Join me as I take one photo a week for the next year, each one capturing a specific aspect of our family life and my kid's childhood that I want remembered. You can read the introduction post here, an FAQ post here and all related posts here.
Since I swapped weeks for Valentine's Day, this week I'm back to photographing the relationships in our life.
Assignment 34: Just the parents.As much as I grumble about getting out my tripod and taking the time to photograph just the two of us, I always love having another photo of just the two of us together.
We just don't have many photos of the two of us, unless they're snapped at a wedding or party. It poured rain all day the day we took this but when there was finally a break in the rain late in the day, we quickly threw on jackets and headed out to the trail behind our house.
We walk on this trail a lot so it was fitting to do our photograph together here. And even though I look at this and am happy for the couple we are, I laugh remembering what was going on behind the scenes. For some reason my remote was acting up and would only work from two feet away. So Angelo got to be the remote operator and he was having the time of his life. Except then Gracie wanted in on the action which resulted in me yelling "stay away from the camera" in between shots as they had races in circles around it - those two will race anywhere!
If you take a photo of the two of you, let me know. I always love comments below or you can send me an email.
5 comments so far
Join me as I take one photo a week for the next year, each one capturing a specific aspect of our family life and my kid's childhood that I want remembered. You can read the introduction post here, an FAQ post here and all related posts here.
Ordinarily in the second week of the month I'd be photographing the relationships in our family. But the relationship photograph has been preempted by Valentine's Day.
Assignment 33: Photograph your Valentine's Day.
Obviously since Valentine's Day hasn't happened yet I won't have my Valentine's photograph until tomorrow. So for now I photographed Angelo while he got his Valentine's cards ready to give out to his class. He's taping heart-shaped lollipops onto the back of the cards we had printed. I'll substitute in the real Valentine's Day photo when it's time to get my album pages ready.
Now I need to get my butt in gear and plan something for Valentine's day. Usually I have crafts and goodies and decorations planned well in advance but it's less than 24 hours until v-day and I have nothing. Time to hit Pinterest (and likely Michael's).
And since we missed out on relationships this week, we'll do a relationship photograph next week. And it's a good one. :)
5 comments so far
First off - i LOVE your table! I think it's really cute to see kiddos getting Valentine cards ready. Max wrote his name on his yesterday. But I may have to get suckers to tape to them - that's a good idea! ;)
Oh my goodness. Look at your adorable Valentines. Love them and love these photos!
i adore these photos. love the perspective and crops on them. and those are some amazing valentine's.
Very systematic and organized assembly of valentine cards. I'm impressed. Ours looked super disorganized in comparison, and I forgot to shoot anything valentines, oops:) I love all the lines and the angles.
I love this idea soooo much! I'm starting with Monday's photo... I guess I will just continue to finish out the year after you have completed this project in a few months. I'll just keep going with your prompts... :)
Join me as I take one photo a week for the next year, each one capturing a specific aspect of our family life and my kid's childhood that I want remembered. You can read the introduction post here, an FAQ post here and all related posts here.January felt like a bit of a long month in this house. The days were long and we were having a tough time finding our groove again after all the busyness and late nights of the Christmas holidays. The 'don't carpe diem' blog post that was making it's way around the internet was on my mind a lot.
As I began gathering my January photographs together and looking through all my folders to choose my favourites, I realized what a great month we actually did have. And realized just how true We actually had an amazing month and did so many things together.
So, as Glennon put it, while I may not have been in a constant state of intense gratitude and ecstasy looking back at the month I'd say we did pretty darn good.
3 comments so far
Love it! You are so diligent about this project. What a treasure your book will be!
I love the two of your kiddos on the left. So cute. I can almost hear your son laughing. He's has such a natural pose in this shot with his hands in his pockets. What is it about January that seems to make it seem like the longest month of the year? I'm always happy when January is over - it means the birthdays (husband's and son's) are over and I can rest.
man, your book is going to be so freakin' gorgeous! so glad you have these to look back on as beautiful reminders of your good life. :)
Join me as I take one photo a week for the next year, each one capturing a specific aspect of our family life and my kid's childhood that I want remembered. You can read the introduction post here, an FAQ post here and all related posts here.
In the first week of every month I photograph a room in our home.
Assignment 32: Photograph your playroom, basement or bonus room.This is probably the least photographed room in our house. The kids are down there fairly often but the light down there isn't the greatest so I never really pull out my camera down there. Even if the light isn't great it's actually a really great space since it's only 5 steps down from our kitchen and we can easily talk back and forth when I'm getting meals ready or cleaning up.
It's also usually a mess. For those of you commented on how clean our house usually is, the adult spaces usually are but the playroom and their bedrooms are their spaces. I make them completely clean them up once or twice a week so I can vacuum but they usually semi-clean it on their own more often than that because all the toys on the floor means there's no room for soccer or hockey. Although this morning it looks like they just 'zamboni-ed' them all to the side.
So, as usual, I'm thankful I created this project. It's funny how I think because I always have my camera out that I'm capturing a complete picture of their childhood yet it wasn't until this week that I realized I never photograph them in their playroom. I did photograph it once before when I was talking about our Sarah Jane art (which is on the wall I'm standing against to take this photograph) but I don't have many of them playing in there.
