Sunday - Coffee and Cake
weekly musings, articles and mostly babble...
You can catch my previous Handmade Spark articles here:
* Product Photography 101
Nocturnal is what I am right now! At least it kind of feels that way. I have been struggling to sleep for the past 4-5 days due to the other half working nights and myself having both day AND night duty with the kids. It hasn't been too bad with the baby, because at least I am pretty much used to waking up for night feeds/cuddles/playtime as that's what babies do. But my son, who normally would sleep through has decided to be Mr. Naughty and challenge my decreasing ability to function by jumping all over the bed in the wee hours of the morning and generally playing up. So as you can imagine the lack of sleep has doubled or has virtually been total the last few days. Can't say I'm too impressed, but at least my ability in the day time to do all my usual duties hasn't flagged. So in all this extra awake time I have been working on new photos, my new store BabaMoon.etsy.com (which is now live! Please click on the photos to visit the listings), knitting the little monkey some puppets as Christmas presents, and making new patterns for BabaMoon items too.
It has been nice being able to find the time to knit casually for a while. Even though some of it has been work related, it has certainly felt less like work this week than it has done for a while lol! It's amazing the random things you appreciate when you have kids and they begrudgingly give you 5 minutes and no more to yourself lol! Like even my weekly grocery shopping trips to my local Sainsburys is absolute heaven because I make sure I go on my own, and take full advantage of Classic.fm on the way AND the biggest Hobbycraft store I have ever seen on route. ^_^ It's only an hour or two. And it's just shopping for food... and maybe the odd skein of yarn! But in terms of free time, that's what I get and it's wonderful LOL! But you know, in my frazzled brain today as much as I could probably do with an entire day just relaxing, getting my back sorted at a chiropractors (note to self: don't do head stands with toddlers until WAY after giving birth), and maybe even visiting a spa or something which I have always wanted to do, I absolutely love my life and my kids. They are a joy and I feel privilaged to have them :)
Speaking of joy, my daughter is now over 2 months old (time flies!) and really starting to show her personality now. And my goodness she smiles a lot! I remember my boy being very happy and smiley as a baby but she is just a little angel! She seems on top of the world all the time, even through my son's wonderous tantrums! Even I can't top that LOL! I find it so special, and try my hardest to encourage it by always playing and chatting with her when she flashes a gummy grin. Even if she's in discomfort she'll just smile through it all. It's really nice to think that through all the terrible 3's behaviour with my son that she obviously feels content and very much loved. We are spending a lot of time right now trying to calm Mr. down as he's just at that AGE which everyone seems to cower at when we tell them how old he is LOL. I'm glad that she must feel that she's getting a fair share of attention as I do devote so much time to them both, yet when the day passes you by you wonder where the time goes and question if you do manage to achieve as much as you'd like to. So for this I'm glad :) It's nice to think you're making someone happy :)Recent Photography Posted to moonangelnay.etsy.com...
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That's it for now. Have a great weekend all!
moonangelnay x
Photographing my daughter for me has been special for obvious reasons, but it's also been of a challenge to try and take a step backward to think about the photo's from a business point of view. I want to get myself out there by the end of the year taking portraits as a business, and although I know I can capture good photo's and work well in post production I have never actually tried to work on a planned out schedule. If I were to go into people's homes I would have to consider that a: their kids are THEIR kids and not mine. I will need the patience of a saint to make a successful shoot in a short space of time. b: TIME! I will have 2 hours at most for a baby to try and work something successful so I need to be certain of how to manage that time as I go along, taking into account that babies are unpredicatable and will more than likely need to be handled frequently by the parents for soothing! Then c: the business plan outside of the shoot, besides getting paid for my time, I will need to look at prices for prints, images on disk, web slideshows etc. OK one more d: legalities... ie: insurance etc... the biggest gripe for me at the mo!
This stuff is forever on my mind so one of the days this week I tried (with my son jumping on my back... fun...) to treat the situation with a shoot for my daughter from this perspective. Concentrating on the first two concerns primarily I tried to treat the situation objectively and professionally which suprisingly lead my kids to behaving wonderfully for me. Maybe it was confidence in asserting myself as a business person/loving mother that did it, but it's the best they've behaved for me whilst capturing shots which allowed me to assess my environment a lot better and take better pictures. Not only that but this has worked wonders for my post production of this weeks selection of images and my first batch a couple of months ago. Being clearer in my head has allowed me to look at my images more closely and therefore produce better edited images. Great stuff if you ask me! Of course it'll be handy in the long run working with strangers, which was the whole point of me giving a bit of role play a go! So in all of that I have captured the sweetest pictures of my daughter ever, and in the process have beautiful memories to cherish forever that will help me with my business. Hopefully for her in the future it will show that mommy loves her very much and that we both had a wonderful time gathering beautiful moments to always remember. I think I have finally managed to set myself the groundwork for my portrait buisness as I think this is exactly what all moms will want to achieve out of their childrens photoshoots.
