Playing in the new car

Today, the girls and I started our day by blasting the radio and playing in the backseat of the new car. We’re squeezing in fun where we can as summer break comes to an end.

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Memories of the playground

This image brings back memories of playing in the playground next to my childhood home with the kids in the neighborhood. So many wonderful memories of playing together for hours, jumping, swinging, tree climbing, bike riding, rollerskating, and going on adventures are flooding to my mind this morning.

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I moved away from the neighborhood and my childhood friends long ago, but my memories of those days with friends are still vivid.

This morning, I am thankful that I have recently found and reconnected with an old friend; I am truly enjoying sharing some of our favorite childhood memories and catching up with each other!

Storytelling: a girl, a camera, and her dog

With our younger daughter off playing at a friend’s house, I had some time one-on-one time with our oldest. We decided to have some photo time together, which is always fun for both of us.

She has long since outgrown her point and shoot camera and is ready for her own DSLR. When I handed her my old Nikon d50 DSLR with a 50mm 1.8D lens to use for the day (technically, this is my husband’s camera now), she was thrilled! She jumped up and said, “I want to do a photo shoot with Honey!” (Honey is our 1.5 year old Spanish Water Dog.)

I grabbed my own camera as she and Honey ran out the door to have some fun; I definitely wanted to capture her story.

She started with using a pine cone to get Honey’s attention and to get her to stay still,

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which worked really well for a few minutes (my daughter’s photo is below).

P_photo_of_Honey_0285As she tried a new perspective, I saw a lot of my own style of photography. Obviously, she has been paying attention and observing me for years.

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Jean_H_de_Buren_photo_fun_5929 When Honey lost her focus, and we were winded from chasing her all over the yard,

P.photo_of_Honey_0598we took a break and headed inside to take a peek at her photos.

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She loved her photos, and found herself laughing at how many photos she had of Honey running out of the frame.

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To wrap up the photo shoot, our daughter made a sandwich, and, of course, shared a bit with her buddy, Honey!

Jean_H_de_Buren_photo_fun_5983We both had a wonderful afternoon and are already planning our next photo session!

The writer

While the girls were both involved in a quiet activity, I took the opportunity to tiptoe down the hallway and peek into their bedroom. There, I discovered our oldest, deep in thought, letting her ideas flow onto the pages of her new notebook.

Although she was aware of my presence, she remained focused and continued to write. This allowed me the time to capture an image of her doing something that she loves.

These natural moments are some of my favorite ones to photograph.

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Girl Power

WIth their cousin’s Superman-themed birthday party coming up tomorrow, the girls and I have had a lot of conversations about Superman’s story, his strength, and powers. While it has been great to explore the amazing powers of Superman as well as Spiderman, and the Incredible Hulk, I found a few things lacking in our conversations: female super heroes and girl power.

So, this morning, I changed things up a bit and started telling the story of the female super hero that I know best: Wonder Woman. Growing up, I LOVED her and created my own super hero adventures, spinning around in my room, and transforming into Wonder Woman just in time to save the day. While pretending to be Wonder Woman, I was powerful and unstoppable.

I felt that the girls and I could all use a dose of Wonder Woman today; thanks to YouTube, we were able to watch scenes from a few episodes of the 1970s television show; it was inspiring to see another strong female (even as a fictional character) and now they’re hooked!

Today, we chose to demonstrate our strength and athleticism, we played and ran with determination, and celebrated our own power.

Today, was about girl power!

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