New Passion...Photography

As a result of our move to Saudi, I have had more time and the financial resources to be able to pursue my interest in photography. I have joined an online forum called Clickin Moms and have found a wealth of information there, I have taken two courses and am hoping to do another one next month and I have  gotten the editing program Lightroom and over Christmas asked for several photography books. All have helped me grow and learn more every day about the art of photography. I only wish I had more time to devote to it...and well now.....I wouldn't mind an upgrade in my camera!


Well several weeks ago I did a newborn shoot for our friends The Perry's of their little girl. I was so nervous and put off asking to do it for weeks. I don't know why I was so nervous...probably because I had never done a baby that little and I wanted to do such a good job for them. Prior to this shoot I did three other shots outside my kids.  I am so glad I did the shoot for the Perry's because not only did I learn a ton, love the pictures....most importantly...they loved them and they were able to capture this time in their lives which is hard to do in Saudi with not a whole lot of photographers around!

I have also done a maternity shoot of a friend here and then her newborn boy shoot (more like 6 week old baby shoot) and then I did one of triplets. Here are some from the pictures that I have done for people since July when I started to actively try to learn photography.....

I don't know where this interest will lead me but for now I am having fun learning, practicing and hopefully growing. And it is always fun to be able to practice on kids outside my own and give friend's some photos for them to hopefully treasure.

Jumping on the Bed

The other day we were bored...what else is new...I was running out of ideas quick and I also needed to start on my homework/practice for my editing class I am taking and I was running out of images that I wanted to even work on.

So...I decided to do a photo shoot. Peyton is tired of me taking pictures so I had to make it interesting. I saw some pictures the other day that someone did of their kids in the morning time waking up in their bed. Well, the lighting in our bedrooms is awful but I really wanted to take some fun pictures....so....I moved a mattress to our living room and set it up.

We had a blast! Graham was laughing and hiding behind blankets, Peyton was jumping and Mommy got to play with her camera...and it took up about an hour of our day!

Best Friends

Pictures of Peyton

In two months my baby will be 3! What an interesting/challenging 3 years it has been! She is so much like John and it just makes me laugh! She is so wild, silly, opinionated, strong, smart, curious and I just feel like these pictures capture her!

Clickin Moms

As part of my goal to learn more about photography and pursue my hobby, I joined an online website/group called Clickin Moms.

It was highly recommended by many friends and it has a great online forum, classes and will be a great tool to help me work on different things. I already signed up for a Lightroom class that will last a month and since it is all online, I can do it whenever I want during the week and it doesn't matter that I am in Saudi! I am really excited and look forward to having something that I enjoy keep me busy during the long hot summer!

One of My Favorite Models

Photography Class

One of the benefits of living here was the opportunity to have time and the finances to pursue hobbies and interests. So, I am taking a photography class this weekend. We had class yesterday for 5 hours and then later today we have another class for 5 hours. There is a husband and wife on camp that are photographers and the class was taught by the husband who really knows what he is doing and is a great teacher. The course is really well organized and I am hoping to talk to him about offering other classes or 1:1 teaching on topics as I start practicing more and just need some mentoring. I am also looking at some online classes through www.clickinmoms.com and also some other sites I have found.

But here are my first attempts at shooting last night and doing some minor processing in Lightroom....note...it is my first attempt!