A Joyful Day Defined!

As I was drinking my coffee yesterday morning, I gazed out the window to find a perfectly overcast but clear day outside. I was immediately inspired and wanted to take advantage of such a "picture" perfect day. If you have read my blog, you know that I absolutely LOVE photography....in fact I get downright giddy over a good photo. I had already planned on shooting photos of my 8 year old daughter, Drew, on Saturday afternoon; but with the weather so perfect and all.....I thought I should be shooting pictures right then. I looked at Drew, who was engaged in her current creation of puppets that she was making, and asked her if she was ready for her photo shoot. She looked up with disappointed eyes and said...."I thought we were doing that this afternoon?" I could tell she really didn't want to stop creating, so I observed who I had left to shoot. Here's a few of the pictures of Drew's Saturday afternoon photo shoot ....a sneak peak if you will!

And of course one of Drew and Bryna, because well.....Bryna insisted, begged, pleaded asked nicely if she could have her picture taken too.

I began to take inventory and see who I thought I could persuade to come with me and let me take their photo. I had recently done photos of Elliot and Bryna and am planning on doing some of Addi in the very near future, so that left my sweet boy Callahan.....this will be HIT or MISS! I went upstairs, where he was still sitting in his pajamas, and asked him if he would come downtown with me and let me take his photo. He smiled and said "YES!" I got his clothes out, and he got dressed. We went and told NPayne that we were heading downtown to do some photos of Cal, and Cal was smiling all the while. Now for the "joyful" part....the smiles so big that my cheeks hurt....the tears that I wiped away....wait until you see.....

I know, I know....you are thinking....not bad, pretty cute photos....she does have a goodlooking boy; BUT what's all the smiling and tearing up about? What I haven't explained to you is how long I have waited for my sweet and beautiful boy to willingly and happily allow me to take his photo. Cal has NEVER liked getting his picture taken....NEVER! Photo shoots we've had in the past have always been miserable.....he has cried and tantrumed, and they usually take hours. We may end up with a somewhat decent photo, but he is rarely ever smiling; and you can usually tell that he's been crying. After a few very unsuccessful photo attempts when Cal was really young, I gave up on family photos or pictures of all of my children together....I actually gave up on photographers altogether, although my friend Cathy, was always so patient and wonderful with Cal, it was exhausting and frustrating. Cal was part of the reason I started taking photos of my children myself, because I knew I could catch him....every now and again....in a willing mood. Last year, after much preparation.....we were in fact able to capture a really great family photo. We used our self timer and tripod to get the "Magnificent Seven" photo you see on the side of my blog. I was THRILLED.....I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I was. Being such a photography nut, it made me so sad to not be able to photo my sweet boy with his soulful eyes and intense stare. So yesterday when I took a shot at asking him, and he happily agreed....and was happy the entire photo shoot, although it may not look like it.....I was literally moved to tears. Everytime he would stand where I asked him, he would smile his big toothy smile and say "CHEESE"! I took mostly candid shots of him, as you can see, because he is still learning how to look natural. That will take a lot of practice for Cal, since he doesn't even know what "look natural" means! I'm hoping to do some more family photos after the holidays. You may be wondering why I'm taking so many pictures of my children and my friends' children lately.....well.....it's all part of my new adventure that I mentioned a few weeks ago. VERY VERY soon.....I am taking this photography obsession of mine live, semi pro, as a paid obsession if you will. In other words, while I continue to learn and teach myself about photos and how to make them take your breath away which hopefully they will.....I am going to start my own photography business!!! WOW!!! I can't believe I said that out loud.....I just caught myself smiling really big as I typed that.... but with a little nudging from NPayne and a few friends.....I think I'm going to DIVE in! All the photos I've been taking have been because I LOVE to take pictures but also because I need a portfolio. So if you know of anyone who needs a semi pro photographer anytime soon, send them my way. Remember a few weeks ago when I did photos of that cute little boy with the cute hat and beautiful blue eyes.....the one by the fabulous blue door wearing wellies? Well thanks to his daddy, I'll have a website and photography blog very very soon! Can't wait to share it with you!!!