*insert blubbering here*

Tomorrow, his last day of school, I plan on doing some Pinterest-inspired photos. And blubbering.

To a child… everything.

You see, my boys have always loved dandelions. On a recent photowalk by myself, I happened upon this amazing little field of dandelions. Just steps off a local walking trail, it was as if it was created specifically for my two sons. And me, because I love a good wisher — as we call them — as well.

It was high noon when I was bopping around in my newfound favorite secret place, but the trees surrounding my field of flowers were tall. Still I knew that the evening sun would bring some gorgeous tones to the little valley next to the creek and I vowed to bring the boys back to make as many wishes as their little hearts desired.

I didn’t tell them where we were going or what we were doing. As we cross over the arched bridge, they knew. They started running and yelling. “Mommy, there are so many wishers! How will we make this many wishes!” Even before the words were all the way out of their mouths, they got started.

And I started snapping.

I went with my 50mm, 1.8 lens attached to my camera because I knew I wanted great light and great bokeh. The 50mm is just a lovely little lens that does those things, and it’s light, compact and easy to use. I usually roll at 2.2 when I’m trying to shoot fast moving little boys with faces and eyelashes and noses and such. Shooting at 1.8 often means that the tip of a nose will be in focus but the rest of the face will be slightly out of focus. 2.2 in outdoor, lovely “Golden Hour” evening light is almost fail-proof. Almost meaning that, yes, even then some of my shots are out of focus.

I will admit that I shoot mostly in Manual now. When I worked at the newspaper, I was pretty much broken of my Auto habits. I sometimes still end up with kids in a snowstorm or a blackout type of “Oops-my-ISO-was-too-high-or-low” mistake photos, but my fingers are fast to change the settings. This evening I was working anywhere from 250 to 500 ISO, depending on where the sun was hiding in the tall trees. My shutter speed started around 1/1000 — the higher the number, the faster the speed which means you might best catch blowing dandelion seeds — and ended up around 1/640 as the sun continued to dip.

Technical jargon aside, there are some things you can do to take an everyday experience and turn it into a beautiful photograph.

Get close.

The photo on the left is okay. You kind of get the feel that we’re in a field of dandelions. You can see some seeds blowing. The colors are okay. But compared to the photo on the right, well, there is no comparison. I simply got closer (and got lower than he was). Doing so may have made the field of dandelions disappear, but it made a much more visually appealing image. The dandelion seeds are easier to spot when not lost in the sea of puffs. The seed in his hair is priceless. The light and bokeh in the trees is just beautiful. The one on the left is a memory. The one on the right is frameable.

Don’t force kids to look at you and smile.

I mean, you can. I do. But that’s just for the “grandmas like pics of the boys smiling at the camera” type of photos. For the interesting, “this series of photos tells a story” type of photos, just let them be and get to snapping. Shoot them concentrating on what they’re doing. From the side. From behind, dwarfed by the tall, tall trees. Not every photo has to be about eye contact and their signature grin.

Change up the focus from one shot to the next.

While I do work in manual settings, I normally work in auto-focus, mainly because the boys move so quickly. My camera does have an Auto-Focus Continuous setting, meaning that it will continue to follow the center of focus even while there is movement. However, sometimes I still flip it into manual to get the exact focus I want, or I’ll center my focus just to the left, right, top or bottom of what I was just focused on to see the difference. In these two photos, I was focused on one brother to the right and then clicked over to focus on the other to the left.

Let your children lead you.

Follow them with the camera, don’t dictate where they’re going to stand or what they’re going to do. Just let things happen naturally. Like, you know, finding a spiderweb and blowing dandelion puffs into it, ticking off the spider. It made for a great picture in the end!

But encourage them to try new things too.

I knew the photo I wanted: I wanted the boys blowing dandelion seeds at the same time, in mass quantities. So after they had fun for about 20 minutes, me following with my camera and making wishes of my own, I had them each pick a handful of dandelions, center themselves in front of my camera and, on the count of three, they blew those seeds. And I snap, snap, snapped. The result?

Only my favorite photograph. Ever.

Of course, to get that amazing photo, I had to cycle through quite a number of… humorous… ones.

In the end, I got a few photos I can use and some that are just plain fun to look at even if they aren’t perfect.

