It wasn't until I started my 365 photo project last year, that I was really able to see my own development as a photographer in a tangible way. Sharing this project online in a real time manner also started me on the road to blogging.
I look back at those photos on my facebook page, and remember every single day of that year. Some photos I love more than others - images of my children, candid moments, little rituals, and activities in our own back yard. I share my favorite selections with you here, nearly a year after I completed it.
Stay tuned for a Christmas post next week.



I love to capture them playing, and this moment with neighbors was one of my very first 365 photos.

It was one of those really hot summer days - we needed to cool off

Walking after the rain to the mailbox we ran into friends who were also wearing colorful wellies. I had to take this photo!

The youngest wanted to wade around the pool like her sister, but could not reach the bottom, so big sister scooped her up and carried her around.

Books had been read, prayers said and the bedroom light had been turned off, the littlest though still had her flashlight in hand and I had no photo of the day yet. Another chance to practice low light photography.

The sidewalk near our neighbors house has these beautiful flowers my youngest is always trying to pick. On this day after a rainshower, she found a flower petal treasure on the ground.

This cat arrived at our doorstep hungry and did not leave for a few days. We took it in and rang the number on his tag and he was picked up eventually. This is when he discovered the tadpoles we had collected.

We love washing the car, and sometimes we get creative with our buckets. This is our version of a Priceless car wash.

I bought some new brushes for the shower - they wanted to be cleaners, so I let them at it.

An early morning walk on the beach was graced with seafoam. I can't work out if its beautiful or disgusting.

She pulled a princess dress from the antique luggage I use for storage of dress-up clothes, and decided she wanted to watch birds.

This was one of the first times we brought them to horse racing. Dad and eldest were trying to focus on whether their horse won, youngest was just excited about the finish line.

She has wanted to crimp her hair like her cousin. Her hair looked so fabulous I grabbed a fan and tilted it up towards her to add movement. She has the hair I always wanted growing up.

 We went to a pumpkin patch early and beat the crowds. She didn't want to wear her wellie boots anymore and pulled them off and proceeded to stamp in the straw. I sent this to my local paper (Ireland) who featured it in their photo competition.

They both asked to be Annie for Halloween.

We packed an evening picnic to enjoy a hilly park with lovely views. As the sun set the girls started to dance with Dad.

 

This photo hangs on my wall - I love it so much. She had her school photos taken around this time and she wanted to show me her "school photo pose". The photo I took before this she sits beautifully with her hands on her lap as she did for her school photo. Then she laid down in the grass to look at the sky...and I got this.

 

South Carolina

It was luck when I found amazing rates on flights to South Carolina for Thanksgiving a few months ago, and so we headed up for some cooler outdoor experiences with friends who live on a lake.

Highlights of the visit included four little girls bonding again, a Golden Retriever puppy called Max who liked to give wet licks, an amazing menu, a trip to a legal Moonshine Distillery (for the adults), shaded train tracks for an impromptu photo, beautiful sunrises and sunsets on the lake, and cooler-than-we-are-used-to weather. Can't wait to return!



Sunrise, watching the fishermen and steam rising off the lake

Warm Jammies

She mistook the frost on this leaf for snow, can you tell they live in Florida?

The food was divine

Tire Swings

Moonshine Tasting

Butterflies playing with puppies



Halfway through the walk, Max went for a swim.

 Look at how she looks at him!

The epic walk back...puppys make you walk for miles.

I made us stop by the train tracks - the light was perfect and I needed a visual memory of how we rocked the mismatched clothing mandate.

The Mermaids

This past summer I got to scratch off the bucket list item A.K.A. as “Visit Hawaii”, and it didn’t disappoint. We spent a week soaking up the sun, jumping in and out of the surf, visiting the sights, and spending quality time with family. Last Christmas from Santa, the girls received little mermaid tails (with openings at the bottom), and I made sure to pack them for this trip.

As luck would have it, or was it luck? The 6 hour time difference meant we were all pretty jetlagged, getting up at 4am each morning. The plus side was that we got that lovely light at dawn for photos, and on our second morning on the island we walked down to the beach at dawn and let the girls enjoy being mermaids.

When I took a vacation...

I like to travel. Enough said!

For my birthday my thoughtful husband surprised me with a trip to Savannah – a place I have always wanted to visit. We also vacationed in Hawaii with our California family, and went discovering Florida, visiting St. Augustine, Fort Myers, Naples and Everglades city. Aside from vacations, a work event, and the night my eldest learned how to ride her bike without training wheels, I took a break from my big camera this summer. I put it away in a box and walked past that box every day with no urge to use it. Looking back, I realize I needed the break from using it nearly daily. No earth shattering reason. I guess I just needed a vacation from my dslr.

My facebook blog has been quiet these past few months for that very reason and then as I finalized this website before posting more shoots. So here is a recap of my favorite vacation images from summer 2014. Just so you know, the big camera is out of the box and back in my purse again. Stay tuned.

 

Sunrise, Kapalua

 

Sunset with a cold beer, Kaanapali

 

Enjoying the surf, Kaanapali

 

Maui ocean center, with cousins

 

Before the tropical storm, Maui

 

Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine

At the Olde Pink House, Savannah

Hanging out in Savannah



Naples Pier

Ted Smallwood's Store - Chokoloskee

Collecting Shells

and Building Castles - Fort Myers

Photography Tips

The best thing I ever did to improve my photography was to embark on a 365 day photo challenge in 2013. I look back now and remember how hard it was at the time to keep motivated, but I am also so grateful that I have daily recording of my life for a full year.  It also was a great way for me to share my photography, start blogging through facebook and get a following of people interested in my work. Here are my tips for success for those who are interested in doing a similar long-term project. Happy Snapping!

