As someone whose attention is piqued whenever photography is discussed, I’d heard the name Lensbaby thrown about quite a bit. The company has been good about using social media to market, but I didn’t know quite what to expect.

I asked for one as a lark for Christmas (as I try to decide if I’m going to pull the trigger on my f2.8 24-70mm).

The day after the big day was sunny, so I went outside to play.

I’m not sure yet how I would use the lens in a professional sense, but it’s definitely fun to play with. The accessory kit is a must for the fun aspect of the lens. In addition to a wide angle and telephoto lens and a macro kit, it comes with disks you can design yourself to create different spectral light shapes (star and heart included in kit).

There is some fine print on the Lensbaby site about it not talking to a variety of Nikon cameras (mine included) which made me think twice about using the lens, but don’t be dissuaded. If you shoot in manual, you know all you need to to work with the lens. My biggest concern was that the internal light metering wouldn’t work, but it was just fine.

So in the end, I’m looking forward to experimenting more with my new Lensbaby. Do you have one? What do you like the most about it? What do you use it for (you know, other than taking pictures)?

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This post is not sponsored. I received the lens as a gift from my husband and was in no way compensated for my words. And the fact that I have to write this on my own blog…it’s you a$$holes who will blog for a free coupon who ruined it for the rest of us.

In the Kitchen

You can cook by candlelight as long as the stove, oven and refrigerator aren’t on the mysterious circuit that blew in the middle of making dinner and refuses to come back on.

Two trays of lasagna are put together. One is in the oven, the other is waiting its turn. I’m patting myself on the back for making a dish ahead of time for the week–and there’s even another one to go in the freezer for next week or the week after.

(I wouldn’t normally show you a photo so blurry, but I was taking it by candlelight and my tripod was in the car. You can see my dilemma.)

So I’ll remember later, one box of noodles is enough for two trays. You need two large containers of ricotta, one and half large bottles of sauce (come on, I didn’t have any lights in my kitchen!) or three regular sized bottles, two pounds of ground meat and one package of mild italian sausage and one HUGE bag of shredded mozarella.

There are so many incredible websites out there with recipes that could keep me cooking for the rest of my life. This site was one I found this week. I’m gonna try the bread pudding from this post first.

Photography

Shooting babies is hard.

Even a giant picture window and turning all the lights on in the room aren’t going to give you the light you need to shoot without a flash (and a bunch of post-processing) on a rainy day.

My friend was so kind to allow me to practice on her gorgeous six month old yesterday. Little Faye has this incredible red, curly hair and the chubbiest cheeks.

You can get enough light to shoot outside on a rainy day as long as you have covered place to shoot.

Can you believe the eyes on this one?

And him? The youngest of four and a personality to make sure he doesn’t go unnoticed.

Another terrific friend threatened me if I didn’t come shoot her kids was willing to let me take some shots of her kids so I could do some portfolio building.

Me

There might be a link between perfectionism and shame. I don’t know what it is yet, but I’ve downloaded I Thought it was Just Me because of the cool read along project the author set up on her blog.

I’ve long known that I’ve missed out on exciting adventures in my life because I was too afraid of failure. When I noticed that same trait emerging in one of my sons recently I wanted to find out how to beat back the beast. I so want for my boys to live lives filled with adventure.

How was your weekend?

I’m hoping you sang the title of this post to the Wonder Woman theme song. Go ahead. Go back and do it. I’ll wait.

There’s a lot of introspection going down for me these days.

In addition to attending this amazing workshop, I enrolled myself in Mondo Beyondo for this month’s session.

I’ve cracked open The Artist’s Way and while I haven’t started on the morning pages yet, I’m seriously considering them. (If I tell you that the book has been sitting on my shelf for the last 15 years, the fact that I’m considering doing them will all of the sudden seem like a giant leap forward.)

Last weekend I spent time in the desert with these incredible women participating in the Brand About Town Advisory Board retreat.

The scenery brought me to tears.

We hiked.

We talked.

We laughed.

And despite this photo, we quite noticeably ignored technology without any prior agreement.

The desert is quiet to a girl like me who lives so close to the city. I returned a bit tired, but emotionally renewed. (Christine does a very good job of explaining much of it, but I’m pretty sure I’ve also discovered some primordial Jim Morrison need for a regular peyote-induced dance in the desert.*)

This is all a long-winded way of getting around to the point that now that I’m looking all inward and thinking about doing morning pages and stuff, I’m clearly becoming more green.

Case in point. I haven’t quite reached the Diva Cup stage, but this morning I remembered to recycle an empty tampon box.

Mamma Loves the earth and the earth loves me.

*Mamma Loves, nor Brand About Town, endorse the use of peyote. Reference to peyote above does not represent actual usage of peyote, but is used solely for comic effect–unless of course you have some peyote and want to go to the desert with me to dance. Be prepared however to listen to a LOT of 70’s disco because…well…it’s just about the best music for dancing when you’re high on peyote. Not that I’ve ever done that. As far as you know.

When a one line email arrives in the middle of the night, point your nose into the breeze and take in the winds of change.

You may be too tired to grasp all that the email portends at the time, but stick it in your wallet like a Chinese fortune. I promise you will look at it later and marvel at the accuracy of its prediction.

Three months ago, Aimee sent me an email (not an actual cookie, though that would have been good too) with this message.

That was all it said except for the inclusion of a link to this.

