It’s the Details that Reveal a Person

I didn’t follow the rules.  Our latest SOAR photography assignment was to interview and capture the details of both an elderly person and one of our children.  I really don’t know any elderly people.  If I still lived in WA this would be easier.  But, since I live in Ohio and haven’t had a lifetime to develop relationships here, I really and truly don’t know any elderly people.  So I thought long and hard about whom I should ask to stand in and I realized that this assignment couldn’t have come at a better time. 

At best, I am able to see my mom twice a year.  Luckily, she visited this month to celebrate my son’s birthday with us and I decided I really wanted to take this opportunity to capture her details. 

 Alexander is certainly a very important detail to her and she wanted me to capture her grandson with her.  Of course, I was happy to oblige. 

We’re very sentimental people, my mom and I.  My mom is the person that started my love for pictures.  She taught me to be proud of our history and we both cherish all the vintage family photos we have.  I can specifically remember going through all of my great-grandma’s pictures with her before my wedding.  We were enraptured by the history caught in time and proud that we have such tangible objects of members in our family that we’ve never met. 

We adored Grandma Nelson and it’s funny because I have the photos from her house hanging in my house now, and my mom wears and brought with her a cardigan that belonged to my great grandma. 

She’s a sentimental Harley ridin’ gal, that loves a good time. 

Surprisingly, trying to capture Alexander’s details felt more difficult for me to accomplish.  Alexander has SOOOO many details, that I wasn’t sure what to capture.  The boy has way too many toys.  Maybe that’s part of that only child syndrome.  I really wanted to go deeper than the toys though because there is so much to this little man.  Sure, we have our bad days, but he’s normally very agreeable.  His personality is one that puts people at ease. 

He’s constantly reassuring us that he loves us.  If he does something with me, he’ll say to Scott, “I’m going to do this with mommy, but I still love you.”  See how he’s loving on his grandma? 

His hands are always building something.  He's my little engineer that's always lining things up in perfect order.  No joke, we were in Target with my sister in law once looking for something and he took every chapstick out of a bin and lined them up on the endcap. 

Man oh man is he obsessed with photography like his momma.  He’s constantly, I mean constantly, asking if he can take pictures with my camera.  What’s a momma to do?  Well, hand him his own camera of course.

This is assignment was interesting and vital I think, as it's easy to look past the details.  Now, I'm looking through my lens a little differently and thinking about all the moments that I want to remember and capture.

What is So?

Doesn’t this seem like a funny question? What does it even mean? Well, since I did things backwards, this SOAR assignment is actually the 1st assignment that I’m doing 2nd. What is so…is an exercise in taking a look at what is good in whatever. I do notice in me that so many times instead of looking at the positive, my inner critic asks me, “What is so great about…whatever?” Not in a positive way, more in a sarcastic way. This SOAR exercise is meant to be the exact opposite. “What is already in place for my photography business?” This isn’t the easiest question since my photography business is non-existent, but I do already have some things going for me.

Talents/Skills: This is tough for me. I am my own worst critic and it’s really difficult for me to “give myself a complement”, but I will say that I think I’m really patient. This is something that I think will be extremely important in dealing with clients and in trying not to get discouraged in starting a business. Being a momma to a very active lil man also might help me in dealing with children. I might be awkward with people because I don’t do surface level very well, but that also means that I’m genuine and truly care about the person. People aren’t just clients. I tend to invest in trying to really get to know a person.

People: Lucky for me, my hubby really wants me to follow my dreams and believes in me. I also have a mother-in-law that can watch Alexander any time I need her too. We have amazing friends that love us and support us.

Systems: Well, I have a nice Nikon DSLR, 2 okay lenses, an okay external flash and I just bought a 50mm f/1.8 lens. I also already have Photoshop Elements.

Contracts/Agreements: Although I don’t have any formal contracts written yet, I have made an agreement to myself that no matter the outcome, I am giving this my all. Not just because I want to be a professional photographer, but because it’s something I care about and love.

All in all, that probably a pretty good start.

My 1st SOAR assignment

I’m doing this a little backwards. Even though I didn’t win the SOAR scholarship, I still get to follow along and do the weekly assignments that the three SOAR recipients are doing. So, every week that a new assignment comes up, I’m going to work really hard to blog it here. The backwards part is that there have already been two assignments, and I’m doing the second assignment first. I’ll blog about the first assignment soon.

Last week, we were all encouraged to take a self-portrait. This self-portrait is supposed to reflect where I am right now. We were also asked to take a photo of an object that represents us. What should I do? What do I want to convey? How can express in one picture where I am at right now? I thought about maybe turning my head away with some look of shyness on my face because I’m naturally a very shy person. I’m awkward at best and just don’t know how to do surface level conversation when I meet someone new. I like deep. You should have seen the pictures though! Oh, my face just looked weird and wasn’t conveying at all what I wanted to convey. The more I thought about it, the more worried I became that I couldn’t do it. Then I realized that right now, I’m just trying to learn as much as I can. So, I present my self-portrait.

Can I just tell you that I set all my manual settings and handed the camera to my 3 year old? Yes, my 3 year old little boy took this self-portrait of me. He’s such a natural :)
Now, for my object:


I love to cook and it got me thinking. You know how when you whisk something and get that whirlwind effect from the batter spinning? That’s how I feel right now. Like my life is a whirlwind and I’m just trying to hang on for dear life. Time is flying, I’m constantly being pulled in so many directions, and I’m adding my dreams into that mix. You know what’s great about it though? That whirlwind batter almost always turns into something delicious.