not a pro

I take a lot of pictures of my kids. Like, a whole lot. Maybe you've noticed?? Ha. Sometimes I hesitate to post all of the pictures I take because I don't want it to seem like I think I am some fantastic photographer or something. I am just a mom who happens to really love to take photos.

I have had a passion for photography since I was in high school, dressing my little sisters all up and taking them up the canyon for photo shoots, and then developing my own film in the school's darkroom. I learned to use my film SLR on its manual settings, and became addicted to the feeling of getting an image (amid the hundreds that were taken) that I really loved.

That passion only intensified when I gave birth and found that getting pictures that I loved of my OWN children was priceless to me. Add in the digital-SLR and Photoshop and, holy cow, I fell completely, head-over-heels in love with all things photography.

So, three paragraphs of disclaimer later, what I am trying to say is this: I love taking pictures. I love editing pictures. I know how to use my camera and I feel like I usually end up with some decent shots. BUT, in no way do I think I am a professional photographer, and in no way am I trying to be one. There are plenty of professionals out there without me throwing my hat into the ring. I am simply a mom who loves taking pictures of her kids. That's it. I have no intentions of making this hobby a business-- I am not that good! I know lots of people who have started their own photography businesses, and I think they are fantastic, but that isn't the direction I am personally heading. I would feel sheepish posting these pictures if I hadn't gotten all of that off my chest because I didn't want anyone thinking that I fancied myself a "real" photographer :). Are we clear? Whew!

There is this great multi-colored wall in Salt Lake that I heard about and decided to drag my kids and husband there after church one Sunday to see if we could get any good pictures. We got a few that I liked, but I actually would love to go back and try again.

I love the way George puts his hand under Pearl's chin. He does it all the time when I am taking pictures of them for some reason.


It was a bit windy and you will notice Pearlie's hair being rather unruly in all the photos. Oh well, at least she has a sweet little face, right?


Isn't this wall cool?


Georgie would not stand still and be normal. The splits was as close to normal as we could get.


Just around the corner from the colorful wall there was a white wall that we stopped at for a few minutes. I love Pea's hand on her brother and the way she looks up at him.




Their little grins make me happy.


George was telling us stories about Mario and Luigi and mostly just wanted to talk about how exciting it would be to go to a Koopa's castle and throw fire at him.


Still telling Mario stories, probably about pulling arms off of bad guys or something. Poor Pearl.


See what the wind did to her baby-fine, long newborn hair?


Ah, there we go. Smoothed down for a moment.


I've told you about her tongue-love before, but I think this might be my favorite tongue picture to date. So funny.


My handsome little boy. Love him so much, even if he won't look at the camera very often anymore.


Pea was trying to pick the pebbles out of the asphalt and G was trying to wink like his daddy.


When we were finished taking pictures we went up to my parents' house for dinner. Since I am me, of course I took the lovely pre-sunset light to snap a few more shots outside. These photos did not turn out the way I envisioned them in my head, but luckily, since I'm not a pro (did I mention that? ;)), I can make mistakes.


I liked the light on that little weed. That's all.


I just happened to catch him looking at me when he came up from rolling around on the ground.


I could eat her.


So grateful to have my sweet blue-eyed babies as live-in photo subjects.