I absolutely love that I got a crazy gorgeous, super fun photo on an ordinary Monday evening in a field of un-impressive flowers that society dubs weeds. If I would have forgotten my camera, we would have missed it. If I wouldn’t have let them have their fun before asking them to do something for me, we might not have captured that one great photo. If I wouldn’t have snapped 40 in a row as they were blowing, I might have missed that one perfect frame.

My photos of the ordinary came together to tell the story of one great photo. Yours can too, you just have to go take them and then tell that story.

There will be more of this next week. For now, just enjoy what has become my favorite photo — which is kind of fitting, isn’t it?

…sushi with my daughter in April.

…wishers with BigBrother in May.

…flutes with LittleBrother in June.

…ice cream with super heroes in July.

…fun in San Diego at BlogHer in August.

…funny faces with Booey in September.

…leaving NYC in October.

…riding in the Christmas parade with my boys in November.

…anniversary date night with my husband in December.

…100 days of school with BigBrother in January.

…a bid on a new house in February.

…St. Patrick’s Day fun (right after buying a house) in March.

…kite flying after supper in April.

30 happened. And it was good. 31 begins in the morning, and I honestly can’t wait to see what it brings.

I am a glutton for punishment.

Holidays are stressful days unto themselves. But I always want a family picture on holidays. Family pictures bring their own kinds of stress, and so I just add more stress to an already stressful day. Apparently I hate sanity.

On Easter morning, the boys were ready quite quickly. Let’s face it, it’s not all that hard to put on a button up shirt, pants, socks and shoes. New haircuts made it so they didn’t even have to brush their hair. Teeth brushed and, voila! Done!

I still needed to finish my hair, which is par for the course in our house. I had a random and rare stroke of genius: Set up the tripod and let the boys get their sillies out before the family picture. I was expecting that their photography wouldn’t be of use to me.

And, truth be told, some of it looked like this:

Both photos straight out of camera, just cropped.

Which, of course, both photos are twelve kinds of awesome in their own way. I smiled when I looked through my memory card that night, and again now when I sat down to write this post about letting your kids take their own photos. There’s something special and perfect and just right about those two photos. BigBrother is all Mr. Serious, Let’s Do This Right and LittleBrother is all Mr. Pfft, Go Your Own Way. Very spot on when it comes to their personalities.

Of course, I kind of love this one the most.

Photo edited only for color.

“Do you think this picture looks okay?” “I honestly couldn’t care less.”

But they’re not all duds. I promise. While I was busy finishing my hair, the boys took this gem.

Photo unedited

The photo is a decent photo. I could wish that my four-and-a-half-year-old already knew how to hide the remote in his hand, but I’ll be honest, it’s not my strong point either. But it’s a happy picture that I did not have to coax out of my kids. They smiled on their own. They looked at the camera, which is something that LittleBrother often refuses to do for me because I am his mom and that is his prerogative. It’s a solid picture.

All it needs is a crop and some color help, and it’s a great picture!

Image edits: crop and color play.

Or, if you’re feeling crazy, turn it grayscale and fiddle around with brightness and contrast!

Image edits: grayscale, brightness and contrast.

I really do kind of love it.

I also loved having five minutes to finish my hair without children whining that they wanted to eat more Easter candy. I also loved that I didn’t have to take more time after my hair was done — when we were already running late for Easter morning service — to coax them to look at the camera and smile. It was already done! I also loved that when it came time for the family picture, their silly photos were already done and we nailed our family shot rather quickly. And yes, I do love the silly outtakes. What mom wouldn’t?

My happiness aside, the boys love being allowed to ham it up for the camera and take as many pictures with the remote as their little hearts desire. I did have to step outside once and remind them to take turns with the remote, but otherwise, they were happy, happy, happy.

If you want to let your kids take their own pictures, here’s what you’ll need:

• 1. A camera. Obviously.
• 2. A tripod or a sturdy surface. I’ve balanced cameras on a stack of books or set it on a table before.
• 3. A remote or a timer on your camera. For kid purposes, I suggest the remote. Here’s why: With the remote, they are already in focus because you set it up before you walked away to finish your hair. There’s no running back and forth by the kids so they stay in focus and they won’t risk knocking over your camera, causing damage and thus ruining the fun. Plus, what kid doesn’t want to be in charge of a remote? They really are rather inexpensive. Mine was $12!
• 4. Some form of photo editing software. I use Photoshop, but there are free ones for you to use. Picnik is closing, but PicMonkey is showing that it could be a decent online editor. I say you need photo editing because you may want to crop out the remote or fix a few things that happened while you weren’t standing over the camera’s settings.

