My goal

Monday was a fun day. Exhausting, but oh so fun. Circumstances led me to a house full of children with an extra adult (my mom) willing to supervise them. What better time for me to practice my photography skills?? And practice I did. Starting with this little one.

Now, this was extremely difficult because I was left alone with her in the basement. This meant I had to keep her happy (i.e. hold her) while setting up backdrops, lighting etc. Then I had to position her and rush to my camera to try to capture some smiles. Thankfully, she's still somewhat stationary.

Next it was time for this little one. In general, my children are much harder to work with than my sister's children. Still, the stool was novel enough for her to want to sit on it will I snapped away. This time the older girls stood to my right and tried to elicit smiles (hence the off camera gaze). My favorite is the top middle. Mark's favorite is the top left.

Addison was getting very tired so we snapped a few of these quickly before sending her off to nap. Jacob does not like to keep his eyes open during pictures, apparently.

I had approximately seven minutes of the boys' attention. These were the results.

Taylor's turn was next. She's usually such an easy subject, but she got very distracted and upset by the idea of a missing highlighter. So I got exactly four shots of her.

Then on to my beautiful niece, Grace.

After photographing five challenging subjects, Grace was so refreshing. She sat still. She smiled. She even held my reflector on occasion.

She was the only one I took outside and I got my favorite shots of the day with the sun lighting her from behind and the breeze in her hair.

There you have it. The results from hours of shooting and editing. You may be wondering what my big announcement is (as referred to in my last blog post), or most likely, you're not wondering at all. I've set a goal for myself to pursue photography as a profession. I know that doesn't seem surprising, but it actually came as quite a shock to me. It wasn't until about a month ago (the day I shot these park photos with Taylor) that I actually admitted to myself that I wanted to be a photographer. Even then, I was very timid to say it out loud. Well, now the idea has set in and taken roots. I've now started taking steps towards achieving this goal. Right now I am in the practice phase of my plan. Practice, practice, practice. So in addition to my posts chronicling the adventures of the Williams' family (and we've got some big adventures planned this spring break!), I'll also document my progress as an aspiring photographer. I hope you come along for the ride.