School's in
While the afternoons are still warm, tinged with New York's very own brand of late summer humidity, the mornings are cooler, and the leaves are beginning to change color. And that means the new school year has begun. Sigh.
Today marked my first first day of school that left me with no more babies at home. That's right— all three kiddos are now fully school-aged, and that means this mama's heart is swole as all hell, brimming with mixed emotions and tears.
I'm not crying, you're crying!
P.S. If I ever decide to go another direction with my career, I guess I could always kickstart a brand new genre of casual and candid lifestyle school portraiture, eh? 😄
How and when I got into photography
I always could appreciate a nicely composed, quality photograph, and I even took film photography and darkroom classes way back in High School. But to be honest, I kind of skated through that elective. (Read: did not excel.)
The foundational knowledge I'd learned in photography class did not stick with my 16-year-old self and would remain dormant en la cabeza until inspiration arrived alongside with my first muse, a few years later.
If I had one of the photographs I took and developed handy, I'd insert the scanned version here. Next time I visit my parents, I'll need to check if any still exist. 🤔
Fast forward to parenthood. Like a helluva lot of other #momtographers out there, brand new motherhood filled me with a desire for LOTS AND LOTS of cute, bokehlicious photos of my spawn kid, bathed in natural lighting (ideally golden-hour, but I'll take what I can get!).
And so, I learned. And practiced. And learned some more. I've bought and sold quite a few cameras, lenses, and accessories along the way. And oh, I've still got so much to learn and too many techniques to still try.
But I got what I wanted out of that first digital SLR (a dinky but trusty ol' Nikon D50, most often paired with a 50mm 1.8): a deep abiding love of photography and enough photos to fill a dozen wedding dinner slideshows for each of my kids' future weddings. I can see it now— their wedding planners and media teams are going to love me— ha!
So cheers to motherhood for many things, and today, I tip my hat to you for playing a crucial role in leading me to photography and the creative catharsis this artform provides. And the memories I get to freeze in time and cherish over and over again? Priceless.
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