A Sense Of Place
I took this photo of Simon and Anna (and Lily in her bed) on Tuesday night.
It was about 7pm and Anna had just taken a bath. We put her PJ's on and she kept saying "no night night" so I decided she could stay up a bit longer - long enough to at least go downstairs and say goodnight to Simon.
When we reached the bottom of the stairs she ventured into the living room. I headed towards the kitchen to clean up a few more dishes from dinner.
A few minutes later I looked into the living room and saw that she had pulled her little bench over to the basket of books and was happily perusing her collection. At first I thought it was all part of a "no night-night" stall tactic. It probably was a little of that - but she was quiet and content and just going through her books and that's definitely a really good way to get me to let you stay up longer around here. She was enjoying it and I was feeling flexible.
It wasn't long before Simon joined in and starting looking through the books too.
At that point I raced upstairs to grab my camera, saying a little prayer that they would both be in the same place when I came back down. As you can see, that little prayer must have worked.
As I looked at the photo tonight I was reminded again how I like to take photos that include the surroundings (vs. just a close-up of a face). There's something about the environment and a sense of place that adds so much to the photo - the fireplace cover, a portion of the ottoman, the books all over the floor, the tv, the reflections of the rest of the room in the glass doors, etc. All pieces of our everyday life.
In the future I know I'll love seeing all the different pieces of this photo just like I love seeing photos from when I was a kid that included rooms from our house (and carpet, and furniture, and dishes, etc).
Next time you grab your camera consider including more of your everyday surroundings along with the people you love.
I´m very careful not to cut out the surroundings in all photos. Like you said, having the rooms and other views in photos is so nice, especially when you come some years down the lane. Thanks for always sharing all those small but so important thoughts.
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You have NO idea how much I needed this post today...this week. My life is so hectic right now--new baby who is extremely high maintenence after a very difficult pregnancy; 5 year old chatterbox who likes lots of attention and was "neglected" during said difficult pregnancy--that I've let a lot of things go. Yet, I want to capture our life as it is now. I've gotten in the habit of taking super close up pictures to avoid seeing all the clutter {absolute mess} that is our life. But one day, I'll want to look back and remember that. Remember cleaning off a tiny portion of the table to make Valentine's Day cards. Remember the bottles and formula containers on the kitchen counter. Remember the multiple baby/kid shampoo bottles (full and empty) on the side of the tub.
Thank you for pushing me out of my avoidance and into a place that will help me remember. These days are a fog--one day I will laugh about the mess and wonder why in the world I was concerned about it!
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hi ali! Karen Russell touched on this idea this week in class! And your thoughts are reinforcing what i learned. I tend to GET IN MY KIDS FACES with the camera!! You are inspiring me to back it up a bit and include life. Even if i hate the carpet, or their's laundry, or whatever.... it's what i want to remember (and i can always change to B&W right? ha).
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That is a beautiful picture. How wonderful they stayed put. It is perfect in black and white, so classic. Thanks for reminding me of the importance of "place" as you call it. ALl those little details we take for granted today will be important tomorrow. Thanks for sharing.
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Priceless! I so love this and you were blessed with time to get your camera no doubt! I so agree with you on capturing life around you & everything the way it was that day, because it changes so quickly! Its awesome how you realize that and cherish it because I have 3 grown children and there were days when I thought they would never be grown! And now they are and I miss all those times, but I have lots of photos like this and now I am making new memories with them and celebrating a new chapter!
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I love that your surrounding are real. All too often I see these pictures that are beautiful but don't show real life, the messy part. I don't have enough time to stage real life and I love that you remind me that real is good. In fact it's better than good, it's honest. I want my girls to know that we lived life, it might not have always have been neat and tidy but it was full and it was us.
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Love the b&w moment. Care to share your photo EXIF and your B&W conversion process including the tool used.TIA
Hi Jaja - the EXIF data is located here through my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliedwards/5431812121/meta/
As for the process - I use Photoshop CS4 but don't have a set way that I do black and white conversions. Usually I just go to File/Image/Adjustments/Desaturate (or Black and White) and then play with Brightness/Contrast. Sometimes I adjust the curves too.
In this case the original was super yellow - black + white was really my best bet. I upped the brightness quite a bit after changing to black and white and upper the contrast just a bit.
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know those little prayers well. love the photo.
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These are the BEST photos ;)
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What a great tip!
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AWESOME -- love the photograph and the sentiment so much.
You know, I was an archaeological technician for the Forest Service once (I've had so many past lives, professionaly) and there is something very important, I think, about capturing people in their environments. Context is so informative and is a huge part of our stories.
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Truly a snapshot of live! TFS!
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Oops! Should read life!
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I just love your layouts,photos, and have always loved reading your journaling ~ VERY REAL !!
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