21/52

 

{Harper} That grin - bam! She always reveals her personality quickly in front of the camera. Makes this project (well her side of it) a breeze. 

{Finn} A camera avoider from way back. I go through most weeks silently hovering over him, hoping that he won't see the camera as he busies himself with play. This week up until about six hours ago I didn't have many photos of Finn. That was until I asked Lachie to help me out. I found the good light in our house, Lach asked Finn to sit down and began firing questions at him while I snapped away. When I finally captured his signature dimple smile I gave Lach the thumbs up and put the camera down. Finn's response: "Daddy can you ask me some more questions? I like your questions."

The B-sides (because two photos seems a little minimalist for me…)

{"They are craters on the moon mum!"}

{rescue worker headwear with light. he persisted with that strap until it fitted snuggly around his face}

{"walking in the bush, walking in the bush, there is nothing quite like it, walking in the bush"
 As long as I kept singing this on repeat she was happy for me to take photos as she wandered}

1/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013

{Harper} Usually full of movement and activity, a moment of stillness. I think the heat sedated her.

{Finn} Kicking around in the local pool with a wide smile that didn’t ease up all day.

Well, I’ve had a week of complete indecision. After wrapping up Project 366 I really couldn’t face continuing this blog and was pretty certain that the end of the project would see the end of the blog. The daily grind of capturing, uploading, editing and finally blogging wore pretty thin come the end of December and the thought of keeping the blog up really wasn’t sounding that appealing when the new year rang in.

As the week went on I kept taking photos each day (Yes even on Jan 1- seriously what’s up with that?) and knew that I wanted to complete another project this year. Good lord not a photo a day but something that I could manage and that would keep my interest in photography and my compulsion to document our family life going. So, Project 52 it is. One portrait of each of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013. 104 photographs for the year. I can do that.

Today after thinking about how I am going to sustain this project (and a little encouragement from family and friends) I decided that I would blog this project. I need accountability. I need something that will make me get those many, many images off my camera. Posting the photos once a week will help me stick to an editing pattern and hopefully encourage me to aim a little higher with my photos and learn a few new techniques along the way.

So here I am again. Wise descision? Well, we'll see.....

 

The B-sides (because two photos seems a little minimalist for me…)

{i get out now}

{"mummy, no more pictures of my curlies"
"but, finny how can I not?"}

{fish lips}

{hello my little kitchen helper}

{ice-cream headache}

 

Documenting Delight: day three hundred and sixty three {backyard pool}

After a cool and rainy Christmas in Mittagong we returned to sunny weather in Canberra. Today we enjoyed having nowhere to go by catching up on some housey jobs and watching the kids getting in and out of the pool for most of the afternoon. Summer days have hit and it feels good.

My wild child, Harper May flicking her unkept hair around. Most of my favourite photos of Harper from this project have Harper sporting unruly, wavy, unbrushed hair. While she does look pretty with her hair in cute hairties it doesn’t really reflect her personality like her hair does in these photos. This is Harper; wild, spirited, fun and cheeky.

Documenting Delight: day two hundred and ninety seven {singing after swimming}

Documenting Delight: day one hundred and fifty six {swimming lessons}

Winter is here and our weekly swimming lessons continue as normal. This morning as I shuffled into the changeroom shivering and trying to pry wet swimming gear from myself and my two wriggling swimming partners I  questioned whether pushing on through the winter months is worth it. Is this complete madness? My theory is that if we commit to year round lessons  it will just become something we do, rather than an activity that we complete in the warmer months then have to re-adjust to after we give it a break for a while. You see, Finn isn’t so keen on the water. It has been a long, hard slog to get Finn to the point where he will willingly enter the pool.  He is now happy in the water, likes his teacher and is slowly gaining some confidence in the water. Even Canberra’s minus temps won’t be able to stop the momentum we have going.

Growing up, I was never far from the beach. I have always been around water, so much so that I never actually remember when I learnt to swim. But I was lucky, water was part of my environment. Living in Canberra, with the closest beach a couple of hours away, Finn and Harper will never have the same experience with water as I did. I can’t change that fact, but it does make me even more determined to make sure that both our kids learn to swim.

So over the coming months  I will be getting in my cozzies and pretending it’s a warm summer’s day, even when frost is slowly clearing outside the Aquatic Centre. Mind over matter. Mind over matter.