Hurray for friends!

I love taking photographs of my kids and creating a visual memory of some of the things that we do together. So often they feel like snapshots, which have a true worth of their own, but one day, when my children are older, I would love to do more with my photography. For now I am reading and practicing and learning as much as I can.

To achieve our dreams, we need to have specific goals and take steps to actually reach them, to not just keep dreaming. Very rarely will things 'just happen' without some work to 'get there'.

A step I need to take is practicing outside of my family, so last week I took my first ever maternity photos. My guinea pig was a good friend of mine. She is tall and beautiful and despite being in the last weeks of her pregnancy, looks amazing and was a true sport. The lighting conditions were not ideal as it was the middle of the day, but her Mom had graciously agreed to watch all four kids (my three and her one) so we could do this and that added to working around nap times...well I'm just grateful to get whatever I can. Hopefully in a couple of weeks there will be a gorgeous little newborn to practice on too.

I am still wading through and editing the results, which has been a lot more time consuming than I had anticipated, but I am learning and enjoying it. If only I had more time. I am about half way through on black and white conversions, before tackling a few to try as color.

Here is just a little sneak peak!