If you're playing along with the project, I'd love to see what your playroom looks like. Link below in the comments or send me an email.
5 comments so far
10 points for working in the term "zambonied" looks like pretty nice light to me too!
haha! love Kristin's comment. :)
and totally, totally love seeing this peek into your playroom. do you guys live in a split level? love that you still have such big windows down there. and i can't tell you how happy and relived it makes me feel to see toys all over the floor. ;)
Nice to see some mess in your home! This looks like a fun and well-used room!
Love the cozy fireplace. Do you ever have a fire in there? Love the mess too, mess means fun.
Love this cuz it's real! You should see our playroom.....looks like a bomb went off! Ha. Guess it's well used :)
Join me as I take one photo a week for the next year, each one capturing a specific aspect of our family life and my kid's childhood that I want remembered. You can read the introduction post here, an FAQ post here and all related posts here.
January has five Mondays (and my project has four assignments each month) so this week is a bonus week. If you've missed a week or two, now is a great time to catch up. And even if you haven't been playing along, this week is for everyone.
Assignment 31: Change it up.If you take a look through all your photographs, you'll probably see a lot of similarities.
When I'm photographing my own family inside our home I tend to take photographs from the same angle, in the same position, with the same lens because it's easy and it works.
It's definitely not the only way I photograph them but looking through all the photographs of them in our home, I can certainly see where my comfort zone is.
So today I'm challenging you to change up the way you photograph your littles. If you always shoot from your level, get down on there's. If you always shoot towards the window, shoot away from the window. If you always zoom in close to them, zoom out. You get my point.
This week I decided to photograph my littles from above. The toughest part? Making sure my slippers weren't in every single shot.
They had decided they wanted to go on a trip so they packed up a bunch of stuff into Angelo's suitcase and backpack and went on a vacation to Gracie's rug. I love how they play together.
And it hadn't occurred to me that I didn't have a photograph of his placemat. He loves it but it's getting really worn out so it's almost time for a new one.
5 comments so far
What a great perspective! I'm thinking I need to change things up a bit now. :)
I really liked this challenge. Didn't realize I was always taking things from the same angle. I find I also zoom in lots to try to block out distractions aka. clutter in the background. Thanks again for this great assignment. I'm really enjoying blogging again and look forward to checking out the upcoming challenges.
I am really digging your angle. Love the shooting down perspective. All the little details that get missed when shooting straight on. Your an inspiration as usual:)
totally love your perspective in these shots. great challenge again, jenn.
If you're new to my blog you can read more about my Our Year in Photos Project here and read all related posts here.
At the end of each month I create an album layout out of that's month's photographs so that at the end of the year my album will be ready to go and not require any work on my part to get it ready for printing. I also choose two (or three or four, but I try to keep it at two) favourite photographs from the month that weren't from the project. Sometimes those photographs are just random ones I've taken of our family that I love and other times I use those two photographs to include an event in our album that I don't want missed - a wedding, a birth, etc.
My album is a 12"x12" album and it's going to lay flat when you open it which is why some photographs look like they're going right through the spine of the album.
For my favourites this month I had to include some photographs of our trip to Mexico - one of my sister and new brother-in-law and one each of the kids doing their thing at the pool and beach. Gracie loves her gymnastics class and her favourite thing is to swing off the high bar. When we got to the pool and she saw this handrail in the shallow end, all the she wanted to do was swing off it.
5 comments so far
Your sister is beautiful! At first I thought that was you... and I was like... why is Jenn getting married to a new guy?
VERY confusing... and distressing. ;)
Oh my gosh, Gracie's swimsuit is SOOOOO cute! Where did you get it?!
And love that photo of your sister and BIL. Her dress is beautiful.
This book is going to be so awesome, Jenn.
Great pages! You'll be so happy to have everything all laid out at the end of the project so you can just send it off to be printed. I've aspired to that level of organization but never reached it!
I love that you're prepping everything as you go so you're going to have a whole year of memories as soon as you're done. Your kids are so you...absolutely adorable!
Join me as I take one photo a week for the next year, each one capturing a specific aspect of our family life and my kid's childhood that I want remembered. You can read the introduction post here, an FAQ post here and all related posts here.
It's the fourth week of the month so this week I'm photographing more of the details of our life.
Assignment 30: Photograph their height.There are so many ways to go with this one but your assignment for this week is just to photograph your littles any way that shows their height today.
When I first pulled up my calendar to see which photo I had planned out to photograph this week and saw that it was 'height' I immediately wandered down the pinterest path of growth charts and got lost for the next three hours. For some reason when I read that prompt, I envisioned a jagged little pencil line marked on a door frame with the date and each of their names written beside their own little line.
Except then I spiraled into thoughts of how we'd never be able to paint their rooms because their little growth charts would be on their walls and then we would never be able to move from this house because then we'd be leaving their growth charts behind which is how I found myself on pinterest looking for inspiration on creating my own wooden growth chart that I could nail to the wall.
