I kind of laughed and looked at Luke and said it still felt like I was dreaming. Since October I felt like I was in a dream. Just before I gave birth even I had to look down and try to let it sink in that I was pregnant and going to have a baby.

And then there he was and I was stumped. They took him away and cleared his throat and checked his vitals. And then it hit me.

I missed him.

I wanted him back with me. I needed to have my baby. My little boy. When were they going to bring him back to me? {I am crying a bit now as I write this because I still miss him when he is not with me. As a matter of fact, he is sleeping on my chest now as I type this blog.}

I have spent the last nine months thinking about how I have to go through all the baby trials again. All the diapers and no sleep and chasing around. The idea of all that work again terrified me. But I have met Will now and he is worth everything. I will happily do it all over again for him. My mind has gone from feeling fear over the work to feeling privileged that I get to do the work. Yes, I feel privileged that God gave me another child to love and raise. I am gaga over Will.

William Patrick – Born July 9th – 8lbs. 14 oz. (you feel me, ladies?!) – 20 inches – Wonderful!

I could go on and on about this new special little boy, but I will spare you and get right to some photos. I snapped these images just before we left the hospital. Little Will, less than two days old…

]]> http://www.joyfulgirlphotography.com/blog/archives/1293/feed 0 http://www.joyfulgirlphotography.com/blog/archives/1293 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JoyfulGirlPhotographyBlog/~3/lmmU0qK7gBQ/1269 http://www.joyfulgirlphotography.com/blog/archives/1269#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:43:38 +0000 Jessie http://www.joyfulgirlphotography.com/blog/?p=1269 There were two of us at my pity party this morning (2.9 if you count Will – still in my tummy!).

Today is July 6th. Today is my due date. Today at my doctor appointment the doctor said that I have not progressed towards delivery. Today she said that she will not schedule an induction because I am still not far enough along. Today I was trying not to cry at the appointment desk as I made another appointment for next week.

I have been waiting for this day since October. And I have been thinking of nothing else but being not pregnant anymore for the last month. I will not force you to attend my pity party too by going over details with you, but this last month of pregnancy has been one of the most uncomfortable times of my life, and never did I think that I would still be pregnant on this day, July 6th. And never did I think that the Doctor would say that I should make a 41-week appointment for next week!

So I came home from my appointment and sat at the table with Luke and cried. And felt sorry for myself. And he listened and stayed home from work and was the amazing husband that he always is. And now I feel better. And ready to meet Will. Oh so ready!

Luke suggested we go for a walk after our party. Bella looked at us and said, “We can go for a walk but mama should stay home and rest because her feet are too fat.” Out of the mouths of babes. Yes, I have been having some severe swelling problems this last month and walking has not been easy. I can only wear one pair of my shoes at the moment. I think that I will have some sort of shoe-burning party after my body returns to normal. I wonder how well these beauties will burn…

I know that you have seen these images already, but as I only had a second to do this I just grabbed a few favorite recent newborn images.

I am so excited to use these for my own baby announcements in July! My little Will {yes, it’s a boy!} will be here soon…

Front of card one:

Back of card one:

Front of card two:

Back of card two:

And then I realized something about my photography. About how much joy and gratitude play a role in it. About how, if you cannot find joys in the simplicity of life, you cannot capture them with your camera.

You see, I am a joy junkie. In my shoots, I want to find that joy. I want to get that moment when you let down your guard and let me in and share with me. I crave that.

And I believe that for you to do well with photography {or your other ventures}, you will also need to seek out that joy. You will need to appreciate the small gifts and be patient enough to wait for the big ones. Once you are able to do that, you can relax and let yourself feel those moments. It is hard to describe this feeling, but try it sometime. Try to feel the joys in the task in front of you and I think that your work will change. And so might your life {big statement to throw in at the end of a paragraph, I know}.

I know that you may want some technical advice by now in these shop talks. You know, talk about lenses and light and Photoshop and printing, but that will have to wait for now. Because while these things are incredibly important, learning how to not worry about them is important too.

And just to share two of my joys with you, here are Bella and Abe. Can you feel their joy?

How I got this shot? This is called “panning” and is all about your shutter speed {and patience}. I first determined the correct shutter speed for how much background movement I wanted. Too fast a shutter speed, and the background would not show enough blur. Too slow, and the elements would not have been recognizable. So, play with the shutter speed and check the viewfinder on the back of your camera to determine your personal preference. I was at 1/60 here.

Then you want to be sure that all of your subject is in focus, and that your aperture is not too wide. I was at a 9.5 here. I am never at a 9.5 {I like a very narrow depth of field – i.e. very blurry backgrounds}. However, in this case, I knew that the motion would give me the blur that I needed so I didn’t worry about that. Plus, the swing was moving around so much that I needed to have a very large focal plane so I could catch the kids in focus no matter where the swing took them.

Once you have all of that determined, you then need to move with the subject. Yes, you need to pan! I planted my feet and body so that I would face their resting position directly from the side {Does that make any sense?}. Then when Luke swung them, I kept my feet planted and moved my camera with the kids at their speed.

