurt myself badly and he does NOT want that to happen to him.

Inadvertently I made it more challenging to teach him to ride a bike.

{{SIGH}}

I guess the point that I need to take away from this experience is that if I don't want him to give up on learning to ride his bike then I don't need to give up on helping him get over his fears. . .but that is such a difficult thing to do when it takes time and patience that I don't necessarily possess in abundance. But aren't the things that end up being the most precious also the things that take the most out of us?

I'll leave that question up in the air and share with you some images of one of the times Spencer and I took Liam out riding.

Doesn't he look thrilled?

Spencer doing what he can to motivate him as well as assure him that he is always there in case he should call. I married a great guy. :)

One of the few times I caught him smiling.

Just look at the determination in his shoulders and his whole posture in this shot. Love it.

His expression in the middle shot just kills me. . .in a good way.

By this time, he was somewhat getting the hang of things and quite happy about it.

Thanks for listening. :D

contact me or view more pictures online. . .

Motherhood :: Covington Georgia Family Photography

Being a mother is hard. Especially when your child is SO much like you in so many ways and not in so many others. My poor boy talks too much just like I did (and do) and has my stomach issues and says the most random unexplainable things out of the blue that makes you wonder just how his mind works and struggles with math. Ask my mom and dad, just like me at his age. . .and sometimes even now.

One way that he is not like me is his timidity in standing up for his religion. This is his first year being the only one of Jehovah's Witnesses in his class. It's a new experience for him and I didn't realize that.

He was telling us about how on the first day of school each student had to tell the others some unique things about themselves. He told his name and that his favorite book was "How to Train Your Dragon" and a few other things. Innocently, I asked him if he told them he was one of Jehovah's Witnesses since that is pretty unique.

"NO! I didn't just want to blurt that out."

"Well, honey, it wouldn't have been blurting it out since you were telling them things about yourself."

"Oh."

After a few more minutes of talking, I realized something.

"Liam, are you scared of telling them?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I'm the only one out of 23 students in the class!"

That's when I really thought about it and realized that this is a whole new experience for him. And it scares him. And that's how he's not like me. I was bold from a very early age about my religion. One of my friends from childhood's favorite memory of me is when she first met me in first grade and she was new in the area and also one of Jehovah's Witnesses. We were in the same class and sitting in a group discussing birthdays and I stood right up and said, "Heidi and I don't do that! We're Jehovah's Witnesses."

That same boldness carried on as I progressed in school. I argued...ahem...debated evolution with my atheist biology substitute teacher and brought my Bible to school as some classmates and I would have lengthy discussions in the school cafeteria. When kids teased me, I took it in stride and never really let it bother me.

Every day Liam talks to me about how awesome Jehovah is for creating the bugs and the flowers and everything so I never thought he would be timid in school. Now, I am just going to have to focus on helping him understand that if he truly believes in what we teach him from the Bible that courage is needed to tell others the things he is learning. That it's okay to be afraid but it's even more important to rely on Jehovah to conquer that fear.

Below is a picture that I found on one of my recent visits home of my friend from childhood whom Facebook has reconnected me with. We stayed close growing up even when we moved physically apart and I was in her wedding but then, as it often goes in life, we drifted apart. Facebook is good for some things. ;)

Since this last week was my last week before I get braces on for the next two years, I had a last-minute hair-brained scheme and was bound and determined to get some images of me with my loved ones. This started with setting up the tripod at the beach for a few family shots (which I will show you guys soon although they aren't the best) and then the Wednesday before I got them on, Spencer and I took Liam to a local park to practice riding his bike and to also get some fun shots of him and me as mother and son. Not to mention, let Spencer get some practice in. ;)

We started out goofy. . .

. . .then got really sweet.

I do believe I am in love with this shot.

These next two as well, but the top one especially, I absolutely love.

I think it's pretty safe to say that Spencer did a pretty durn good job, at least in my estimation.

I couldn't let things go without a little tickle action. :D

I absolutely love this location, however, it turned out to have quite a number of ants and we found the longer we stayed in a particular spot the more ants gravitated towards us. Very much NOT cool. I still have war wounds.

Spencer couldn't let things go without getting a few shots of

me by myself so I obliged. . .for once.

The second shot here is completely unposed.

I was stretching out as I like to do and Spencer still shot.

I think I look kinda funny, but it's one of Spencer's favorites so I included it on here.

At this point, Liam was very much tired of looking out for and avoiding ants and was ready to be done with the impromptu photo session.

For family pictures of your own, contact me or visit online to see more family pictures I've shot. . .

Our Snow Day :: Covington Georgia

I meant to have these images up before the end of the evening, but hey, better late than never.

When I found out that Liam was off for a snow day I was skeptical of the actuality of snow. We got to fall asleep for a nap together to the sight of snow and when Spencer got home from work he went in to wake up Liam and the next series of images are of Liam waking up and seeing that the snow had actually accumulated on the ground.

The excitement led to Spencer and Liam having a fun tickling and throwing session on the bed.

I love my boys.

This is what Spencer referred to as the bald spot in our yard.