I’ve been carrying around a camera since the late 70’s. I still remember my very first one. It was a cheapo 110 that Santa brought me to take pictures on my upcoming trip to Disney World (a huge gift from grandmother). I was nine. All of the pictures from that trip are off-center because the viewfinder wasn’t lined up with the lens. I can still smell the scent of the burned out flash bar.

The 110 was followed by a series of point and shoot film cameras, an SLR, a couple of digital point and shoots and finally two years ago a digital SLR. I thought everyone owned a camera of some sort or another. It wasn’t until I posted a bunch of old photos on Facebook recently (much to the chagrin of many friends) that I realized my assumption was wrong.

You’d think after all of those cameras I’d know a thing or two about photography. But I didn’t. Not really. I knew that I liked to capture moments. I was ecstatic when a photo actually came out sort of the way I imagined it would. But I’ll let you in on a secret: it was all just a matter of statistics. If you shoot enough, you’re bound to end up with one or two you love. Despite a desire to take a photography class, I still hadn’t gotten around to it.

Over the past year or two, I’d been lurking around blogs with beautiful photography. I actually wound up the nerve to ask Yvonne and Aimee for a few pointers. Yvonne pointed me to this book (which I bought immediately–she said it changed her photography completely) and Aimee provided me with constant encouragement–that is until she sent me that link.

I knew of Me Ra through reputation. I knew other bloggers spoke her name in hushed tones. The workshop seemed like a bit of an investment, but photography was really becoming a hobby, so I signed up for the workshop.

And then I freaked out!

I was going to sit in a room with this amazing photographer and 19 other women who knew about aperature and f-stop and shutter speed and probably the Pythagorean Theorem–some of them even had their own photography businesses!

What the f*ck was I thinking?! I was going to embarrass myself.

Last weekend arrived, and the moment I met Me Ra my fears disappeared. I believe it’s impossible to be around that smile, around her light and not feel inspired.

Yes she taught us how to leave the automatic settings behind and shoot entirely in manual (ENTIRELY IN MANUAL! You can do it too!), but that was such a small part of our weekend workshop. The very first note I took had nothing to do with photography at all.

“Anytime you can speak in front of people about what you do, the better.”

And my second:

“What you have is enough.”

Yes Me Ra is a published writer and an incredible photographer, but she is so much more. Me Ra was put on this planet to inspire women. Her artistic talents are just the tools she uses to speak to our hearts.

“Step back from your images and see what your soul is trying to tell you.”

I’ve had a copy of The Artist’s Way on my shelf for 15 years. I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten further than the Table of Contents. That was until Me Ra started our workshop reflecting on a quote she pulled out of her well-worn copy.

I smiled as I looked at the book laying on the table in front of her. The cover was faded, the binding floppy and a rainbow of sticky notes adorned pages like ceremonial feathers. It reminded me of my copy of Let’s Go Europe that still sits proudly on my shelf almost 20 years after that great trip.

My copy of The Artist’s Way is no longer on the shelf but now sitting next to my computer where I can easily grab it when I can steal a few minutes to be inspired. I was so euphoric after the workshop I was mad when I had to return to work the next day. All I wanted to do was take advantage of the light outside, play with my photos in my free trial of Lightroom and spend the rest of my time reading and continuing on my path to creativity.

Oh yeah, I have a family and a job and house and…and…

But you know what? It’s okay. Because last week I came across this post by Leo Babauta.

“Holding ourselves back is often considered a bad thing, but it’s not. It’s the best thing we can do, if we want changes to last. When we start a new change, often we are full of enthusiasm. But then we go all out and use up all of that enthusiasm, and run out of motivation or energy or get distracted by something else. But when you hold yourself back, you build up enthusiasm and keep it going for much longer…”

How did he know I needed to read this?

I’m the queen of charging full-steam ahead and burning out just as fast. I don’t want to do it this time though. All this confluence of events and ideas and skills and encouragement, it needs to be treated differently. I know this moment is special.

I am full of anticipation with what will come. I am already seeing changes.

As of tonight, I’m not sure what my soul is trying to say through the images yet, but I’m liking what they are whispering.

Yes. Gummy worms will melt if you leave them in the car on an 85 degree day.

Not sure I have a chance, but I decided to throw my hat in the ring for this…

I’m calling it Brand New Crayons

Enter. I’d love to see what your camera is capturing these days.

I think I have a new photography obsession.

Luckily, I have some enthusiastic assistants.

It was a pretty afternoon (every other hour it didn’t rain today) and it started like this:

And as any parent might expect, it ended like this:

I’ve always wanted to be an artist. I love the idea of throwing myself into the creative process and producing something that appeals to me.

My mom, she IS an artist. She creates and sells incredible paintings.

I’ve tried. I can’t.

In all honesty, I don’t possess the patience (oh okay, nor the skill) to work for hours or days coaxing an image onto a canvas.

I’m an immediate gratification kind of girl, so digital photography?? My kind of art. And lucky me, the hubs got tired of being hit over the head with hints surprised me with a new SLR for Christmas.

I’ve been experimenting.

But I had originally wanted the camera to capture my boys faces. So you can imagine how psyched I was when Hipmommy (thanks Hipmommy!!) was hosting a contest on her site to win a copy of Photographing Your Family. It’s jam packed with terrific examples, easy to digest information about shooting people and creating interesting photos–and it even includes information about using editing software to make your photos even better.

Now I haven’t gotten to editing these yet, other than cropping them, but I’ve been pretty happy with the lessons I’ve learned so far.