“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014.”
Sunny: Topless at breakfast in an array of accessories.
Kaki: Topless at breakfast enabling poor canine habits.
More details about The 52 Project here. To view all the portraits in the series visit here.
“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014.”
Sunny: Posing in the dress her mama wore on her fifth birthday, twenty-six years ago. .
Kaki: Posing in her jellyfish sun suit from Auntie Dev.
More details about The 52 Project here. To view all the portraits in the series visit here.
“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014.”
I’ve got a back log of photos for weeks 22, 23 and 24, but I needed to get myself back on track. It’s been a long week of recovering from the intensity of recent weeks, and I have a number of clients’ photos still waiting to be processed and so many images and videos and words on hold for this space. Yesterday, despite the ever-growing TO DO list, I took the day off work and we went to Sunny’s gymnastics class as a family for Observation Day, ate slices of pizza in the local play park, dug up perennial flowers from a friend’s garden (she’s re-landscaping) and re-planted the blooms all around our little farm. James and I were exhausted but satisfied by day’s end. As I filled old flower pots with piles of dirt and dug into the ground for the roots and promise of years of blossoms to come, I couldn’t help but reflect, “I am officially my mother’s daughter.”
Sunny: Our budding gymnast.
Kaki: Pizza in a tunnel. Life is good.
More details about The 52 Project here. To view all the portraits in the series visit here.
“People ask me every year if I’m eager for the end of Reunion to arrive.
‘This must be so stressful. You must be so happy when it’s over. You must feel so overwhelmed.’ Or some variation…
But I genuinely love the energy, excitement and chaos that is so central to Reunion week. It builds and builds all week long until there are 3,000 purple bodies roaming around our beloved Purple Valley and it is nothing short of magic. Every. Single Year.
It takes the support and energy of so many facets of our community to make it all come together, and I’m always awed and humbled by the way all those facets work together to create this wonderful, ridiculous, fun weekend of Eph love.
And there aren’t too many other lines of work where I could claim purple hair as a perk of the job.”
I was featured on Humans of Williams (inspired by the ever-famous Humans of New York) today. If it wasn’t already abundantly clear that I bleed purple…
Photo Credit: Susie Paul ’16
A few days late, but nonetheless, I could not have survived this weekend, let alone the past decade slash lifetime without the support of these two men (and my mama and sister).
James, in particular, has held our household together, has held me together, during the past two weeks of mayhem. I know that our children and many other living dependents (garden included) are in able, loving, caring hands in my absence. Granted, they dwell in the dark as the man refuses to turn on any house lights, even as evening descends, and if he did, nary a shade would be drawn – but I am more than willing to accept this Vampire-esque behavior in exchange for everything else he gives and brings to our family. I could never put to words all that he does for me and our children. I mean, just look at that mop of blonde hair that he has passed on to my girls! Total swoonfest. Particularly when paired with the ombré neon headband!
James, 143, to the moon and front.
Happiness is a flat-coated retriever and a child’s whale pool.
I am still recovering from the marathon of these past 10 days. Between shooting my first wedding and executing yet another magical Williams Reunion, I am fried. I have Madam Mim hair and Demi Moore voice to show for it. A lazy Sunday afternoon in our backyard complete with vanilla milkshakes and whale pools was the beginning of my recovery. And Gladdy’s antics with the whale pool fountain were the highlight. More later, including further proof of the purple hair…
My firstborn is ready for Kindergarten. *sigh*
Yesterday, the girls’ preschool staged the most adorable graduation ceremony for Sunny and her class. She dressed up in a new outfit from Momar, I braided and curled her hair (per her request), and she donned a bedazzled mortarboard. We celebrated over chicken tenders (as is now custom for Sunny celebrations) and rainbow-frosted sugar cookies. It was a happy (albeit nostalgic, tear-inducing) day.
So proud of this little girl (which may seem silly inspired by a preschool graduation), but I am so looking forward to all that she’ll continue to teach us. She’s already given us so much. It’s hard to believe that it just keeps getting better and better.
We put together a video of the highlights – I can’t help but laugh during every viewing of their group songs.
Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women. – Maya Angelou
Here’s to relationships that allow us to be our truest selves, friendships that champion our strengths and forgive our weaknesses and never make us doubt who we are. I am grateful to the people in my life who do this, and for the strength it took to let go of the friendships that made me feel weak or uncertain or insecure. I am most grateful for the relationship I’ve cultivated with myself, for the love and care and respect I have for the person I’ve been, the person I am, and the person I will be. My daughters deserve a mother who knows her own value and worth, so that they may find their own.
Thank you for sharing in these explorations about bodies and confidence and beauty and womanhood. You all have given me so much. (Post 1 and 2 and 3)
Thanks, especially, to Miraclesuit for prompting and encouraging these explorations publicly. I’m pictured in the Up and Coming Caliente in Eggplant. And amazing friend Devita is wearing the Sanibel in Marine Blue.
This weekend I had the joy and privilege of shooting my first full wedding as the sole photographer. It is a honor to be trusted to capture such a momentous occasion and to be with two people during such intimate, exciting, inspiring moments in their relationship.
While Faith and I had never met, we attended the same college, and she was two years ahead of me while in school. She’s been a reader of the blog for some time and she reached out to me last spring to introduce herself and see if I’d be up for shooting a wedding, specifically her wedding. I told her that I was up for the challenge, if she and her now-husband were okay taking a risk on a newbie. I’m so fortunate that they were!
I was so nervous going in – Would I capture it properly? Would the couple be happy with my work? Could I last 12 hours on my feet? Would I put people at ease? Would I know what to do, how to act, and where to stand to get the optimal images?
I can’t say that I was perfect, but it felt really good. Solid. Comfortable. Yes, I was and am still exhausted, physically and mentally, but I’m feeling excited about many of the images I captured. I’m happy that I have one wedding each month on the books through the fall to continue to gain experience and build this angle of my photography skillset. Thanks Faith and Morgan for taking a chance on me. I hope that above all else YOU feel I captured the spirit of the day.
I put together an album of some of my immediate favorite images for the couple to enjoy and share before they head off on their honeymoon. It will be a few weeks before I get through the thousands of images that I took (given that I don’t have a full weekend at home until July 26th – summertime is a busy, glorious time!), so I wanted them to have a sneak peek. What a day it was – the weather gods cooperated (thanks to a ceremonial burying of a bottle of bourbon one month before the wedding) and the location couldn’t have been more charming (home of the bride’s Godmother, the same site as her parents’ wedding reception). Swooncity!
^^FIRST LOOK. How much do I love that Faith is six feet tall? SO MUCH!^^
^^Oh those rainboots!^^
^^Oh that veil!^^
^^The bourbon that brought the rain-free day! A toast to the weather!^^
^^There’s a photo of Faith’s parents on those very steps on their wedding day.^^
^^Gorgeous bride.^^
^^Hysterical rabbi.^^
^^Happy, handsome groom.^^
^^MARRIED! First kiss as husband and wife.^^
^^Slick dance moves.^^
^^What a gorgeous end to a gorgeous day.^^
And I couldn’t resist sharing the classic Williams pic. They even let me sneak in for one to be sure that all Ephs were properly documented.
So, folks, how’d I do? Which one’s your favorite image?
In the spirit of graduation season…
NPR animated friend and fellow Eph Jon Lovett’s graduation speech. And, yes, we DO look amazing in these gowns.