Blog no longer updated here

Just a reminder, I've moved my blog to be integrated with the main website! Check it out, and you will need to switch if you still want to follow me. :-)

www.lonelymountainphotography.com

New website and new blog site

I have been revamping my website so I could integrate the blog into it, as well as re-describe my preferred focus in photography. Please visit:

www.lonelymountainphotography.com


and check out the site and newst blog post. :-)

Emily

February - kid fun

Valentine's Day was my second daughter's birthday, and she turned 4. During that week I took a few photos of the girls together, and focused on getting a few of my birthday girl. They came up with their own outfits, and we had fun. What I love most to capture is the uniqueness of childhood, the quirkiness, the creativity, the joy, the individuality... I like the photo tell a story about the individual child.

 

6 Months

Friday I did a mini session to create some images of this 6 month old little girl. Mom and big sister came along to talk with to her and make her smile. I used window light and a large silver reflector. Here are several (of the many) that we created. Such a sweet, interested little person, with a happy smile!

more Bosque Del Apache NWR

I just wanted to share a few pictures from our visit to the national wildlife refuge a couple of weeks ago. It was very cold, but we enjoyed the huge flock of Snow Geese resting on the water, that slowly swelled in sound and then took off in a huge flurry of wings and voices. Nearby was a group of Sandhill Cranes. They took off singly or several at a time, bending forward then starting toward a run and then the take off with large slower flapping of wings. Despite the multiple layers of clothing, by children still were chilled, and were happy to take a respite in the warm van.

 

 

 

Later we watched a resting flock from the edge of the road:

 

Bosque National Wildlife Refuge

This morning our family got up about 4 in the morning so we could drive down to the Bosque National Wildlife Refuge by sunrise. During the winter months hosts of migratory birds are wintering  here on the fields and ponds, before heading north for the summer. Seeing thousands of snow geese, ducks, and Sandhills Cranes all in one place is pretty spectacular.

Right around dawn the water birds begin to lift off in giant groups to go out and look for food.  We arrived shortly before dawn in 18 degrees, and shivered in the cold next to the wetland where thousands of snow geese were roosting. As we waited, just after sunrise, we listened to their talk and finally the swelling of noise just before they all took off in a magnificent thunder of wings and honking. After the snow geese took off we moved to where there were primarily Sandhill Cranes (dubbed the crane pools) and watched them and more snow geese taking off and landing. Birds like to take off into the wind, and as a photographer you not only hope to be in position to have them take off over your head, but also so the morning light falls flatteringly on their faces. Most National Wildlife Refuges are designed to provide optimum cover for the animals, not optimum hiking and animal viewing. While here it is similar, the number of wintering birds and visibility of their roosting areas from the driving loop through the refuge are actually pretty good. You aren't allowed off the area adjacent to the road, but this is close enough. The wind was perfect for the cranes this morning. While my husband has been the primary wildlife photographer of the family, I did take a few photos and will try to post some.

Meanwhile, here is an image I created with our iPhone of my husband and son sitting and watching the crane pools with their cameras. I was waiting in our van with my other children who were all a bit chilly.

Food

I sometimes take a few moments to capture an image of something we have made to eat! We have been experimenting with gluten free recipes as well as continuously attempting to improve our own eating. We as a family enjoy whole, natural, and organic foods as much as possible. Here are a few photos I've taken recently of edible things we've created.

A sauce dish:

over brown rice pasta:

gluten free molasses cookies:

salad:

A self created minestrone type of soup with corn bread:

my husband's lovely homemade marshmallows (with no corn syrup!):

cornbread:

gluten free biscuits:

another perspective on the biscuits:

gluten free Christmas cookies, frosting colored with food based coloring:

Notes and Memories

I just thought this seemed rather applicable to the end of one and beginning of a new year...

Christmas Family Photos - Albuquerque

I did two last family photo sessions on December 8th. I try to work with times to get the best light, but even if it isn't ideal, I work with it anyway. I'm posting photos here from the second session that day, done in the late afternoon.

This is a beautiful family who are also good friends of ours. The mom picked out all the clothes, and included just enough red to provide the right pop. She came up with the idea of a wheelbarrow full of gifts, and had them wrapped and ready. The location is a favorite of both of ours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appreciate the Real Moments

I did a couple of Christmas family photo sessions a week and a half ago, and spent another day editing and processing them. Then this last weekend we traveled to Arizona for an Irish Dance Feis (competition).

Today I just wanted to share several photos I took a few months ago. My house seems to be in a constant state of disaster. With four children, one of which is a rather intense toddler, homeschooling, and working to get other things done as well, we do not seem to be able to ever catch up with cleaning.

So, instead of making it a huge priority to have that ideal house, I am working to appreciate creativity, the fact my kids live in my house and use it, the fact they constantly are coming up with new ideas and things to do, the fact that they are real, alive and busy with life. We are a family with a lot going on - activities, creativity... I would rather have creative, interested kids, than a perfect house. I want to make sure we spend time on school, and when they are so interested in learning something, I want to put a priority on that, rather than on some ideal I have in my mind for neatness.

My heart truly goes out to the families of the children killed in the recent shooting in Connecticut. The thing that bothers me so much is wondering what those little children were experiencing inside when a man was standing there shooting at them. I can only imagine the panic and fear they felt. I can't be inside them, but I do know my children panic over small things - falling off a bicycle, tripping on the stairs, a new ballet class, uncertainty of surroundings, etc. And then I wonder what could have happened inside this man that he could fathom doing something so horrible. My only guess is that some sort of mental illness was there.

And so I check myself: do I know what is going on inside my own children? Are they open with me? When they panic or get angry, what are they feeling? My job as a parent is not to have children who are perfect on the outside. My job is to teach, to understand, to appreciate, to support, to love.