We really have been wrapped up in a bubble of family bliss since my last post. Ever so slowly we are inching towards our "sweet spot", where everything feels easier and generally more enjoyable. We are (almost) all at stages of our individual lives that fit together neatly, and feel balanced. Once adolescence comes to the house and then old age for my husband and I, things will become skewed again, but right now things are relatively free of stress or strain.
We went to Centre Parcs with my husband's family last weekend. It was mostly to celebrate Granny L's birthday but there is also a lot of excitement about the imminent arrival of my sister in law's first baby.
I am a big fan of Centre Parcs. I love being amongst trees and it is such an easy holiday with young children with the opportunity to engage in lots of new and exciting activities.
Day 112 - We spent the night in a hotel near Granny L's house so that we could get to Centre Parcs as early as possible the next day. I love this photo I took of Bear before she went to sleep. She was so excited.
Day 113 - This is my husband's bag and travel companions. Sometimes it occurs to me that we are quite bonkers!
One of my goals for this summer, and for the rest of my life, is to notice interesting backgrounds and settings and use them for story telling.
We spent the first few hours in the pool but then the kids had some fun amongst the trees. It was the worst kind of lighting at this point in the day. The sun was directly overhead and casting lots of nasty shadows, plus it was dappled. I didn't want to pose the kids or interrupt their play so I was mostly trying to snap the moments as they presented themselves. It was frustrating because they often had their backs to me when they were in the shade or facing me when they were in the direct sunlight.
Day 114 - The boys did the treetop adventure challenge again and Bear practiced her climbing skills closer to the ground.
This was an accidental panning shot. I love panning shots.
Day 115 - We spend a lot of time on bikes. I really do love Centre Parcs.
Day 116 - Taking big group shots is a new and tricky experience for me. I am not used to needing smaller apertures and don't quite know which is best. This lovely family is about to get bigger. We are so excited about the imminent arrival of Auntie G's new baby.
Day 117 - Settling back into regular life has been hard this week. I was back at work after a whole wonderful week off for Easter and I have struggled to adjust to the rushing around and pressure to be a responsible adult again. We were treated to an April shower on Tuesday after I returned from work. This suited me well because I wanted some pictures to submit to the 52 project this week.
This one was ok but I was delighted to be able to clean it up a bit in Photoshop.
I removed the road work barriers from beyond the garden gate and I extended the flowers over that ugly grassy patch on the right.
Bear had some fun splashing in muddy puddles.
Day 118 - Just a few random filler shots after I returned from work.
Day 119 - I got home late from work to the news that poor Roo had just woken up and vomited. He was fine after that, but got to spend a little time watching TV with us. He and his dad are currently enjoying Red Dwarf, the TV series from the early 90s. It is nice to enjoy more grown up TV and reading material with Roo these days.
I also wanted to share the kind of scene that I regularly find the bathroom.
Day 120 - I love these shots that I captured of Bear just before bed on Friday night.
The only problem was that she had lots of toothpaste all over her lips, which took from the final image.
Happily, I was able to remove it in Photoshop.
Day 121 - Bear and I had a crafty sort of day and added a couple more fairies to her growing collection.
My husband and I watched Carol last night. It is a lovely film with a nice story. It is beautifully shot and straight away we noticed the similarities between the style and the work of Saul Leiter. A quick google search revealed that the director was indeed influenced by Leiter's photography. Apart from the crazy coincidence that we only happened to stumble across this photographer by chance few weeks ago, we felt very high brow and clever to have made the connection.
I have noticed that his work has influenced my own style a little. I love the concept of the unnoticed observer capturing people just being themselves. Shooting through glass also adds an element of interest that I like. In the film Carol, there were lots of beautiful scenes shot through glass with rain or condensation on them.
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