Specifically, it’s been said that I “whore herself out to the rest of the world as yet another tog who can teach YOU how to make loads of money!” And so there you have it. Someone accusing me of teaching because I can’t be doing {which, by the way, is 100% untrue}. So it seems that I have been a bit dense in making the same statement about university professors teaching photography and, in a broader sense, it appears that I was making that statement about all teachers.

So from the bottom of my heart, I’m so sorry for that. It’s never my intention to bully, alienate or single out others for my own personal gain. Forgive me, teachers!

...I took it anyway

A couple years ago, we went to a weekend conference with multiple churches involved. We rented out the entire resort so the only guests were those of us there for the event. Our son, Elijah, had an epiphany that weekend and asked us to baptize him. Naturally, we were ecstatic! Word spread quickly throughout the camp that he would be baptized that afternoon in the swimming pool and many people came to watch. Now, for Christians this is a pretty big deal. And for our firstborn son to come to us and give us a flawless theological survey of baptism and an explanation for why he needed to be baptized…well…that was -like- one of the best days of my life. So there we were gathered around the pool for the momentous occasion and as I lifted my camera to my face to make a record for Elijah’s history, the lifeguard frantically approached “no, no you can’t do that!”

“What?”

“You can’t take pictures”

“Are you serious? No one’s even swimming. We’ve rented out this whole place – there’s no one here but us.”

It goes without saying that I took the photos I wanted. My son was not going to be robbed of a record of an extremely important decision because a teenager didn’t understand the difference between pornography and family album snapshots.

And so we find ourselves in this frantic, hyper world where people can literally tremble if you pull out a camera. There are multiple stories to this effect online and this 2009 article from the Guardian paints a very accurate picture of the situation in the UK and the very sad position that parents find themselves in. The position of either relenting and sadly watching their little star in the school nativity, knowing that their memory will be the only surviving piece of the happy occasion or covertly taking the photos anyway, running the risk of getting kicked out.

this is a great memory from our Orlando vacation. I can't imagine not having these photos :(

When we went to Disney last year, I wanted to take photos of the family in the pool and so I cautiously approached the lifeguard to ask, “am I allowed to take photos?” She looked perplexed. “Yea of course,” was her reply. I realized that my few years of living in the UK has clouded my judgement of what is sensible and if that can happen to even me -with the strongest resolve of anyone I know- than certainly anyone can find themselves in the position of not thinking with their brains, but rather, with their nerves.

Last year at Jack’s Christmas Nativity, the headmistress began the event by announcing that we may take photos only of our children and that we were restricted from putting the images on Facebook. With all due respect, who does she think she is? I mean really…does she think she has the power of the police? Because even they don’t have the power to stop you from putting photos of your fully clothed children on Facebook. It drives me utterly insane, the way that people think with their nerves and not with their brains. And they don’t think ahead. What will the world look like in 50 years when we have full grown adults who don’t have surviving photo memories of their seaside holidays, their lead role in the school play, the moment they were baptized. How can we move forward as healthy adults if we don’t have a record of where we came from & no surviving memories?

I understand all the reasons people say we should protect children from being photographed at, say, the pool. I understand that people are afraid of pedophiles (who, by the way, are an extremely small minority). I understand that people have huge irrational fears about extremely small possibilities. More power to ‘em. I  wouldn’t recommend taking your camera into a hot and steamy environment anyway. But should the general public suffer because of the few baddies in the world?

On the flip side of this outrageous heavy handed legislation of local governments and private sectors, we have those very same governments and private buildings (aka shopping centers) installing cameras in every public area, following you as you go into the shop, come out of the shop, walk down the street, pull out your wedgie, pick your nose. They photograph your car, your house, your body, your children. They don’t prosecute paparazzi who are taking unwanted photos in public places, yet we can be questioned and told to cease doing the same with our own children in those very same places. Google Earth has a picture of your house in their database at this very moment.

I can see the ways in which Big Brother protects citizens from crime and helps piece together events leading up to one. But what I can’t accept is the flagrant hypocrisy that says they can take our picture to protect our future, but we can’t photograph our own children to protect their past.