 

1.     Equipment isn’t everything - you don’t have to use a DSLR camera, you could do this challenge to improve your iphone/android photography skills and leverage Instagram easily.

 

2.     Think about when you want to start it. If you start on January 1, you will be finishing the challenge in the middle of winter when the daylight hours are shorter with less opportunity for natural light captures.

 

3.     Believe you can do it. If you are still not sure, start the challenge off in Beta! I started a Facebook blog for this challenge, but I didn’t share my project with friends until I was a month into posting photos and knew I could finish it.

 

4.     Post your photos daily if possible (ideally around the same time). Seeing the encouraging comments from friends and followers each day pushed me to take the camera out when sometimes it was the last thing I wanted to do.

 

5.     Enlist the support of your family and friends. This is a huge time commitment and there is no way I could have completed this challenge without a very understanding husband and kids.

 

6.     Set goals for yourself and list the different techniques/genres you want to practice and master. I learned how to shoot better in low light, and I tried food photography and long exposures for the very first time.

 

7.     Invest in a camera bag if you have a DSLR, and bring your camera with you EVERYWHERE!

 

8.     Ask your friends if you can take a photo of them, or their kids, or their garden, or their house, or their dog. Eventually you will feel like you captured every moment of your own life through a lens until you realize you can start focusing on someone else’s and get fresh images.

 

9.     Give yourself the benefit of the doubt. There were times I posted photos I didn’t love but I wanted to stay true to the challenge and they were the best photo I took that day. If that’s the case, make sure the photos are SHARP and STRAIGHT. This rule goes for every photo you post.

 

10.  Get outside at the weekends, take time each day for you, and plan fun activities. I admit, there were times I hauled my family to weird places, just for a photo op (back to tip 5 - thank you to my understanding husband). It also pushed me to take a much needed lunch break at the office many times.

 

11.  Have one photo up your sleeve. I mean that beautiful close up shot of your 2 year old’s wispy hair blowing in the wind that you can bang out easily if you have a fever (I ended talking that photo when I was sick during my challenge).

 

12. Try at least four self-portraits, and do one every quarter. If you are like me, you will hate doing it, but will be so glad after you did it. Buying a wireless remote that you can hold in your hand will help.

 

13. Copyright/watermark your photos, especially if your children appear in them and you are posting them online.

 

14. Learn from your challenge. What photos do you like to take the most? What are your strengths? Are you a landscape photographer? Or are you into street photography? Or do you get excited thinking about capturing candid images of children? This challenge will help you determine the genre of photography you may want to specialize in going forward.

 

15. Capture the photos you want to post on your walls. Many of the photos I took last year grace my walls today and I am so glad I focused on capturing family moments I love the most. In fact I feel bad sometimes that I don't have the same amounts of cherished photos of my kids this calendar year - oh well!

Check out my full year in photos on my Facebook blog.

 

My first long exposure capture! My husband made a heart shape slowly using a flash light that had two light bulbs in it.

Harvest

One thing I miss about not living in Ireland is the seasons. I’m grateful for the forever summer here, but I’ll jump on any cooler temperatures or seasonal imagery I can find. Pumpkin patches aren’t something I would have grown up with, but harvest was always a favorite time of year in my house and my father’s favorite religious festival. Coincidentally, I got married in my family church the week of Harvest in Ireland meaning that every square foot of the church was decorated beautifully.

Last weekend we headed to Bedner's farm (Delray Beach) to stake our claim on some tiny pumpkins the girls selected and get some photos. It was probably the hottest day of September, but the girls enjoyed stacking pumpkins, stomping down fields, and seeing the fruits of a farm’s labor.

I haven’t quite adopted the spice or pumpkin latte habit yet, but the celebration of Harvest lives on in our family on this continent.



These were just too big



Her favorite

A little one for the littleist

Baby doll who came with us helped pick the final selection



The busy job of stacking pumpkins - I think they initially thought we were buying all of them

Stacking and stomping

Before we started our epic search for the best pumpkins

The Start of a New Chapter

The day finally arrived, the one she had been counting down to, the same one I had been dreading selfishly just a little - the first day at Kindergarten.
I love her at this age and know she will change and grow and do well, but the first day of Elementary school feels like the end of a chapter in our lives of her being this little "wee thing". I wanted to capture her on her first day, so we did the obligatory sitting-on-the-doorstep photo and I snapped some on our walk to school. 
That same day in the evening we stole down to J’s Landing, an old Pennsylvania Barn and stables - my new favorite place for photos. With the promise of frog catching after 30 minutes of photos, you will see her holding a mason jar with a twinkle in her eye. She caught 7 frogs that night, had the best day ever in Kindergarten and had her family as company on her first journey to school.


Heading out the door with her new backpack

We all walked to her school

Oh, the Places You'll Go!



I did shed a tear that day, I won't lie



She lit up the minute she started to read.

 

Her three favorite books!

A mason jar of 7 baby frogs with a happy Kindergartener.