So where have I been? Playing outside of course! Our home has been filled with children. Lots of sleepovers and laughter filling these hallways. Panda requested I take pictures of her & the friends staying over which I agreed to do. She came back with a question "What theme should we do?".. I honestly did not think the girls meant to go all out but thought... why not?! What would be FUN for these girls? Something THEY would want & appeal to... Something fun & full of persona's. Something the girls would enjoy that includes doing hair, makeup & choosing of outfits. Then I remembered this video which I soon played for the girls to understand what I had envisioned. The one Drew Barrymore directed for the band Best Coast and their song "Our Deal"....: " Lets go Punk. How does that sound?" .... of course they were very happy with a theme away from my norm of soft Natural settings. They wanted edgy and honestly, for teen girls, THIS is as edgy as I will go. Thankfully they were all about it.
The next Morning began with makeup & hair styling taking over the bathroom & Panda's bedroom. We got a late start due to some other issues, making the afternoon sun not play in our favor. Afterwards we stopped for slushies and while they looked through their photos, I picked up Pizza. Their evening ending with another sleepover with many talks of how much fun the day was. Their laughter & banter of the day's activities still echoing down the hall....
I like themes. I like costumes. I like giving different Persona's when I play with the camera. I am far from mastering it. No where near Pro quality but I'm learning as I explore & experiment. Have I reinforced this enough? I really do not want some "pro" coming upon this and proclaiming me a "hack". I in no way present this as anything other then a sharing of our camera play. Spare us all the spiel.
This is the Short version of the inspired theme. The extended version is made like a mini movie music video of 10 minutes.
http://www.mtv.com/videos/best-coast/677679/our-deal-directed-by-drew-barrymore.jhtml?xrs=share_copy
I call this session with the girls my warm up. I truly have not shot photos other then snapshots since Last Fall... Without all the fancy equipment, indoor photos do not come out well and my collecting of such items will take some time. The stuff is not cheap. There was a lighting setup at the thrift for $125 but it was gone before I could afford to grab it. One of those make you sick to the stomach deals being you know when you come back it will most likely be gone. Outdoor lighting is timed. Not just anytime of the day will do as you will see in my pictures. Shadows can be a photos worst enemy. We worked through it anyway. Knowing these are a session of practice & learning for me yet fun & adventurous for them.
A short Peak of our The Punk Practice session:
I'm still playing around with editing which is the cause for various differences of their colors, framing, etc.
You should have seen their faces when I whipped out a handful of Twizzlers and cans of spray paint from my backpack. Priceless! No, they did NOT actually use the spray paint. All props. Very little direction was needed by me. Other then moving of a chin or arm to help ease the shadow issues of mid afternoon, obviously you can't force it away but you can try working with it.
They were so much fun and to hear from the backseat by all "That was so much fun. When can we do it again?" and then hearing them think up more themes and persona's... pure happiness for this Mom.
The pictures are not great and the girls knew before hand this is a new hobby for me. These were not going to come out as something you see in magazines. BUT they could care less.
They were laughing & loving it. My mission & their Spring Break fun.... complete.
I honestly can not wait to do it all again soon. They want to gather up a few more girlfriends for this same theme in the next month or two. Thankfully I thought ahead & gained permission from the Train yard owner for re visits. Non active tracks & trains as well as so much inner city influence oozing from it's environment. PERFECT and safe for these kids I care for as my own.
The hens have begun laying again after a late winter Molt. The Captain & I are discussing the possibility of allowing them to hatch out a few dozen for replacements. I would prefer to just go pick up a dozen barred rock chicks and thin out the current flock. The thought of chicks inside for a bit has kept this thought as just thought. A consideration unconfirmed. We'll see how it goes.
For now...
Sweet Dreams,
~Tammie
3 comments:
I have loved reading your blog for some time, usually not signed in so I do not know if it is tracked. Anyway, You Are Great! You achieve so much! Today however, I read your blog and almost cried.... You are a wonderful mom as well! You have inspired me many times and I've enjoyed following your yard adventures, reading about you and yours and just in general getting out of my head and into another place. So, Thank You for that. And thanks too for sharing your heart!
(This specific blog post reminded me of my mom, not that we did anything like this, but she tried so hard and would have loved doing something like it!)
~off to call my mom and thank her for all that she did
:) Bright Blessing to You & Yours
I think these came out great! I love the whole look of the shots and the props.
Tina~ Your comment is so kind and truly brought a smile to my heart. Motherhood is my most prized role in life. Not to downplay being a wife but motherhood is so much bigger. With Panda just a few months away from official Teenhood, I have found our mom & daughter relationship change once again.I try to find things that would be fun for her to do with me since the age gap between her & frog is 6 yrs apart. It makes for some hard family time fun keeping them all entertained when together. Her interests are different from mine which I try to reinforce with a positive interest in hers. This age I remember far more clearly then earlier years in life. It is the time where especially with the girls, insecurities and other issues pop up. I have already endured the tears of body images & such that I feel by complimenting & showing themselves through the pictures, all of the girls have a more positive attitude and are becoming more secure with what they look like. It's hard to explain but rounding it off, I pick a feature of theirs that I have "overheard" them speak insecurely of and highlight it in a positive beautiful shining way in the pictures as well as complimenting as we take them. They were bashful when I would say how pretty they are and to hold their head this way to emphasize those gorgeous eyes, that long neck or those long legs {poor dears have no idea how nice it is to have long legs.It truly saddens me to hear them say they need to lose weight or other image negative.}. Then when we went through them I would show them remember, this is where I had you move your chin, etc see how amazing you look? They always get positive reinforcement on their smarts from me as well but the looks are just one of those things that come out strongly insecure with this age. I know how important it is to build up their image security being that is no matter how or what you do to say looks don't matter, we all know we just want to feel beautiful and not just be intelligent. Thats just the way we silly females are. : ) Oh my, I hope this did not come off as a blabber. Merely sharing one of the things that motivate me when I do their pictures.... & I <3 that this reminded you of your Mum and hope you had a wonderful chat with her. <3
Michelle~ Thank you. I so love doing them with the kids. Teen girls are so funny and they even had some great ideas. The shoe shot was all theirs. " get one of our shoes! Yeah, guys, sit down here." Total spontaneous and is one of their top favorite shots. As much fun as it was for them,it provided me with a season warmup and the ability to critique myself, excited to get back out there and do it again lessons in hand.
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