Monday, March 30, 2009

The first step.

Hello everyone.  My name is Liz.  And I'm an addict.  A junkie.  A user.  I have tried to resist, but I can't.  I'm just not strong enough.  It - they - have this power over me that is overwhelming.  I see them, and I MUST have them.   I don't even give it a second thought.  My friends have gone with me to keep me in check, but the moment they turn their back, I'm at the next corner, whispering, "How much?"   I'm supposed to be buying them so I can sell them.  But it's so hard for me to part with them.  I want them all.  I sometimes "forget" to mention that I have any available, just so I can keep them to myself.  

And now, now it's starting to affect my life.  Whenever I bring a new one home, I try and hide it in my office, hoping no one will notice (and if you've ever seen my office, you know that is not an unreasonable hope).  But every once in a while, Kris, my business manager, will have to look for something in the office, and she'll come across my stash.  She gets that look of exasperated disappointment in her eyes.  "Another one??!  Really, this has got to stop!"  But I can't.  I'm an addict.  I can't help it.  

I just love frames.

And I have WAY too many of them in stock.  Nice frames.  REALLY nice frames.  So I think we're going to have a special of some sort.  I haven't figured out what it will be yet.   If any of you, my faithful 15, are going to be having an ordering session coming up, remind me that while I may love my frames, I really need to share the love.  Specifically, I need to share them with YOU.   


I'm going to miss them when they're gone.  Of course, I just ordered new corners for these absolutely adorable frames that I'm going to be offering soon.  (Shhhh!  Don't tell Kris!)  Here's a preview of just how adorably cute they are:

  

I LOVE them.  (Btw, that's my wee beastie on the right.)

So .... other news...  I managed to squeeze ten people into my teeny tiny studio this morning.  Nobody was more surprised than I was that I actually pulled this off!  This client is one of my favorites - she's been coming since her first baby was born, and now we're on baby number two!  I love it when her family comes to town, because she frequently brings them over for a quick mini-session, and I get a visit!  I get to meet a lot of grandparents when new babies are born, and it's one of those things that has always given me the warm fuzzies.  I love when I get to know the extended families of my clients.  It makes the whole world feel a little big friendlier to me.    So - ten people.  Want to see?   Good, because I want to show off a little bit!!  :)  



 



These guys were DONE.  They lasted an impressive amount of time!  

It's funny - 90% of my clients bring me babies.   And then they grow up.   I'm starting to have a crop of bigger kids come in, which I suppose, logically, I really should have expected.    But it still is catching me by surprise.  And then there was another surprise - I really ENJOY working with these kids!   [Before I had children, my work was very un-child friendly, as are most photographers when they are first starting out, and trying to be either arty or journalisty (yes, those are real words.  I just made them up, but they're real NOW.)  I was doing a little bit of both.]   My comfort zone has always been the age of my oldest kid, and younger.  Well, my kid will be eight this summer (EIGHT??!!!  More on that later!)  and I'm working with all these BIG kids. Which I thought I wouldn't enjoy, but I do!  They're fun!  They make me laugh as often as I try and squeeze (not literally) a giggle out of them.   This is a great job, I have to admit.  

Eight.  Seriously.  (Okay, in 5 months, but that is much closer than  you'd think). He orders off the adult menu as much as the kid's menu these days.  My daughter is almost potty trained, and by the end of the summer, I'll only need one booster seat.  We got rid of the monster stroller last summer.  No more diapers.  No infant car seats.   No more babies.  They're both kids now.  Just kids.   Although, as long as Josie is still in preschool, I have a little bit longer to belong to the club.  The "Mom's with small children" club.  Which feels much more exclusive when you're out of it than when you're in it.

I think I want to plant a tree.   I wonder if there's a "mom's with young trees" club?

Thursday, March 19, 2009

It's 10 pm - do you know where your children are?





I do.  Because mine have become, well, barnacles.  I went out of town a few weeks ago, and ever since I got back, Josie won't leave my side and Ian has quit threatening to move.   Not run away, mind you.  He's very methodical about it.  He has packed several bags, and even gave me an actual move date, which, conveniently, kept getting pushed back (the thought of missing the Easter Bunny was horrible).  Where was his dream world where nobody made him do homework and he could watch all the tv he wanted? (Seriously, those were his two demands.)  West Virginia.  I have NO idea how that became the Land of Wonder, but it was.  Until we went to Pennsylvania for New Years Eve.  We drove by Dutch Wonderland, and I was telling him how it was a shame that he was moving to W. VA, because he'd miss going to Dutch Wonderland with us in the summer.  He thought about it very seriously, and then got this huge smile on his face.  "I know!"  he said.  "I'll move to Pennsylvania instead!!" Well, so much for THAT brilliant idea.  But still.  I had hopes that he'd forget about it, even though every time he was angry, I'd hear a door slam and muffled mutterings of, "I'm going to move NOW! Come on, Flat Teddy, we're OUT OF HERE!"  Fortunately, being my child, he was blessed with an occasionally short attention span, and could be easily distracted with a little Spongebob.  Bad mommy, I know.