And it was after those three hours that I remembered that the whole purpose of this project was to capture the details of our everyday life, not the one I suddenly need the feel the need to create after being on pinterest.
So yesterday after church I photographed them using their dad as their measuring stick. I love how Angelo comes up to his elbow and Gracie comes up to his wrist and how you can see their height in relation to each other. How he is cuddled up next to his dad (his favourite spot) and she is performing and wiggling and can't wait to break away and dance. The perfect reminder of exactly why I started this project.
8 comments so far
Ha! You are wise. At our old house we had the penciled growth chart on the wall in our closet. When we moved I got all panicky. My husband actually transferred the growth chart onto a long roll of paper and made me a wood growth chart to transfer all the info on for the new house. Blah. It still makes me sick to think of their baby hands and feet that are pressed into concrete at our old house. ;) I love that your shot has them measured up against dad. :)
I love how you photographed this! What a great way of capturing their littleness in contrast to an adult. My son is almost as tall as me now!!!!!!
Your solution was brilliant and simple! Congrats on staying true to the goal of capturing everyday life. We have a growth chart that gets around the "what if we move" issue - Sophia's grandparents painted a wooden board with her name and measurements and the board hangs on the wall in her room. We measure her on every birthday.
What a great way to capture their growth! I am always kind of keeping track of how tall is next to me. Is already half my height (i'm only 5'4") and he's only 5! Stop growing already! We got the Pottery Barn growth chart that looks like a big ruler. I have yet to put his growth marks on there, but at least I know I can take it with me if we ever move. ;)
I love that you chose to "measure" them against dad. I totally want Grace's tights! I love that she's a little firecracker. :)
So smart to use dad! I had the same idea about making something to take their picture next too and then quickly realized that was CRAZY :)
love this. such a great idea - totally thinking outside the box. i'm struggling with this one.
Join me as I take one photo a week for the next year, each one capturing a specific aspect of our family life and my kid's childhood that I want remembered. You can read the introduction post here, an FAQ post here and all related posts here.
In the third week of each month I'm photographing part of our daily routine.
Assignment 29: Photograph your mealtime.I chose a weekend lunch so we were all eating together and the light was pretty. :)
I've been looking forward to this one for a while because I've always thought it's funny that we don't sit all across from each other.
Jim and I sit closest to the kitchen so we can run back and forth throughout the meal for whatever we need. Angelo sits on the other side of the table so he can see everything that's going on, otherwise he spends the whole meal turned around trying to see whoever is in the kitchen and inevitably ends up knocking something over. Gracie sits in her highchair at the end of the table because we keep her highchair in that little corner between the french doors and the kitchen so we just push her over to that spot so we can all see each other while we're eating.
So here I was thinking it's funny that we don't sit two facing two at the table, when my friend Heather posted a photograph of her family eating last week and they sit the exact same way.
And now I'm curious. How do you all sit for your meals? If you're playing along comment below with your link or send me an email.
8 comments so far
You guys are so efficient. We have an oval table that seats 6. It drives me crazy because we are a family of 4. My husband used to try to take an end seat but it drove me bananas because then the sides of the table were unbalanced.
Now I forbid people from sititng on the end. We sit girls on one side facing the boys. I face my husband. HE is closer to the kitchen than me which shows my brilliance. ;)
Love the shot. Can't believe how tidy your house is.
Such pretty light. I am amazed that your small children sit during mealtimes. Mine never did or would. I am looking forward to getting to this one, mealtimes are such an important part of family bonding. Nice capture. Your children's expressions are priceless. Looks like they are loving the attention:)
I keep looking at this photo and all I can think is that you have a really beautiful dining room! I am so impressed. And that light is so lovely too.
I can't get over how clean your house is! Man, I'm jealous.
Love seeing how other people sit at their tables too. I sit on the end so I'm closest to the kitchen too. But we have one person on either side of Silas or else it would be impossible to get him to sit and eat - wait a minute, it's nearly impossible as it is. ;)
Such a great idea for a photo. I totally want to take one of us in the middle of the day - will have to wait until the weekend to do it.
wow Jenn, everything looks so calm at your house during mealtime. I will have to see if I can capture our typical mealtime. Thanks again for the challenges, it's lots of fun, even thinking about what to capture.
What great light you get in that room. So pretty. And I echo what Heather said, you're kids actually sit for meals? Max is constantly getting up and running off to get something and then sitting back down and getting up...and oh it drives me batty!
we totally sit facing either other with lots of kids in between so that each of us can reach at least one kid.
Do you think when Grace is out of the high chair she'll sit across from Jim? I love the way she's looking at him. Is she a daddy's girl? Same with the way Angelo is looking at you. :)
This is so sweet. You guys do the best couple selfies. :) And you're totally making my stomach turn with worry about Gracie running around your camera. ;)
This is beautiful, Jenn.
Ha, I can just hear the yelling to get away from the camera, then quickly compose yourselves for some great shots.
Very nice!
Beautiful! You are brave to let the kids in on the picture taking. ;-) i can just imagine you yelling in between photos. :-)
I can't believe how lovely your little self timer shots always turn out! As if you had a personal photog at your disposal following you around. :) This shot is perfect.
t