Monday mornings while I sit in the kitchen waiting for the girls to wake, I peruse blogs and always notice the lovely photos others have taken in the past week or over the weekend. This morning I wanted to share my Mother’s Day images and random shots from the past week.
Yesterday, while having lunch a co-worker of Chris mentioned her family was going to the outlet antique barn in Howell. Not to sound rude, but most of the time when I meet one of Chris’ colleges I’m only 1/2 listening because they usually end up taking in code about this truck or that engine. Though when this lady mentioned antiques, it piqued my interest because I’m always on the look out for a vintage camera. Off we went to the antique barn for the afternoon. We found some old camera’s, mostly Kodak Brownies, but didn’t buy any of them. I did find a pair of french army binoculars. Then on the way home, we were reminded of how much fun the color orange is. Who’s ready for a road trip? said in a sarcastic tone.
 
Earlier in the day when I called to wish my mother a Happy Day, she mentioned my dad was out golfing… again. To prepare the girls to go golfing with Grandpa this summer we spent some time at the driving range. They want to drive the golf cart so I told them, “Grandpa takes golf seriously! To drive the cart you have to be able to hit the ball.” Finding the right motivation is key. Practice practice practice.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s day! It’s the job I love the most, yet find the most challenging and rewarding. These two girls inspire me to be a better person. They remind me of what’s important in this world and to dream of hope for tomorrow.
xo
Kim
I’ve thought a lot about the theory “you get out of [it] what you put into [it]” this past week. Every where we turn we are judged, told, encouraged, etc to put more effort into our jobs, families, friendships, and workouts. You name [it] and we’re told to keep plugging away; we’ll see results. In a job, we are held accountable for results by those higher up the career ladder. People spend hours in meets and making graphs to determine if the results are positive or negative. There’s a whole team of people ready to tackle the negative if needed and celebrate the positive when it occurs.
As parents, we spend so much time teaching our children to do the right thing so later in life we hope the result is positive. When one (or all) of our children exhibits negative behavior, most parents, are there to correct the behavior resulting in hopefully, but not always, a more positive outcome. As a parent we not only have to think about the short-term goals of a family, but the long-term goals. So many of my friends talk about “when Casper or Lula” (how many Mary or Bob’s do you know anymore that are under the age of 15?) go to high school or college. I know we started saving for our girl’s college education the day they were born. Long term goals.
Where am I going with this?
I was thinking, with everything and everyone being so busy doing for others, how often do we find time to spend on checks and balances for ourselves. Not talking about, how many errands was I able to accomplish this week, rather “where am I in the grand scheme of life.” How do I measure up to my goals? Do I even have any goals set? Oh gosh, I don’t have any time to think about goals… I need to do, do, do and go, go, go or I’m going to fall asleep on my computer!! If we don’t address and evaluate ourselves at some point we go ‘bankrupt”. There isn’t any extra anything to give anyone else and we feel burnt out. I see this in my family, friends, and my self all the time.
Most people can remember being told to make 5 and 10 year plans in high school.How many people ever thought about them after graduation? I don’t think I thought about it ever again…until now, 21 yrs later. OMG!!! It’s been 21 yrs since I graduated high school…OH lord I’m just realizing the time as I type. Funny thing how fast time goes by when we get caught up in being busy, we forget. We forget to evaluate where we’ve been, what’s been working to result in positive things in our life, and what hasn’t worked. In not taking the time to reflect, we tend to keep those negative things around without even realizing it. The older (and more wise) I become, I realize how important it is to let go of negative energy in my life and search out the positive. I want people in my life who make me laugh and help support my goals in life. I want to be the friend/family who does the same for those around me. For me life isn’t about how much money is in the bank (though it is nice), or the brand of car in my driveway (I like heated seats and gas/brake pedal which adjust…along with satellite radio), my goal is to know I followed my heart, made my family feel loved, and be a good friend…that I helped them be who they want to be.
xo
Kim
This morning, there was a one-sided conversation had with my eldest daughter about what she was going to wear to school. She participates in an after school activity a few days a week and before it started she repeatedly told us she needed to have specific shoes/clothes for the activity. Understanding the want to be like those in the group, out we went and got her items to help her feel like she belonged. Well, for the past couple of weeks I’ve reminded her to dress/pack clothes for the after school activity, only to find here wearing what she wore to school that day! Then this morning, she came into my room and asked if what she was wearing was ok….
