365

Day 30 – that sure was fun…

January 30, 2014

But now it’s over.It is one thing to take photos every day…

But it is another thing to create a blog post every day.

And after one month of daily blog posting… I have learned that it just isn’t sustainable (for example it is 3:38 am and I am still working on this post.)

This 365 project has showed me that having to photograph my life and then share it every day does not feel quite right…

I have worked hard over my life as a photographer to keep some separation between my personal life and my work.

So while I would like to continue to try and take photos every day… I may not share those photos.

Partly because my life just isn’t (this) photogenic every day…

And partly because I commute for work several times a week…

Which leaves me photographing during the very few (very dark) hours that I am home…

Which means that after a year of photographing every day, I will either have a very complete series of HAH in the bath,

Which will upset my Midwestern Grandfather, who already disapproves of the amount of times HAH is not wearing clothes in photos.

Or I will have a very repetitive and tiresome series of HAH sleeping… especially since I am not creating incredible themes around his sleeping body and I can’t convince Arann to let us get a puppy so I can take cute photos of them sleeping together.

The good news is that now that I am blogging again… I hope to keep that momentum going, maybe even once a week.

And I am very grateful for all the encouragement I have gotten from people who have visited this blog.

It is because of all the kind words I received that this resolution has lasted much longer than any of the other resolutions I made.

But now it is time for me to take a break…

And I look forward to sharing again when I feel like I have something really awesome to share.

Day 24 – child labor starts now…

January 24, 2014

When I got home from my photo shoot tonight, HAH said, “I have a camera. I can come take pictures with you.”

And now that I showed him how to turn his camera around the right way, I think this partnership may work out perfectly.

Day 23 – I did not see my family much today, but I did see this on instagram…

January 23, 2014

The first sighting of the Afro-Vegan cookbook I worked on with Bryant Terry last summer…

Aside from the photos I print for my own family and friends, I rarely see photographs I have taken in print form. So to see photos I took printed in an actual book that other people intend to purchase is still mind-blowing.

I am grateful to all the people who have pushed me in to this field of photography that I never imagined myself in.

While I still can’t bring myself to call myself a “food photographer,” because that title puts me with a very intimidating group of extremely talented photographers…

Seeing as this is book number 4 that contains only photos of food (that I took)… the idea is becoming a little easier to swallow.

Huge thanks to the wonderfully talented Afro-Vegan Dream Team: Bryant Terry, Amanda Yee, Toni Tajima, Melissa Moore, Karen Shinto, Dani Fisher and Morgan Bellinger. Look for this book in a bookstore near you April 8th, 2014.

Day 21 – changing my idea of heaven…

January 22, 2014

Prior to HAH I thought the whole gender stuff was a bunch of socially constructed nonsense. So I bought my son dolls. I surrounded with him with stuffed animals and only let him watch nature documentaries.

Despite my best efforts to fight what was ingrained in his DNA, it is all… dump trucks, milk trucks, monster trucks, fire trucks, UPS trucks, ambulances, tractors, excavators, cranes, diggers, front loaders, motor boats, airplanes, rockets, motorcycles and trains… all the time.

While it may not be my favorite subject matter, it sure makes getting him out of the house easy, especially in Petaluma.

One of our favorite walks prior to HAH was down to the river. We liked it because Arlo could swim after sticks and we could walk in a quiet open space by the water.

Now if we want to go to the river, we have to sell HAH on all the cement trucks we might see at the factory across the river, or the boats that we can climb on and pretend to sail to North Carolina.

Tonight though, we hit the jackpot. Just before we started to leave, a front-end loader actually started smoothing out one pile of rocks and scooping up another pile to dump in a giant container. We sat motionless and watched him for at least 30 minutes… which in toddler years translates to two hours. The driver even honked and waved at us twice.
We were in absolute heaven.

Day 20 – photos you will not see from me in 2014…

January 21, 2014

Green grass in our front yard.

Or toddlers playing in the sink.

Because California is experiencing a very serious drought right now.

(This is what the hill behind our house looked like last year.)

(This is what the same hill looks like this year.)

So it is time for all of us to start finding ways to conserve what little water we have…

And hopefully we will see…

Farm animals happily munching on green hills and toddlers defiantly standing in puddles again soon.

Day 19 – a day off and a reminder about sharks…

January 19, 2014

This film photo was not taken today, but with the weather we’re having, it could have been.Instead, I took the day off from photographing today and I’m posting this photo for my Monday To-Do list. And as a reminder that when your two-year old is standing in the bay with a giant leopard shark three feet away from him… you should probably go and get your child out of the water. That’s what my husband told me I should have done, instead of just standing frozen at the water’s edge calling, “Harper, come here. There’s a shark!” And even though I don’t think leopard sharks are a threat to humans, I still think that’s probably a good rule of thumb for future shark encounters.

Day 18 – the dance party couch…

January 19, 2014

If you have ever visited any of the places I have lived over the past decade then you have met the extra long crushed velvet couch, and you probably have a story associated with it.

This couch was the first piece of furniture I acquired as “an adult.” It lived in the office where I worked when I first moved to California. I had zero furniture in my Presidio townhouse. So when my managers mentioned it was up for grabs, I fought with my elbows out for that couch and it has been with me ever since. Consequently, it has seen more in the last 10 years than most couches get to see in a lifetime.

It moved with me from the townhouse full of Tool loving teenage boys in San Francisco, to the house of infrequently showering naturalists in West Marin, to the mice infested sheep barn in Chileno Valley, to the fancy horse ranch on Spring Hill and to the retired chicken ranch of Western Ave.

Now it sits prominently in our little Hill home where it frequently serves as the dance party stage for toddlers, grown men and superheros.

Big Red has not aged well… it has ink stains, blue gaffer tape covering holes, busted zippers and fraying ends. I look at it with a touch of guilt and remorse because I am not sure how much longer I can stand to keep it as the central furniture piece of my home.

But then when we have nights that end like this…