Fifty-two on Fridays: Love

Welcome back to my Project 52, or Fifty-two on Friday's.  I hope you've had a chance to catch up on my previous posts covering the themes Motion, Signs, Warmth, Shades of Red and Self Portrait.  I am so fortunate to share this journey with 17 other talented photographers, so don't forget to link to the next photographer at the end of my post to see their interpretation of this weeks theme.


This week, Valentine's Day fell on Monday and naturally our group theme was LOVE.  Valentine's day is a special day for my husband and I because before we were married it was our dating anniversary.  Over the years Valentine's Day has changed for us, but one constant is the very simple and basic love we share.  Life is complicated but I find my retreat in the simplicity of our love!


Here is a stolen moment of our love.  Shockingly, we don't have one of the kids running through the frame! Amazing!

Now grab your coffee, tea, mocha or latte and head on over to the incredibly talent Seattle Child and Family photographer, Sarah Bunch!

Fifty-two on Fridays: Signs

Welcome back to my Project 52, or Fifty-two on Fridays.


The Project 52 is a creative photography endeavor by 18 different photograhers worldwide participating in a blog-circle. In this project we all work from the same theme each week, putting our own creative spin and vision into the project. Remember at the bottom of my post is the link to the next wonderful photographer and her take on each week's theme. Please check out our previous posts, to catch up on the creative sharing for the month of January. Blog love, is loved!


It's the first week of February, and our blog-circle theme is, Signs. I knew immediately what I wanted to photograph, and the more I thought about it...it quickly became my back up option (see my outtake, I'll explain later).
When I was thinking about Signs, I was thinking about how a single sign or symbol can represent an entire brand, a thought, a perception, and how incredibly pervasive a sign may become. Take for example, McDonalds golden arches, Starbucks siren, or Apple's, Apple. All of these are signs that alone without words or print, point us in one single direction, and an associated identity.


My interpretation of the theme, Signs, is Peace. Peace the word, when spoken in different languages, for obvious reasons sounds different. Peace by definition or in print, may also mean different things to different people. But the sign for peace, is clearly understood around the world, and understood without the utterance of words or print.


My interpretation of Signs



Now for my outtake.  When I thought of photographing signs, I immediately thought about photographing a tile designed into the words SHALOM.  This tile sign sit's at the base of a set of stairs that I climb every morning with the children in front of their preschool.  It is the staircase to the place where I leave my children to be cared for while I am at work.  I have wanted to photograph this sign for many years now, and this project gave me the push to do it.


Shalom is a hebrew word meaning PEACE.


Now, please go check out the amazing photographer Shauna, at  Simply Shauna Photography.

Fifty-two on Friday: Warmth

I love having the challenge of a Project 52 each week. It was so amazing last week to see all of the creativity flow from the 16 other women in my blog-circle. When I saw that this week the theme would be warmth, I was truly excited to see what the ladies would come up with! This week, for warmth, I immediately thought of these things...

...a smile that reaches all the way to someone's eyes

...cradling hot mug of coffee on a cold morning

...and hand knit mittens

I originally had a vision of processing these with bold colors to showcase the multi-hued mittens, but stumbled and stumbled to make it right.  I finally was pushing some sliders and presets and found the duotone BW, and  fell.in.love.with.it. Goes to show that even when you have a vision, your voice may take you in a different direction (yes, I am reading a book by David duChemin!) 

I have to thank my dear friend Tara for allowing me to torture her again with my camera. She is so supportive of passion for photography, and has not turned down one of my requests to photograph her or her boys!

The outtake, but still one of my FAVS

Now, go check out the amazing creativity of Sarah Bunch at http://www.birthofaphotographer.blogspot.com/ for her take on warmth. Blog love is always appreciated, and see you next week.

Fifty-Two on Friday: Self

I am really excited to share with you my Project 52 post!

What is a project 52: It's a new theme each week captured and interpreted by what I see through the lens. Last week I started my project 52 alone, but this week and for the rest of the year, sixteen other photographers and I are doing our Project 52 together. Our goal is to learn and grow from each others perspective on the same theme. I am really excited to participate with such amazing women and I look forward to how all of us will be challenged and inspired by each other work and creativity.


How will all 17 of us work together on a project 52, well...I will take a picture of our theme for the week, the way I interpret it, and post it on my site. Then under my post, I will link another photographer who is part of the project for you to see her interpretation of the theme. After you see hers, you will notice a different link under her picture that will then take you to the next photographer’s website. If you continue to click on the link under each picture, in the end you should see 16 other pictures and eventually make it back to my site.


This week, our theme is self-portrait. This theme will allow us to see the photographers who are participating in this journey and put a face to a name. Remember to check out all of the links at the bottom of the portrait!


Here is me. This week, it was my turn to step in front of the camera. Me with my coffee. My day hasn't really started until I have my soy latte in hand, and the cup...well you can't see it, but it has a crab on it. That's intentional, because I can be a bit "crabby" in the morning until I get my coffee (hee hee.)

For the next fabulous photographer participating in this Project 52 on Friday check out Sarah Bunch at www.birthofaphotographer.blogspot.com

A new year, a new project! Blogging all about Pebbles and BamBam

This year I've decided to really push myself to be more creative.  I love love love the technical side of photography, but I want to balance that technical know-how with the creative.  When I went through my photos last week to pick out a couple dozen for printing I had stacks and stacks of portrait after portrait.  Portraits are nice, but I don't need hundreds and they don't capture real life.  So this year I have taken on a Project 52!  One photo a week.  Each week I will try and give myself a theme to follow, to inspire me, to push beyond trying to get a perfect portrait of my kids.  Instead, I am going to photograph the fleeting moments where I see beauty, joy, chaos, the details of our lives!

This past week was week 1.  The theme I set for myself was 8:00 am!  8:00 am is the busiest moment in our family's morning.  It is when we are trying to get lunches packed, kids jackets and shoes on (the right feet hopefully), kids into the car, buckled in, giving kisses goodbye and last instructions, and all trying to make it happen without the threat of a meltdown.  

Week 1: Project 52, 2011

8:00 am

If you are inspired to take on a project 52, leave me a comment on my blog.  I would love to follow your journey through the year, don't forget to leave your link!