CSI: My Mommy

So, for those of you who don't know, I can call myself a "photographer" I guess, for going on 14 years now. I was talking about it recently with Jimmy, and I was telling him how I feel like becoming a mother has totally changed my photography. I used to be totally artsy but now I've become predictable and I feel, boring. I feel like a crime scene investigator half the time, snapping photos of the destruction of my home. The other half I feel as if I have to document the way my children look, because I'm afraid I won't be able to remember them otherwise. Thus, I'm always trying to get them to look into the camera, give a smile or at least "normal" face, and I can check it off my mental list--to get a historical representation of so-and-so at such-and-such age.

So, since I've been feeling rather frustrated about this, (and since I borrowed my friend Sandra's ultra nice camera) I tried to get some nice candid shots of the kids today. Artsy fartsy, if you will. But it's really hard when your six year old hides his face, your three year old just wants to see the pictures you've just taken, and your toddler hits himself in the face every time he hears the shutter open and close. No complaints about the baby yet, just that it's impossible to get a picture of her without siblings in it too.

Anyway, just to prove the dichotomy of my life as a mother/photographer, I've included a few moments I tried to capture today and also some crime scenes from the last few months. Enjoy. (And yes, this is a separate powder incident from the one mentioned in a previous blog. Lucky me, it happened again. I got another chance at documenting it for posterity.)