• Got a puppy
• Took Brooke Snow’s lifestyle photography class {highly recommended if you can get in}
• As a result of the class, conceptualized and executed my first story telling sessions with my boys. This one was my favourite.
• Spent 2 weeks in Whitby where I shot some kids on my friend’s farm {a session I named ‘farmography‘}
• Got my 50mm f/1.2 dream lens
• Taught my ‘Shooting Kids’ class on Rock the Shot
• Was featured by Totally Rad for this Reader Photo Friday using their new product RadLab.
• Was given the most adorable vintage-style pedal car by a friend who is moving to America. Now looking for wardrobe & prop companies to acquire a 1930s style children’s wardrobe for a session I have in my head to go with the car.

This is my all time favorite shot I captured over the summer:

I’ve still been getting {and trying to answer} many reader emails and it seems the most pressing topic to cover right away is shooting backlit so look forward to a few posts on that topic in the coming days.

Cheers to everyone for being patient and allowing me to have a super refreshing summer to gather my thoughts and focus on the most important things in my life. You’re all amazing!

There are two parts to week 3′s homework: Conceptual Contrast & The Decisive moment.

Note: this were edited with *gasp* no actions or presets. I know! Doesn’t happen often for this actions junkie. Just a little boost in Lightroom.

{Conceptual Contrast}

This is Emlyn and she’s 5. She has Rett Syndrome just like my Gracie May and it just mastering the art of walking. We spent yesterday at the most gorgeous private castle which was open for the day {Madonna rents it from time to time!} and Emlyn was pretty proud of herself for being able to walk on the uneven ground. I remembered my homework assignment and decided to photograph her against the backdrop of this huge, powerful building as my homework on conceptual contrast.

And this is photo 2 of the conceptual contrast part of this week’s homework. We took the girls on horses and this is Gracie May on her horsie. She looked so tiny on that big animal that I took the opportunity to get a few shots because I thought it was a great contrast:

{The Decisive Moment}

OMG Brooke your lesson on the decisive moment made this entire class! It was excellent and you’re right – as digital shooters, we forget the restraint of only having 12 or 24 shots available on a roll of film and we just go nuts sometimes. I once laid on the floor with my focus steady on Grace for 20 minutes waiting for one shot so I’m a huge fan of the decisive moment! Yesterday, I was following my new puppy Rosie around our friends’ house confiscating shoes left right and center. Naughty girl! I laid on the floor waiting to see what she’d do with this one and practiced restraint {ps the one on the right could be sharper, but in keeping with your 3-shot rule, I didn’t re-shoot}:

Edited with MCP Actions Fusion Set (my go-to set for months now). Did you know there’s a free mini-version of Fusion here?

Monday came too fast and I didn’t succeed at completing the ‘Lifestyle: Telling the Story’ homework for this week in time for the video response but I did have a heckuva fun time thinking up and executing this story ‘Elijah Plays Hookie’. Although I didn’t do the homework {naughty me I’m sorry Brooke!} I’m really loving the class and it inspired me to take the time out to do this session with Elijah.

Oh and P.S. I’ve upgraded my 50mm lens to the f/1.2 {eeeeek!} and it’s coming tomorrow. Dunno if I’ll be able to sleep.

Edited with MCP Actions Fusion Set for Photoshop.

Brooke, here are my three character shots of my character, Jack:

That said, I’m also going to focus on falling back in love with photography the way I used to be and start taking photos of my children again. Brooke’s class is going to get me there! I’m required to post my homework assignments here on my blog which is great because it means that I still get to interact with you, my readers, and my summer would feel pretty weird without that :) This isn’t the final homework assignment, just the first session I’ve done since starting the class.

Notes:

• Camera: 5dmkii
• Lens: 50mm 1.4
• Format: RAW
• Edited in Photoshop using the ‘Lullaby’ action from Florabella’s Luxe II set. This action was formulated for newborn sessions because it lightens, removes red in the skin tones and adds a creamy light. But I knew I wanted to use it for these right away.

{Week 1: Conflict}

This week, we were encouraged to zero-in on conflict which is an important element in story telling. The conflict here was Jack making his own snack for the first time ever. He was so proud!