As beautiful as the accumulation was at this point it got so much more beautiful.

Liam's first venture out into the snowy yard.

Liam wanted to make footprints.

Spencer got to take control of the camera for a bit and got some shots of me enjoying the snow.

And then we switched. Isn't it funny how adults turn into kids around snow?

Liam's pure excitement over the snow was very contagious and we all had a blast. Reminds me of the line from a Dave Matthew's song "I love you oh so well. Like a kid loves candy or fresh snow."

A few recent blog posts inspired me to look at my out of focus images before discarding them to see what I might be missing. In the case of the shot below, I am glad that I did.

Spencer was very proud of catching my "snow booger".

The next are just a series of images that either Spencer and I took that to me are just hauntingly beautiful. I honestly do not know if I would love snow as much if I was around it all the time, but I do. Watching it fall and transform the most ordinary things into something beautiful is completely mesmerizing to me.

Once we were inside and Liam was sitting at the kitchen table waiting to drink his hot chocolate, I noticed the snowflakes he and I had made hanging up and thought how cute it would be to capture our art imitating life. ;)

contact me or view my online portfolio. . .

Siren Song

About 10 years ago, a young idealist I know intimately dogged digital photography within an inch of it’s life. She swore digital would never be better than and definitely would never replace film. Film was just better by such a large degree, it was unfathomable. Ahh, the innocence of youth.

Flash forward to 2004 and by this time, digital photography has grown by leaps and bounds that that photographer. . .ok I never had thought possible. In December of 2006 I purchased my first Digital SLR a Canon 30D. I was in LOVE! It cost me more than any of my film cameras, heck more than all of them put together (I will admit, I saved money by purchasing old reliables from fellow photogs with the desire to upgrade).

But the cost was not so bothersome to me because there was another cost that was entirely obliterated by the advent of digital. The costly processing of film and having to have every photo printed. And then came the weeding out of the “bad” ones. So my 3 or 4 Canon SLRs got packed away in a camera bag along with loads of unused film only to see the light of day every once in a while.

One of those times was when my husband and I planned a trip to Piedmont Park for him to try his hand at photography a bit more than he was used to. I brought out one of my old faithfuls and the accompanying rolls of film in order to not feel empty handed. It was torture not seeing the fruits of my labors right away and whether or not I got the shot. Sadly, it was not torture enough because they are still lying around undeveloped. My curiosity was evidently not that great. . .

. . .or rather, the real culprit is my frugality and the fact that there are no decent local film labs in my area that could lovingly develop my film and scan it to CD for me so that I may view my film creations in the same ease that I do my digital work. Either that or the ones I find have the ability to bleed me dry in the area of my wallet. {{inward groan}}

Early this summer, before my Canon 30D was sadly demoted by the acquisition of a 50D, I shot a couple that you saw before on this blog here. As I shot with my trusty 30D, I loaded one roll of film for Spencer to shoot at his leisure. Knowing my tendency towards procrastination, I got the film developed and scanned to CD right away. . .at Wal-Mart. :( I even got a set of prints for kicks and giggles.

I was thoroughly surprised by the results. They were creamy and rich in a way digital is not always. Sadly, the following images do not do the prints justice.

The above images were completely untouched by Photoshop. Straight out of the camera.

For those who do not follow closely the buzz in the photography industry, the reason this post came to be is because there has been a lot of said buzz in the photography world about film. Now, by no means do I plan on going back to film as my sole media as do the amazingly talented Jose Villa (please check out his phenomenal work which is a source of inspiration to me) and several others that I have come across (Joseph Canlas is another good one to check out that is 100% Film as his blog proudly bosts) but there are certain things about film that I miss.

One day, some time ago, I came across an order a bride had placed with me for prints from her wedding that she never retrieved (lesson learned there that we won’t get into right now) and I marveled at several facts.

1. I have grown by leaps and bounds in the past 5+ years.

2. I was amazed at the memory of the confidence I used to have shooting weddings and such. I looked over the images and recalled how it used to be when I would shoot roll after roll of film, trusting myself and my abilities enough without the possibility of seeing how I truly did until anywhere from a few days to weeks after the actual event. {{sigh}} Those were the days.

As I typed this, I looked over at my dear 50D and picked it up and changed the review time of an image after shot from 2 seconds to None. I still have the ability to push the play button, of course, but I am going to endeavor to resist unless necessary.

As wistful as this post may sound, I do not plan on giving digital the heave ho by any means. Too blasted convenient. However, relegated to the post of “knick knack” is my first ever SLR (single lens reflex) that I bought from a pawn shop for $100 of hard earned money. My dear Pentax K1000. Also there resides my overpriced TLR (twin lens reflex). An $80 E-bay find. My Yashica A.

As I mentioned on Twitter just the other night, I have 35mm and 120mm film lying around the house and an itch that needs scratching. We shall see how this turns out and I will be sure to keep you updated.

P.S. “This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R were removed.” Mitch Hedburg

P.S. For real. Check out this blog of an old friend of mine who has also succumbed to the siren song of film.

contact me or view my online portfolio. . .