carey pace: 2012

Project 26 | post 26 | Your Last Day

I struggled when I read this last theme post: Your Last Day. It seemed too broad. Too all encompassing. Too mighty to tackle with AN image. I dreaded it all year. As it approached, I asked the ladies in the group to discuss the topic, to help get my brain stewing. The wonderful Gail asked me "you have nothing to say to your kids if it were your last day on earth?"

Oh.

Oh, well THAT. Yeah, I certainly have something to say about THAT. Duh.

So I decided I'd do something involving faith. I'd want my kids to know that above all else, it is their faith in God that is the most important. I believe that wholeheartedly. But then last Friday happened. The tragedy. The tragedy involving children the ages of my own. It put a whole new level of perspective on what it would mean to communicate on Your Last Day.

I was so struck by the stories I read of the teachers holding those precious little faces and telling them they loved them. Holding their palms on each of those sweet, soft cheeks, noses pressed close together, eyes boring into eyes. They broke the school rules, but they wanted those children to hear, at least one last time that somebody loved them, and loved them fiercely. Was so happy that they got to know them.

And I couldn't shake that. I just keep thinking about that. Day after day after day that has passed. I've said so many times of late how I realize just how much of a bubble I live in, with nice neat little people with nice neat little homes and nice neat little children and nice neat little lives. Entering the land of public school opened my eyes to the reality of many children's lives. They don't live the life my kids do - and my kids have utterly no concept of what that life for them must be like.

All of that to say, if it were my, or Little Buddy, or the Little Lady's last day, I'd want to hold their little faces in my hands, feel the sweet softness of their young skin, and look them in the eye, and make sure they knew that I LOVED them. I love them with a fierce, unbreakable, unstoppable, unmovable love. That I am so proud to be their momma. And that I am so eternally grateful that God gave them to me, for the days that He has, and that I get to be their momma.

Be sure to follow my circle - the last one of 2012 - and see how Jayme Franklin, and the other ladies have interpreted Your Last Day.

I shot these with my D90 Sigma 30mm f1.4 Nikon 85mm f1.8 Nikon 50mm 1.4D

Project 26 | Post 25 | Me and Mine

To end this year's Me and Mine, here is a family shot for our Christmas card this year. I've been saving it for this post for a while. The first batch of cards went out in the mail on Wednesday, and hopefully the rest will leave today!

Jayme Franklin is up next in my group. Check out her last Me and Mine for the year.

I shot these with my D90 Nikon 85mm f1.8

Project 26 | post 24 | Life is Beautiful

Little Buddy got this new disc swing for his birthday and we hung it in my favorite maple tree in the back yard. Nothing could have prepared me for how much they would love this swing. It seems to invoke pure joy out of their faces when they use it. When this week's theme came up, these images I've taken of the Little Lady came right to mind. She keeps asking to swing, and for me to take pictures of her swinging. I just love her.

The carefree joy of childhood. No burdens of adulthood. No burdens of work. No burdens of worry. No burdens of pressures, of expectation, of anything. Their life is beautiful, and it is evident for all to see on their faces.

I do not do my project in isolation. Please visit my group. only a few, actually just two, more posts to go for this Project 26 of 2012! Next up is my favorite Jayme Franklin.

I shot these with my D90 Nikon 85mm f1.8

Project 26 | Post 23 | Me and Mine

I adore this Me and Mine project. I am so thankful that every other post in my Project 26 is one. I take photos of my children often. I have millions of photos of them. No lie. But there just aren't many that include me. In fact, our last two beach vacations.... there isn't one single photo of ME being there. We managed to go on vacation TWICE over two years and not get a photo of ME. Not cool. But thanks to this project, Little Buddy and Little Lady will have visual proof that I was there. Really, truly there.

My favorite Finding the Light workshop started back up this fall, and I was getting my shots for that week's assignment. We were outside and playing, and Little Buddy asked if he could take some pictures. OF COURSE YOU CAN!!! I put on my 85mm since we were outside. I tied my camera strap in a knot, like usual. Switched it off back button focus. Turned it off rapid fire shutter (he'll take 123243232 of the same shot if I don't). Set it on aperture priority. Set the aperture. Locked the focal point. Let him go!

I wish I had had my iPhone this day. He copied everything I had done. He laid on the ground and shot. He laid on the slide and shot. He instructed us. It was a proud mommy moment. We had fun. I'd give anything for some photos of him being a photographer.

What I wasn't prepared for was how GOOD he would do. I love his little budding artistic eye. We've never told our children to smile at the camera. Until the workshop, I'd never instructed them for a photo, period. I capture what naturally happens - no pretense. He has no "rules" in his mind about what photography should be. No "rules" about composition or light or anything. What he knows is what he sees of what I shoot. And maybe I'm reading into things, but I see my own influence in his captures. I just adore these. Shot on October 11, 2012.

That's the real me, folks. Not anticipating photos. Not one bit of photoshopping on me, either. I resisted the urge to smooth the skin, take away the zits, lessen the eye bags. This is who I am. Real me.

What is with all of my pre-pregnancy shirts now being way too short. I'd never wear this shirt in public. That right there on the right is why.

Did Little Buddy not do amazing??? I cannot wait for the day I have a better camera, and I can let both of them free to use the D90 to nurture their artistic sides.

I do not do this project alone. Next in my group is one of my favorite fellow photographers: Jayme Franklin. She's a fellow scientist/artist and she takes gorgeous images. Can't wait to see myself how she captured her Me and Mine.

