20 years from now

now well into the second month of my second year of project 365 i've seen a definite pattern develop. not that it took me two years and two months to figure that out, but i digress... my daily pictures tend to be face shots of {shock} my girls. while i have loads of reasons for that, not the least of which being that they're easy & accessible targets... er, i mean subjects. but after reading an email from noell hyman of paperclipping.com, i got to thinking about what kinds of photos will i want to see 20 years from now? what will my girls want to see 20 years from now? what childhood photos do i cherish most? it's those real life moments that are so fun to look back on, and the memories they bring with them.

but another thing that i (personally) really enjoy is watching my kids grow in photographs. it's one of the reasons i take so many face shots. when the girls were babies, i took them to sears to have their pictures taken ever single month of their first year. why? beside the fact that i'm slightly obsessed with pictures?? they grow and change so quickly, it seems like if you blink it's gone. you think you'll remember the each little piece of them forever, but sadly you don't. or at least  you can't conjure it up at any given moment. i sometimes joke that if you put all the pictures i've taken of the girls in a big stack and flipped through them, you'd see their lives in slow-mo (like a cartoon flip book). and so it goes with the face shots. taking pictures every day shows those subtle changes that i might have otherwise missed. magic moments of tiny change... at least they're easier to take than big changes, i think!

we had a couple days of fabulous sunshine here in the northwest. (my apologies to the east coasters who are socked in with snow right now!) don't worry, we're back to rain now, but on the sunny days i got a chance to try "panning" again. it's a very cool way of keeping your subject in motion in focus while the background is blurred. 

i'm definitely not an expert, and i took hundreds of shots, and only had a handful turn out clear. but i'll give you the basics, if you want to give it a try. have your subject or find one that is moving in a consistent motion. they don't have to be going a million miles an hour, just moving predictable way. set your camera to shutter priority. you'll want your shutter speed to be on the slower side around 1/20 to 1/25. (the top pictures was a 1/25 of a sec at f9, and the bottom image was at 1/20 of a sec at f25.) now, i was holding my camera, but you may have better luck with a monopod. but for the pod-less, i'll tell you how i did it. focus on your subject, then follow them with your camera (keeping them in the frame) as they move. click your shutter at some point while you're following them in camera... making sure to continue to follow them after you press the shutter. it'll take some practice, but the end result is something like these.  i'm sure there are zillions of applications for panning, but i've tried it with bike (and now scooter) riding. it's a good place to start since it's a generally consistent motion to follow.

 

as for the rest of these... just snippets and samplings of daily life. nothing too exciting, but again part of the memories that hopefully will turn out to be the treasured ones 20 years from now.

we're heading back to colorado to visit my brother over the girls' midwinter break this weekend. that leaves us trying to tie up all of our loose ends before we leave on friday. so yesterday the girls made their valentine cards for their classmates thanks to a super-cute and FREE digital goodie from paislee press. they're now ready to spread the valentine's love!