Posts in category: Photography

Rhys absolutely loves going to the beach at the moment, and specifically asked to go to Horton or, as he calls it “the beach Daddy used to go to when he was little”.

I love that Rhys and Nerys are growing up exploring the same places that their Daddy did when he was a child, getting to know places that previous generations of the family have known.

So on Sunday we packed up some food and headed out to the Gower to meet my in-laws and some friends for a few hours of sandy fun.

Nerys even nabbed her Auntie Heidi’s sun hat at one point, and now I want to go and buy her one just like it, she looked so cute in it!

I’m not sure who had the most fun with this, the kids or the adults.

Actually, who am I kidding, it was clearly the adults!

Well, you can’t get much better than that, can you.

Recently though, I’ve not really had any photos to add.

I would love to say that this is because my children have been angels, but I think it’s more down to the fact that we’ve had so many bugs and viruses that they’ve been too wiped out to do anything worthy of a Wicked Wednesday photo.

So, I was strangely pleased when I looked at my daughter sitting in gorgeous light in our kitchen and tried to take a lovely photo of her, just for her to go and do this!

Apparently she’s learnt to pull silly faces.

Knowing this, I wasn’t really surprised by what she did on a recent trip to the beach, but it did make me laugh.

Rhys had been clamouring all over the sand dunes and then complained that his wellies were full of sand and asked Nana to empty them for him.  So of course, Nerys then complained about the same thing.

What made me laugh though was that after her boots had been emptied she then sat down, grabbed handfuls of sand and started to fill her boots up again, just so she could get Nana to help her again!

I apologise in advance for this being a photo-heavy post.  There are 31 photos to get through and they all feature me, so I’m sorry if you’re a bit tired of looking at me by the end!

I’ve written a few times about how important I feel it is for us, as parents, to get in enough photos.  We’re so often there, capturing memories for our children, but we seem to forget to include ourselves in those memories.

Sue Bryce says it best, “One day your children will look for photographs of you. What will they have?“

I for one want to make sure that my children will have enough photos of me when they go looking for them.  I want them to find photos of me with them, at all the stages of their lives.  I want them to have those reminders of the person I was when they were little, along with all the hundreds of photos of them!

So for the last 2 years I’ve spent the month of March making an effort to get in a photo every single day.

I’ve mixed it up this year, with some candid shots, some posed shots, some self-portraits, some detail shots.

And here are the results.

So, how did my month of daily photos go this year?

It was fun, and I absolutely love the end results.  I love the variety in the photos, and the story they all come together to tell about our lives right now.

But, honestly, it was also a real challenge.

I’m still getting my head around all the reasons why it’s so hard to do it, and to come up with ways to get past those obstacles and in front of the camera.  I’m working on it though.  Because this is important.  It really is, and not just for me.

This is important for all you parents out there. So watch this space; I have several ideas for posts to help us all get in more photos, and would love to get an Instagram community up and running for everyone to get involved with.

I’m already using #showyouwerethere for photos that I’ve taken of me for my children, so please do start using that if you’d like

But then she has her moments when my baby girl is still there.  Normally when she’s tired and can’t get her words out clearly, and the scribble talk comes back, and her legs can’t keep going and she just wants to be carried.

This photo of her resting her head on her Daddy’s shoulder is a real mix of the two for me.  A tired toddler, just wanting to be held, but who, moments later, was back in the thick of it, wanting to run with her brother.  

​My little/big girl.   

“You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth”