My 2014 photography, in numbers

Thank you for your nice comments on Louisa's parenting tips. I'm going to do one every week for about a month.

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Ta da da dum.....

Let's talk about photography, and particularly, my 2014 photography in numbers. 

1. My goal was 12 photowalks (as in a walk with the big camera, solely to take pics of whatever takes my fancy). I ended up with 53. 53!!! (plus the 10 - 12 where I only took the iphone)

I've set a big goal for this year - 52 photowalks. They don't have to be done with the big camera; as long as we take a walk and I take ONE nice pic (nice by my standards), I'll be happy.

We've had 3 so far so we are bang on track, and I haven't taken the big camera for a walk yet (because I hadn't finished 2014 pics and I feel like I'm just adding to the photo crazy otherwise). You can check out my instagram marcia0608 and look for #52walksin2015 to see the 3 pics.


2. Another goal (a standing one) is to have photos of me every month with the kids. I definitely have nice photos every month and much, much more than I expected because I'm now training the kids to take good photos too. And I outright bribe them "if I can take pics of you, then you can take pics of me with Kendra" and it works!

first day of school last year

My folder has 206 photos but there are photos of D with the kids in there too. I think I had 83 photos in 2013 so this is really good going.

If you don't have a photo project for 2015, may I strongly encourage you to get in photos with your kids monthly? (I'm looking at you, Se7en!) And I always say this but if you see me somewhere, tell me to take a photo of you and your kids. Always very happy to do that.

3. We also have 17 family photos of the four of us (besides the professional shoot - oops, I need to show you some of those), and only three of them are "feet shots" :)

Everybody (including me) thinks it's a huge pain in the behind to faff around taking photos BUT we all love seeing them afterwards.

photo by SIL after I adjusted the settings and told her where to stand :)

4. In other news, I've been asked TWICE to take photos of children's parties FOR MONEY. I consider this a huge honour but I'm not mad. I will stop enjoying it if I start feeling constrained. I declined and decided I don't want to be documenting parties....ever :)

Which might be a Good Thing because these are the types of photos I end up taking at parties when I'm really having fun.

rust and chipped paint are my love languages :)

5. I have 206 photos of my kids together (a major miracle) in 2014. This year I'm doing #the52project. I actually love this project and I'll tell you why - NO PERFECTIONISM. I gave myself nice firm boundaries so I don't think about this project daily; instead, I take 5 - 10 minutes on a Sunday afternoon and take some pics. If they're duds, they're duds. That is the snapshot at that moment and I'm going with it. I quickly look through for the one, post to Instagram and I'm done. I'm saving the original 10 X 15 in a special folder and that's it. So it's a quick 15-minute project and that is enough.

don't ask!

6. As far as documenting things, I did Project Life 2014 and am up to date, again, because ...no perfectionism. I love the mini albums (nice boundaries) and I loved the COLOUR from my Kiwi mini album and the Sunshine and Honey 4 X 6 filler cards (I bought digital and printed the PDFs on cardboard).

I'm doing Project Life again - this time I bought Midnight and I have a black album, so it's all very sleek and elegant (unlike me!)

we call this the tribal council pic (Survivor!)

In 2014 (and I will continue this year), I printed 4 pics per kid per month, and 4 of them together.

We've now filled our baby albums, the 300-photo album (Pepperdew or something from CNA), and I had a moment where I said to D, do I really need to continue beyond 5? That was my intention, you see - birth to 5, and then doesn't the cuteness stop?

But the cuteness hasn't stopped and especially the type of photos I take of non-traditional portraits (hands, feet, sides of face, etc), so I'm continuing til I feel like I'm bored or they need only one pic in an album per month (HAHAHA - we can dream).



But I must tell you, my kids LOVE looking through their albums and talking about when this one was taken and this is Kendra: Mummy, look at Sweet Connor!! She is too much.

7. And last but not least, the real numbers.

I kept only 40.7% (not forgetting the 0.7!) of all the photos I took....
I starred 11.9% of them...
Total after editing = 11078
Which means, I took a total of..............

27027 photos on the big camera!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




I have no words either :)


Julia came closest with 15 000 :)

So which numbers were the most interesting to you?
Do you have any photo goals for 2015?

I plan to do Superhero Photo again in about March/ April. Get ready if you plan to join me. We can blog our results weekly...

Saturday Snapshots - show me your patterns

I really hope lots of you join in and post because I LOVE looking at patterns :)

Ah, lovely.

And this is just from one little walk. I could show you about 50 pics :)

Which is your favourite photo?

Ballito photo session aka getting in photos with your kids

The ONE thing I want from every "memorable" occasion is at least one nice photo.

 

Is that too much to ask?

 

I've spoken before about how important it is for me (AND YOU!) to get in photos with the kids. It was a journey for me in 2011 but I'm there now and I get a good haul of about 100 decent (made the cut) photos every year.

 

Isn't that awesome?!

 

Anyway, so when we went to Ballito to celebrate my 40th birthday, I wanted nice photos against the fabulous grey wall.

 

At the time I thought the photo session was a disaster.... then again, I always do.... but I got some beautiful photos and some weird ones that I LOVE!

 

Here is just a small selection of photos from the 4th day and the photo session against that wall!

setting out

 

Essence - Berry (R24,95 from Clicks) It is my "normal" signature shade.

this is actually what it's like trying to take photos with 5-year-olds - ZERO focus

unexpected great one!

Do you consciously get in photos with your kids?

(if not, let's set a goal, just get in 3 photos for the months remaining of 2014, one a month. So this is something I'm willing to do a link-up for. Will you participate? If you're nervous, start with all your feet or hands, and then profile shots, til you get comfortable with a "proper" photo)

PS I have a photo of my mother and I when I was THREE, and I made sure to get one of her now I'm FORTY! Nothing in between except wedding photos.

Photography with children and this month's Snapshots theme

Just a quick reminder that we're moving Saturday Snapshots to the FIRST Saturday of the month. That's this Saturday, the 4th.

Our theme is patterns.

This is such a fun topic - I do hope you'll play along. In fact, I think I have enough for two posts!



I'm SO enjoying taking photos WITH the kids.

Maybe I should write a post? Or an ebook?

Because it's like I can see their little minds open up and take in the world first, because of the camera, and second, because they're learnt to look for details, etc.

Such fun!

 

We've also decided which streets are horrible in the neighbourhood - either because there are too many crazy dogs or there is literally nothing exciting like a tree or interesting wall, etc.

In Joburg, everybody has 6-ft walls so at least the wall, or the number or a tree poking out has to be mildly exciting for us.

The kids love to take photos with this Sony Cybershot, and with my camera, which I happily hand over on 3 conditions:

1. I get to take photos of them first
2. They stand with feet firmly planted on the ground - no fancy footwork
3. They hold the camera with two hands and the strap around their neck.

How easy is it for you to hand over your camera?

PS I know I've said it for years now but I really think THIS year is the year I'll buy them their own cameras for Christmas.

Two little monkeys... jumping on their beds

I took these photos in the kids' bedroom one afternoon at around 5 pm.

We bath them at 4:30 ish in winter before it's too cold.

Have I mentioned before how I have a lovely summer house?! #freezinginwinter

Their bedroom is the sunniest for the most hours every day but still we were scrambling to get the last of the good light.

Me: Guys, come on. The light's fading!

Literally, 10 minutes later it was dark.

My friend, C, with the twins, gave them these pjs for their 3rd birthday. They started wearing them last year but they actually fit properly this winter. Her mom made them - isn't she clever?

Which is your favourite?

Fantasy photo spots and why we should happily pay tolls!

I've spoken about my fantasy family before.

They're the ones who are compliant and behave for photos and such....hahaha

Anyway, I came across these photos from the last day of our holiday which reminded me of that crazy concept.

When we first drove through the resort, I saw these two spots that were PERFECT for photos.

I could just see it - lovely family photos and ones with the kids alone in front of this lovely little house-like structure, and some on the most magnificent bridge ever.

Of course, we kept rushing to something or another (ziplining, for example!) and then it was the last day.

So I made us stop to take some photos.

the magnificent bridge

A lovely man stopped and asked if we would like a photo together and of course I said YES! I would LOVE that. (I always ask people if they'd like a photo together - Mandys, do you remember that couple in Charlotte? Do you?)

there's the bridge from the top of the little hill

and then we came to this little structure - hmmm, perfect for couple photos too!

the silliness started

I've grown to LOVE this photo

photo by Kendra (I love having kids old enough to take photos!)

Then we drove into a petrol station somewhere to use the loos, and on our way out we accidentally took the wrong road (not the toll)

Dear Lord, how we regretted that little mistake. It was a HORRIBLE road. I will never ever ever moan about the crazy tolls on the road to KZN again. Never.

(I'm good about these sorts of resolutions - like how I promised after a fierce winter about 3 - 4 years ago never to complain about summer heat again, and how, after paying about R22 a litre for petrol in Dublin 6 YEARS ago to never moan about the petrol price in South Africa. I haven't complained about those two things since.... and I won't be complaining about tolls again.)

Seeing this dam was the only highlight...

Do you also create these fantasy photos in your mind?
Do you moan about the tolls?