*a moment of silence is needed*
…At this point I’m sure most parents can imagine the level of frustration of having to repeat themselves. I took one look at her and then started my rant on how she better have the clothes we bought for her packed along with the school today because she needed them to participate. How when we tried to tell her she didn’t need what she wanted, she would just end up wearing what she already had…but NO she needed those things to fit in.
Who knows what she’ll be wearing when I pick her up, and part of me doesn’t care. I get more frustrated when the girls are more concerned with blending in than following their own path. Sure they are young and insecure in this great big world, maybe at some point they’ll over come the want to fit in, maybe they won’t. Everyday there are people too afraid to speak up for what they believe in because of what others may think. People are afraid of not being liked, or depending on the circumstance, following along because they want to be liked. All I want to teach my girls is to believe in themselves and follow their own path.
I would never consider myself a rebel, by any means, but I don’t remember being the kind of person who followed just because I wanted to be liked. Many might say I’m an instigator or call me intimidating because I do speak my mind. If I have opinion about something I state it, if not I stay quiet. It doesn’t mean I think my way is the right way for everyone, but I’ve learned to not be afraid to walk my path. This doesn’t mean I consider myself a leader, because honestly I feel alone most of the time, but my path is my path. We all walk together, drifting apart, crossing paths, and sometimes we follow the same path but it should be the path we made, not one from the footstep of someone else. In the end we all end up in the same place so color your world how every you choose.
Inspiration song: Bon Jovi -We weren’t born to follow
xo
Kim
Inspiration song: Linkin Park -Iridescent
Get More: Linkin Park, Iridescent, Music, More Music Videos
xo
Kim
Yesterday, I tried to think of a good SP for the post this week but I feel like I am playing inspiration catch up from our Las Vegas vacation and then the girls having Spring break. Any angle I tried was meh so I decided to simply grab random objects and practice the art of guessing where the focus is going to fall (my shutter remote batteries died.) I had no intentions of using any of these photos until later in the evening I received an email from Old School Photo Lab with a link to my Vegas film pictures. The excitement and terror shot thru me. You see, while in Las Vegas I noticed the light meter dial on my camera wasn’t working; every image needed to be metered using my iPhone light meter app. Seriously!! Trying to meter, focus, and taking a decent photo when everyone is trying to get somewhere is crazy! Add on taking an instant film photo to the mix and I have never felt so rushed to take a photo in my life. Every click of the shutter had a “please God” attached to it.
There was a moment I thought all was ruined because I noticed I had the wrong ISO set and EV to +2…In SUNNY LAS VEGAS!! The one thing which kept running through my head was a chapter on the film I read in the FILMISNOTDEAD book. Johnathan discusses and demonstrated how Kodak Portra 400 can still properly expose an image even with the EV set to +2 or more. After reading the book I bought more Portra 400 and Fuji 400 Pro. Thankfully this is the film I brought on the trip. If you are new to film, get the FIND book! It’s so worth the money. Here are my messed up settings and broken light meter image:
Realized the meter was broken after walking into the Shark Reef.
Bellagio Conservatory.
Walking up and down the strip.
Recuperating from the buffets and all the walking! Thought it would the drinking and gambling, right. Luckily, I lost a total of $45 the entire trip.
Only in Vegas!
Some instant film shots using my sx70 and Impossible Project film:
The New PX680 film released today by the Impossible Project. A HUGE HUGE Thank you to Anne for shipping the film over night just so I had it for the trip. I’d say it’s great customer service, but honestly Anne is simply a great person. She is one of the reasons why the Impossible Project is possible.
To say I’m thrilled the photos turned out is an understatement. The entire trip my digital camera stayed in the hotel room, mostly because my bag was heavy enough, but I was afraid the only photos I would have were my instant film pictures. Those turned out awesome, but I was looking forward to remembering Vegas through the lens of my Rolleiflex. Now seeing the images, I can breathe a sigh of relief.
I want to end this post with a HUGE Thank you to Old School Photo Lab for giving me the opportunity to be an Analog Ambassador. They are a wonderfully kind bunch of men who were patient, helpful, and a joy to “work” with and always delivered beautiful images. In the past 6-9months since I have been using them to process my film, even before I became an analog ambassador, I have NO complaints whatsoever. Check them out at www.oldschoolphotolab.com on twitter and facebook. Also Thank you to the workers at the Impossible Project, if it weren’t for your film I wouldn’t be shooting film at all. Your product made me want to shoot more instant film and eventually branch out to medium format film. All the hard work you do makes it possible for people like me to capture memories, have fun shooting film, and help keep film alive!!
xo
Kim
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2 comments
Thank you, Jade.
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!