You Are My Sunshine[s]....

Even after all this time The sun never says to the earth, "You owe Me."

 Look what happens with a LOVE like that. It lights the whole sky.

- Hafiz

We went to the park last weekend - the sun shone for us afterall and despite the chilly wind, warmed our frosty faces.  Oh, we love you sun!  Keep note for photos of the all elusive Ethan.  I can hardly keep him still for one minute so luck be to us that we finally captured him!!!

Forgotten Language

Forgotten Language

Written by: Shel Silverstein

Once I spoke the language of the flowers,

Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,

Once I smiled a secret at the gossip of the starlings,

And shared a conversation with the housefly

in my bed.

Once I heard and answered all the questions

of the crickets,

And joined the crying of each falling dying

flake of snow,

Once I spoke the language of the flowers....

How did it go?

How did it go?

This weekend I had the utmost pleasure of photographing the White family - a family of 7!  It is a good thing I had recently discovered the near impossibility of managing to get 5 children, all with such unique and different personalities, to look up and smile at the camera at once, thus....we just flowed with their rhythm!  Hence producing perfect, magical photos - looking at them take me back to my childish days.  I had so much fun capturing their little moments and watching them sweetly interact with one another.  They are proof that families of large numbers are truly a good thing!

















































By the Way....If you haven't noticed, I've been playing around with my branding logo quite a bit lately.  One of my fellow bloggers recently asked, "Do you ever annoy yourself?" And my answer to that question would be YES.  I cannot seem to be satisfied but since I'm still "in the making", I guess I give myself the room for a little ongoing "frustrative creativity" until I find the PERFECT one!...So bear with me....XOXO!

Of Love & Angles, Cabbages & Kings...

Ok.  May I firstly call to confession: I am behind on my develop project.  To all my fellow "developers" - accept this as my formal apology.  Especially to Jefra who works SO hard to bring us captivating, inspiring lessons and stunning, breathtaking photos!  *Muah!*

So, yes, develop project #3 got lost in all the clamour of our house as of late.  The "search for light" did not go so well for me.  To put it frankly: I worship the sun when it comes to my photography and without it, I melt to pieces.  New 2010 resolution: work on this.  Find some light in other things: flashlights, and headlights and television sets.  "Yes ma'am" - I tell myself. "Get on it!"

Now onto develop project #4 !  Angles I'm good at.  Mostly because I'm allowed to use the sun for this one.

 (*sidenote - awww - "Us" by Regina Spektor just came on...I LOVE this song....which reminds me I also am in LOVE with the 500 Days of Summer soundtrack! mmmm).  Anywaaaay.... 

I started playing with angles on my usual test subject....Ava the Great....

Anyway - the first is your typical straight on.  The only good thing about the photo is the fact that she's so darn cute with that "duh, mom" look on her face.  The second angle's alright.  She's got cute feet and I'll take any laughing picture I can get of her!  The third angle just looks like she's about to sit on my face so...scratch this.

My next test subject was my son - Ethan the Mighty......

Apparently, I really like this angle.  Interesting factoid: he was so concentrated on coloring at this moment (as you can tell by the last photo and the tongue phenomenon going on there...) - he didn't even notice me taking pictures of him!  Maybe this stunted my creativity - who knows.

I was about to give up until this morning during a "baby's napping - reckless freedom" moment, I got a little camera happy with test subject number 3 - a card Ethan gave me yesterday -

Here are some "looking up" angled views:






Here's an "oh hello, there you are" angle:



Here's a "creeping up on you" angle:



Here's an "I just ate a tea biscuit and grew 4 feet taller - curious & curiouser...." angle:



And lastly: a "you lookin' at me?" angle - nicely framing my muchly-neglected eyebrows



Jesh de Rox just wrote a beautiful post about love/pain/desire/needs.  In the wake of valentines day - reading it will encourage you and remind you of the humanity of us all.  I'll leave you with one exert that I especially loved:

to be seen is perhaps the greatest of all human needs, and we expect/desire/require this from the people we love. 

i held the moment in my hand...

I've been feeling inspired by some of the blogs I follow recently.  Today, Lisa Leonard had an inspiring post about moments and some lovely photos from a vintage book full of love letters.  I sometimes feel like this - like I'm enjoying a moment SO much, if only I could capture it in the palm of my hand, and hold onto it forever. 

Some favorite moments of mine:
- riding my bicycle as a little girl
- the way my sisters soft blonde hair always smelled so nice as a child
- hugs from my mom
- new ballet shoes
- leaving the reception of my wedding - to be alone as husband and wife for the first time!
- seattle - everytime!
- dancing on the rooftop of the place my husband and I first met for our 2nd year wedding anniversary
- the moment i first met Ethan
- the moment i first met Ava
- the moment Ava first walked
- conversations over coffee

I wish I could capture all my moments like this:

I got the photo idea from Amanda's blog. 

What are your favorite moments?  How do you like to "capture" your moments the best?

Ali and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Have you been to The Land of Happy,

Where everyone's happy all day,

Where they joke and they sing

Of the happiest things,

And everything's jolly and gay?

There's no one unhappy in Happy,

There's laughter and smiles galore.

I have been to The Land of Happy -

What a bore!

-Shel Silverstein

Yesterday was a miserably, drippy, soppy, not-good day.  It rained for the most part, and with the rain came scowling winds of cold!  Also, I am subjecting myself to a caffeine/various-bad-food-habits "detox" - where I drink hot water with lemon every morning upon rising, NO coffee or tea for the first week (even decaf), and mostly unsalted, sugarless, flavorless nothingness to eat - day in and day out for a week.  The last three weeks are mostly the same, with small variations peppered in here and there.  The point?! To rid myself of unhealthy eating/drinking habits (i.e...3-4 cups of coffee a day....ahem...) and ultimately, to get super healthy skinny like I used to be in a dream I once had titled "before I turned 25" .  Anyway - I managed to escape yesterday with only ONE emotional breakdown which included me feverishly screaming " I hate you!" to my husband like I was a 13 year old prepubescent all over again.  Thank GOD he still loves me.... Despite the brain-splitting headache, mind-numbing ear & mouth-ache, the dizziness and blurriness of eyes and the almost complete loss of a will to live - I made it.  People - addiction ain't no joke!!!  Who knew caffeine withdrawals could be so scary. 

Anyway - sorry you had to read all that.  Now you can go back to what you thought of my before - you know, the really sweet, colorful, peppy, warm, loving, caring and pretty girl of yore.  To conclude - I did some "photo therapy".  I'm a HUGE advocate for art therapy and seeing as I consider photography to be one of my personal mediums of art, it was definately therapeutic to say the least.  And all I took photos of were fairy raindrops.  They came to visit, did some amazing aerial acrobatics and were gone by this morning but I caught them forever on film - or harddrive - whichever...Now, bring on the lemon water!!!

Pucker Up!

 

Happy Valentines Day from Plumb Photography!

 

Sing Me a Song of Spring...

I spotted two birdies today - maybe spring is closer than I thought.  One can only hope...