But as I was saying, ever since my trip, where I was gone for almost a week, well, a week-ish...  I'm not sure, to be honest.  It seemed like forever and it seemed like it lasted 5 minutes, depending on what I was doing at the time.  But I was gone.  And when I came home, both children rushed me at the door.  It's wonderful to be welcomed home like that.  Ian told me he decided he wasn't going to move.  No preamble, no explanation, just. not. moving.  Yay!  Josie showed me how much she missed me in other ways.  Refusing to go to school.  Not wanting to play with Margot (my mother's helper, who is the only reason I get ANY work done mid-week).  Not wanting to go to the sitters.  Not wanting to do anything but sit on the couch and watch Dora with me.  I'd like to point out that while I do enjoy sitting on the couch for various activities, watching Dora is sooooo far down that list that even cuddling with Josie loses its appeal after the first 15 minutes.  Oh, and the biggest thing?  She insists on being near me when she falls asleep.  Which means either I go to bed with her (and I fall asleep, because she is quite warm and cuddly), or she sleeps in the living room.  Which is where she is right now.  In the playyard, snoring away, 10 feet from me.  Scott has managed to get her to go to sleep with him a few times when she's really tired or I have to go out, but for the most part, this is it.  She's a barnacle.  My cute little Sweet Babboo is the barnaclebabe.

I'm not sure why I wanted to tell all of you that.  But it's now 10:30, I'm listening to some cool tunes I found on itunes yesterday (Holly Conlan - very nice music to edit by!) and just enjoying the near quiet  (the music is pretty low, so I don't wake my snoring barnaclebabe).  

She's turning 3, you know.  In about 2 weeks.  And I don't know how that happened so quickly.  I just photographed a baby for her 10 month pics, and it seems like it was just yesterday that we did her newborn session (here's a couple from the recent session, btw.) 

 

It's going so fast.  I know that, to her parents, the thought of her turning 3 is practically inconceivable.  She's still learning how to stand.  How to talk.  How to find small choking-hazard objects and get them in her mouth before you notice.  You have a long way to go before you're worrying about potty training.  Crossing the street and holding hands.  Preschool.  Ponytail ribbon preferences.  Princess dresses.  

Princesses!  How did we get to princesses so fast?!  It was only a year ago I was mocking the princess thing.  We're so NOT doing the princess thing, I declared.   Uh huh.  I should have just called Disney right there and set up an account with them.  Sleeping Beauty, my least favorite princess, is of course, the Wee Beastie's favorite.  I am fairly sure it's because the dress is pink.  Oh, and that's another thing I was totally NOT  going to do.  Pink.  I wanted her to wear orange, and green, and purple, and red, and yellow, and black.  Lots of black.   But no pink.  And what is her favorite color now?  Yeah.  It happens.  And now *I* love pink.  And *I* am going gaga over the princess dolls with their pretty, delicate dresses and accessories.   I want to buy her a castle tent for her bed and stencil dragons and musketeers on her walls.  I love that she has worn a tiara every day this week (her "terrarra").  I can't help it.  Apparently, there really was a girlygirl in me somewhere, just itching to get out.

And this baby girl that I just photographed.  This 10 month old, who is going to be 3.... soon. What will she be like?  Will we remember what she is like today?  Or tomorrow?  Will she be a princess?  A tomboy?  A daddy's girl?  (mine SO is!)  Will she love pink?  Or will she want to play in the dirt and climb trees?  Will my princess figure out soon that it's so much easier to climb trees if you're not worried about your skirt?  I hope so.  I want her to have scabs on her knees and pine sap on her hands.  I love it when she comes in and her ponytails have shifted and are fuzzy, and she's got dirt on her cheeks, and is missing a shoe.  Because you have to have some SERIOUS fun to end up that way.  I want her to have fun.  I want that to be what she remembers about being a kid.  That she had a fun childhood.  Even if, at some point, she threatens to move to Miami because I won't let her watch Dora all day long.  I can live with that.  I can live with the princess thing.  I can live with her aging at a frighteningly disturbing pace.  I can live with Dora on the couch.  I can live with pink. 

 I love living with pink.




Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Despite rumors to the contrary...

I have NOT fallen off the face of the earth.  I know, I know.  I've missed you so, my faithful fifteen... my delightful dozen (plus three).... my... okay, I just ran out of words.  I was trying to find a Q word that would work with "quince" but I just couldn't make it work.  I'm sorry.  I feel as if I have let you down, and I'm just getting started.  

But enough of that.  I have some things to show you.  I have some things to tell you, too, but I'm sure that doesn't surprise anyone.

Here's a little bit of what I've been up to lately...
     

I've had a few babies+older siblings sessions lately.  This weekend, I had two.  Two toddlers with absolutely NO desire to be photographed.   It happens.  It's actually kind of funny when it does, because they are sooo determined to not give in.  And they get that lower lip jutting out, and putting their little feet down, and just doing everything possible to NOT do what you want them to do.  You really have to admire their determination!  

Oh!  And this year's convention and print competition!  I did pretty well.  I had three blue ribbon prints, which makes me happy.    I'm having problems with uploading images, but here is a link to them. 

If you're a photographer, and you want to get a little professional educatin' this weekend, Jeff and Carrolle Dachowski are coming down from New Hampshire to teach an all-day outdoor lighting seminar in Alexandria.  I did a photo safari with them a couple years ago, and it was one of the best moves I ever made.  Seriously.  If you're free on Sunday or Monday, you MUST GO TO THIS.  Of course, if you're not a photographer, you don't HAVE to go.  It would be a little strange, really.  You show up, and they start talking about scrims and fill and asking you which model you want to work with, and finally you say, "Um... I'm an accountant.  I was told I HAD to go to this.  So here I am.  Got anything for me to audit?" 

Well, it *could* happen, you know.

Interested?  Excellent!  Drop me an email and I'll send you the brochure and contact info. 

That's all for now.  I have to go do some mom stuff for a little while, and then I'll be back.  I'm always back.  You know I can't stay away for too long.