I was stuck in the mountains, getting ready to be snowed in for my third winter, nursing a baby for hours a day, and changing four sets of diapers. My only goal for the blog, besides not going nuts, was to learn to take better pictures of my kids.

When I started posting, I hadn’t planned to learn the buttons and dials on my camera. I just wanted to learn things like squatting down to get a better angle on the kids’ faces.

A couple of professional photographers came alongside me, though. One was the family friend who photographed Annie’s wedding. Another is Emily (see her wonderful blog here), a new and very dear friend. Both of them said:

“Learn to shoot fully manual. You’ll never go back.”

I hardly knew what manual mode was. I didn’t know that I could (or should) turn off the flash. I didn’t even know my lens was removable.

Needless to say, this blog has far exceeded my original expectations for learning better photography. Not only do I squat for a different angle (or lie down in the grass or teeter on top of a barstool) I’m shooting fully manual almost all the time now.

If you’ve been following the blog, do you remember the shots below? The small ones are from early in the blog, the bigger ones are from later. (You can browse old posts by clicking the monthly archives drop-down arrow in the sidebar.)

Can you see any improvement?
























One of the most important and fun things I learned was to manage tricky low-light situations:

Here are a few non-kid shots. These are all photography challenges where I’ve improved since starting this blog.

I love photography. It has brought a lot of joy to our family. The kids like looking at pictures of things we’ve done together. My husband is always asking me for photos of his projects.

He knows he can cheer me up by saying, “Hey Debbie, grab your camera and come – quick!” (It’s much more economical than jewelry, and it works better. 🙂 )

I’ve barely scratched the surface of everything that can be learned in photography. It’s a wonderful hobby. There’s a never ending supply of new discoveries, and you can set your focus on whatever catches your eye.

If your interests change (as mine often do) you just angle your lens at something else.




So What Now?

I’m exhausted. Now that our family is settled into a permanent place for the first time in twelve years, I expect everything to be perfect. Of course it’s not! I’ve been putting off issues that have bothered me (like not having many sit-down meals together), and now I want them solved.

We’re also headed into a for-real, no-joke trial year of homeschooling. I need to log 1116 hours of preplanned activities by August 2012. I love these days with my kids! It’s loads of fun. But this will stretch me more than ever before.



Some Ideas

I’m planning to take a two-week break to hash through some ideas for the blog. (Mom’s devotionals will continue.)

In moments of delusion, I’ve toyed with the idea of turning the blog into Something Really Big… (Hey, we have cows around here. I could be Pioneer Woman, right? 🙂 ) I admire women who use their talents to build online businesses. But I’ve discarded that idea for myself. It takes a lot of work, and that’s not the purpose I’ve set for my part of the blog.

The purpose of my blog is to motivate me to learn new things – things I’ve always wanted to do but have hesitated.

For this next year, I’m considering…

conquering my fear of the kitchen.

With these as my “before” pictures (remember these?)…

…I figure improvement is a sure bet! This could be scary, folks.

More thoughts on the cooking plan – plus some other ideas – in a couple weeks!