Finally, you need to take lots of shots. I took over 50 of them swinging to get this one good one. This was especially tricky because you have two kids to look good and have their eyes open and you have a swing that spins, so sometimes I would get a shot of their backs. Remember that whole patience bit?:)

Good luck…

Then I became pregnant with a 2- and 3/4-year-old at home. My choices have been different. Keep clients happy? Yup, choose that. Work hard on shoots and images? Yup, choose that. Lay down on the couch and rest/read instead of blogging? Yup, I choose that too. Hang out with my kids instead of blogging? Yup. Eat instead of blogging? Yup. Pretty much do anything instead of blogging or working on my new website? Yup.

So, you will have to bear with me through this pregnancy and beyond and trust that my blogging may not be on track anymore, but I still work very hard for my clients. And know that I love to blog, I just can’t do it so much anymore.

I was complaining to my husband today about being sick of being tired and he said, “Don’t worry, it is only for a couple more months.” I got a good laugh from that as he realized that he was sort of forgetting about the part after you give birth and have a new baby that makes you tired too! He then changed his statement to, “Ok, you will only be tired for a couple more months, then you will be exhausted!”

But just to remind us how worth it they are, here is another recent newborn image from my stash…

I learned about the website recalls.gov so I thought I would check them out. You know, just to see what they were all about. Just out of curiosity. And then my inner mom stepped in. Do I want to be notified of flu outbreaks? Of course I do! Do I want to be notified of car recalls? Of course I do! Do I want to be notified of child safety restraint recalls and food recalls and drug recalls and and and? Of course! Doesn’t every good mom need to know these things? I realize that I have survived over fours years of motherhood without them, but in that moment I could not go another second without these updates. I worked myself into a frenzy. It was not pretty.

And because I share so much with you, I thought that I would give you the opportunity to let your paranoid self come out too. Yes, why should I be the only one getting bombarded with daily emails making me more paranoid about everything I give my kids? Why not share the love? www.recalls.gov. I apologize to you in advance.

Of course I always need to include an image, so why what one of Miss Rylee from a recent shoot to remind us why we must know of any tire recalls immediately?! {Does my poking-fun-at-myself-sarcasm come through in these lines?}

I hope your Easter was a great one too! And now back to the chaos of life…

I hope to finish up my to-do list of albums and newborn shoots and website design soon so I can post more blogs. I miss you guys.:)

And there was this shot. The lighting was perfect. The story was perfect. The background was perfect. The colors were perfect. And I still had my camera on in my hands. Without a word to the mother and grandmother – I dashed away from our conversation to capture this shot.

This has become one of my favorite shots, and each time I see it, I think about how happy I was that I stayed ready  - even when the shoot was officially over.

Part of why I wanted to start with this “lesson,” is because it perfectly introduces you to my all-time favorite photography book. It is not your traditional photography book. It is not a technical journal. It is not a coffe table book. But it has given me more practical advice than any other photography book I have read. It has given me easy-to-remember nuggets to carry with me in my photography journey, and to me, the book is worth its weight in gold.

The book is “The Moment It Clicks” by Joe McNally. It is a joy to read and is written in a way that really speaks to me. I carry his words with me always, and it will not be the last time you hear about Joe’s advice in one of my shop talks!

On pages 14-15, his nugget is “Don’t pack up till you leave.” Was I ever glad that I followed his advice! And I hope that you do too. Whether your love is photography or rock collecting – always be ready until you leave. You just never know when you will find a treasure…

Yet aside from getting bigger and wiser, I am also still working…on my new website! “Why?” you might ask {just like every one of my family and friends has}? Good question. Perhaps I just like making more work for myself? Perhaps I enjoy staying up late working so I am very tired the next morning? Perhaps I don’t already have enough things to do? Perhaps.

Regardless, I thought you might like a little sneak peek of my new splash page until the whole shebang is ready…

I read so many books and blogs and websites and sometimes all the information was too much to process. I was so overwhelmed with conflicting opinions and people telling me something because they had their own motivations.

The more I dug, the better I wanted to become. I didn’t want to be the type of photographer who does cheap work and doesn’t care. I wanted to get better. I still want to get better.

I know that some of you are like me.

Yesterday my family and I were out enjoying the beautiful snow-melting weather when a woman approached us saying that she reads my blog. {I was beyond flattered!} After some chatting I learned that she herself loves photography and strives to improve her skills. As I love tech talk and helping people, we decided to set up a time to have a play date with our kids and talk shop.

And I decided to do something on my blog that I have thought of for a long time. I decided that I want to start talking shop with you too. Not because I am better than any of you. Not because I have all the right answers. Not because I am so wise that the world would be missing something if I did not post these blogs.

Just because it might help someone out there. Just because I enjoy sharing what I have learned.

So, my next shop talk blog post will be about never putting your camera away until the very end. Not simply the end – but the VERY end. You will see what I mean…