It snowed again and this time it was was the perfect snowman making snow. Our cowboy snowman survived for quite some time. That is until he got shot in the eye. (Side effect of using frozen blueberries for his eyes. Not the best choice.)
Cheese sandwich, his favorite food on the planet. He’d eat a cheese sandwich for every meal if I let him. Today he decided he wanted triangles (instead of squares).
We play a lot of cars in these parts.
A cold snowy day seemed like the perfect day to make Jamie Oliver’s Beef and Ale Stew. It’s dead easy which means I can make it without screwing it up and it was so yummy we polished it off at dinner time (that’s tea time for you English folk).
And, finally, no day is complete without my nemesis, the laundry.
I created these little videos with the wonderful Vine app, it lets me capture video yet frees me from the burden of editing. No editing, just filming. Sweet.
The only thing Vine doesn’t yet have is a nice web interface to follow a specific person’s videos. So to keep up with mine, you can follow me on Twitter, get the Vine app on your iPhone and follow me there (katlightner), or wait for me to embed them in a post like I’ve done here.
It’s morning time and that always comes way too early for this night owl. My son’s shouts from the next room, “Mummy, mummy!” wake me from my deep slumber. I crawl out from underneath the warm snuggly “Duvet of Life” as we call it, the super heavy winter one that makes my other half sweat like he’s been in a sauna. The cold air hits my arms and face like an unwelcome visitor as my feet hit the floor. I stumble in the darkness into the little man’s room still wiping the sleep from my eyes. “Good morning sweetheart,” I say. “How are you this morning?” He gives me a big hug and I cradle him in my arms as I help him climb out of his big boy bed and put his feet on the floor. He’s ready to go downstairs and play. I still need to brush the sweaters off my teeth. As I finish in the bathroom, I see his shadowy figure descending down the stairs in the dawn. It’s a cold rainy dreary day, one of many we see in the English winter. But we’re awake now and breakfast and the rest of a lazy Sunday await.
I wanted to capture his eyelashes. My child has amazing eyelashes. The kind of long, thick eyelashes that mascara makers use to peddle their wares, but he’s got them all without a drop of mascara. It’s just not fair. He’s even from my gene pool which makes this super amazing not fair. Do eyelashes skip a generation? Because I sure as heck didn’t get any. I can only assume these came from his father’s side.
There is no mascara on the market today that would give me eyelashes like this, no matter what their marketing claims. My recent Audrey Hepburn portrait stands as clear evidence of this. It may look like I have lots of dark black eyelashes, but in reality it’s all just editing (Note: remember this when looking at glossy magazines, it’s all just editing. These people are not real). In order to achieve a look similar to the Karsh photo, I applied what I consider to be gobs of dark black eye makeup, an amount of eye makeup I’d be uncomfortable wearing in public because heavy makeup is not my style. But even with all that makeup, I still looked like I had no eyelashes in the photo. So in the end I resorted to something I rarely do with my photos and I Photoshopped myself some eyelashes.
While I might wish I had lashes as gorgeous as his, I am reminded that all any parent wants is for their child to get more out of life than they did. And if it all starts with eyelashes, than so be it. So I’ll continue to gaze longingly at my son’s eyelashes, not because I want them for myself, but because they’re one of those little details that I want to hold tight and remember.
One of the things I love about being a photographer is being invited into people’s lives to capture moments in their life. Sometimes those moments might simply be of ordinary everyday life. But then sometimes, those moments mark big important milestones. And nowhere is this more evident than in a couple of shoots that I did with the lovely Amanda of Amanda Caroline Photography.
First, I had the pleasure of doing a maternity shoot with Amanda when she was about seven months pregnant with her second child. The day we picked, it couldn’t have been more perfect, with the kind of light photographers are always searching for. And the great thing about photographing another photographer is that it’s easy, Amanda instinctively knew where to stand, look, and move, etc.
But what I really love about these photos is how they show just how beautiful we pregnant ladies are. It’s all too easy for us to feel bad about how we look when we’re pregnant. We’re massive, swollen, uncomfortable, and barely able to see our feet. Positive body image is not top of mind. Been there! But look, see how gorgeous she is! We forget that pregnancy also brings a glow and radiance to our whole persona.
Then, a couple short months later I got to capture the ending of this small chapter in Amanda’s life, and the beginning of a new one. What a miracle these little ones are. I always forget how small and precious they are in those first couple of weeks. I forget that my little man was once this tiny little person just starting to figure out what it means to be alive.
And I think that’s why I have such a passion for photography. Life moves so quickly that if we don’t take the time to stop and create memories, to capture the beauty of the life and love around us it will all just fade away into the recesses of our mind. I’m so thankful I could help Amanda capture these memories of her journey to becoming a parent for the second time.