Little Buddy shot these with my D90 Nikon 85mm f1.8

Project 26 | Post 22 | Spooky

I am afraid of the dark. There, I said it. I'm a grown up woman and I'm really afraid of the dark, especially outside. Don't ask me to go wandering around outside at night. This has caused a few conflicts over the years with Shawn. He doesn't get it. He also doesn't have a lot of compassion for the kids' fears of the dark, whereas I'm all "he can sleep with a lamp on next to his face for the next 50 years for all I care."

So now that my secret is out, I can share how I came to share this image for the theme of Spooky. This time when the sun has just risen is glorious and beautiful. I love beams of light working their ways through the trees. However, this is still that very early time before the sun has fully broken up the fog. Before shadows have grown shorter. Before those nocturnal creatures have tucked their tails and headed for home. So while I find it gloriously beautiful, I still feel this spookiness about this time. This opposite of twilight. Not a time I would go wandering around the woods by myself... not that I'd really ever go wandering around the woods by myself. That's just spooky, too.

Continue on with the circle and my awesome friend Jayme Franklin.

I shot these with my D90 Sigma 30mm f1.4

Food Styling Challenge | Black Background

Black.

Oh, that'll be soooo easy. I've pinned some awesome food images with dark or black backgrounds and color schemes. Love them. I've so got this.

Did you hear that? That sound of tires screeching to a halt? Yeah. that was me. Me NOT "so got this" about food and a black background.

So much harder than I expected. I wasn't getting it. I was so dissapointed. And I was out of time. This is as good as it gets, folks. You better believe that once I get caught up on some life things, I'll be trying this out again.

One thing I learned is that these black or dark background images REQUIRE props. And I'm not really a prop girl. So that'll take some research AND cash. But at least I know it going forward now. I suppose that means I did learn something.

Please visit my circle of Foodie Photog friends and see their versions of Black. Next up is the fantastic and always witty Kay Pickens | Columbia MO Food Photographer.

I shot these with my D90 Sigma 30mm f1.4 Nikon 85mm f1.8 Nikon 50mm 1.4D

Project 26 | Post 21 | Me and Mine

Another month brings another Me and Mine. This time I chose to document something that the Little Lady and I get to do every single day. Car Pool Line.

Carey Pace 2012, Me and Mine, Project 26

I'm not sure why it is called Car Pool Line... because it seems that most children aren't car pooling. It is just the parents who are picking up their children, instead of sending them home on the bus. Alas. It is truly called Car Pool Line, and we hang out there from 2:30 to 3:15ish every day. Rocking it out in our Honda Odyssey.

The Lady spends that time playing games on the Ipad. Her favorites are Reading Raven (awesome), and Toca Boca Butterfly, Toca Boca Hair Salon, Toca Boca Tea Party, and Toca Boca Doctor. I usually update myself on facebook on my Droid NOTincredible, and reorganize my ever increasing to do list in my ErinCondren Planner. Eventually when I get caught up with life and am not always so far behind in absolutely everything, I hope to do some reading during this time... eventually.

(and to ward off any nasty comments, yes, I know her seat belt came unthreaded from her seat shoulder caps. She was having so much fun doing this little photo session, wiggling, dancing, giggling, and goofing around that she pulled the seat belt right out of the loop! No worries. It was fixed before we reengaged in driving anywhere.)

Next up is my wonderful kindred spirit combination scientist and artist friend, Jayme Franklin. Make sure to check out how my friends have captured themselves with their special ones.

I shot these with my D90 and a Tokina 11-16mm that I borrowed from my awesome friend Jessica.

Project 26 | Post 20 | Struggle

The theme this week for my 20th post in my Project 26 is Struggle.

it's so hard to watch our children struggle. So much harder than I expected before I became a mother. My instinct is to swoop in. Save. Remove the pain. Remove the suffering. Remove the source of the struggle. Kiss the boo-boo. Make all well. But I have learned that that is not always the right and loving thing to do.

Sometimes, struggle is necessary. essential. and without it, failure and death may result. Those struggles bring forth strength. Strength that is crucial to survival. Strength that cannot be attained without enduring the struggle.

We've raised monarch caterpillars the last two summers. I have LOVED it. It has been utterly fascinating to watch. Once the metamorphosis is complete, the caterpillar has transformed into a beautiful butterfly. But he must struggle. It is so hard to watch the little creature wriggle and writhe once he becomes ready to break free from the chrysalis. You want to reach in and make it easier on him. Help break that shell free. You must stiffle this motherly, helpful instinct.

For if you swoop in and remove the struggle, the butterfly will die.

It is through the process of that struggle that his new body becomes strong enough to live. Strong enough to withstand the environment in which he lives. It is through this process that he is able to pump his new lifeblood throughout his body and wings, inflating what starts out so tiny, but then becomes the most magnificent thing.

This has been the most wonderful illustration to me as a mother. I want to make it all better for them, all the time. But sometimes, I need to let them wriggle and writhe. To push off the restraining outer shell, so that they can discover the true strength they hold inside.

Please visit my lovely friend Gail Pomare, and then the rest of our group, to see her interpretation of Struggle. I'm always amazed at the way Gail sees the world and these prompts. I can assure you that you won't be disappointed by a visit to her blog.

I shot these with my D90 Sigma 30mm f1.4 Nikon 85mm f1.8 Nikon 50mm 1.4D

Newborn | motherhood | lifestyle

lifestyle newborn session by Carey Pace in Kingsport TN

An' when she wraps her hand around my finger,
Oh, it puts a smile in my heart.
Everything becomes a little clearer.
I realise what life is all about.
It's hangin' on when your heart has had enough;
It's givin' more when you feel like givin' up.
I've seen the light: it's in my daughter's eyes.

Martina McBride in her song "In My Daughter's Eyes"

These images of mom with her children, and brand new baby daughter, just speak pure motherhood to me. They are some of my favorite images I've ever captured.