And that’s it! You’ll want to set up the camera so that it receives the remote as most have to be on a specific setting to do so. Set your kids in front of something (a tree, a wall, just something that acts as a point of reference where they should be standing). Set the focus. And turn them loose. I encourage you to actually walk away so you don’t say things like, “No, don’t make that face! Smile! COME ON!” You’ll get some much more natural and much funnier photos if you leave the room.

One last tip: Get a few of the photos printed. I already got a few of their photos printed from their Easter photo-rama. They were tickled to see their handy work hanging up in their rooms.

Photos hanging on magnetic photo rope from Photojojo.

Happy photographing (while you’re fixing your hair or doing something else entirely)!

(If you know what these are, let me know.)

Last night I waded through our shared closet and hunted for something to kick off my little 17 Days of Green project. It’s not hard. I say that my wardrobe is 75% green; that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not much. I love green. I gravitate toward green. I get sad when I miss something green on sale. I like all shades of green, though I look best in jewel toned, grass green. But I wear them all.

Today I paired one of my favorite spring and summer green dresses with my favorite jacket, which I stalked two Targets to buy two years ago, and my favorite necklace. Ever. From Etsy by Tom Bjorn Designs. I also wore black leggings and black sandals even though the high was only somewhere in the mid-40′s. I have Spring Fever, despite the total lack of Real Winter, and I’m going with it.

I have some fun green photography ideas floating around in my head for right now, but I’m simply glad the sun is shining and March is here. We’ll see where the next 17 days take us. I know I have one hope as to where the month takes us, but we’ll just see…

You see, in 2005 I was expecting BigBrother. I had no real local friends, just a few co-workers who I occasionally hung out with after work. But no one local to call on a Tuesday afternoon. No one to cry on. I was very alone… minus my husband, of course.

I look at the first picture I moved to flickr, my pregnancy photos being the first to make the move, and I see so many things.

I see my 7 week pregnant non-belly and am filled with jealousy. I was even bloated then, staying in a hotel with my husband while he went through some fire schooling stuff, thus gorging on local restaurant food including, but not limited to, deep-fried pickles at Hooters. I was a walking pregnant cliche.

I see my engagement ring — which doesn’t fit now.

I see a bracelet that Dee had given me after the Munchkin was born; I don’t wear bracelets now.

I see pregnancy books on the nightstand. I purchased them that week while FireDad was in classes. One scared me out of my mind. One was helpful. I didn’t read the third. And neither BigBrother nor LittleBrother’s name came from the baby name book.

I see the backpack I had in college… which I still have today.

I see hair that is, for the first time since that photo was taken, shorter than the hair on my head now. Also, I see less gray.

I see a woman — a mother — desperately wanting to celebrate the normalcy of pregnancy since she didn’t — couldn’t — the first time around.

I see a woman — a mother — desperately afraid of what lies ahead. For as much as that microscopic baby was wanted and planned for, the unknown of health problems and pregnancy loomed, mixed with memories of what came before. As much as she wants to love and celebrate, she is holding herself back from becoming attached, from expecting too much because she fears it can all be taken away.

And I see the beginning of the little boy who would change my world in ways I couldn’t even begin to comprehend. I thought I understood then, that I already knew what being a mother was all about. I did; I understood certain aspects more than most “first-time moms.” But I also had absolutely no clue. For that, I am glad.

– __ — __ —

I look through those bunch of photos that I uploaded on September 16, 2005 and I smile. I am not the same girl that I was then. In those photos, I am not the same girl that I had been two years prior. I look and see bits of time, pieces of a girl, that shaped the woman, mother, wife, friend, writer and photographer I am today. I may not look like that girl, but I am proud to be this woman.

Check out what others are sharing about their #firstflickrphoto.

I think they may need a little more work on their Jedi poses.