The Freeze, The Blur and The Night

Freeze 1: Too Cool for School

(ISO: 200, Shutter speed:1/250)

Freeze 2: Urban Cowboy

(ISO: 200, Shutter speed:1/250)

Blur 1: No Jumping on the Couch

(ISO: 800, Shutter speed:1/30)

Blur 2: Say Hello to my Little Friend

(ISO: 400, Shutter speed:1/25)

Night 1: Stranger in the Night

(ISO: 800, Shutter speed:4'')

Night 2: Can we Go Home Now?

(ISO: 800, Shutter speed:4'')

I have to say that this was an amazing experience on so many levels and I'll soon explain why. But first, lets take a look at the photographs shown above;  in Too Cool for School, I had my kids and my dog go in the backyard after school and just jump and fool around. It was around 4:30pm and quite cloudy. I wish it was perhaps a little lighter than what it turned out to be, but overall, I'm happy that one of the many, many pictures I took turned out interesting. There was a few more with my dog in action but for some reason, this was my favorite of the bunch. 

For Urban Cowboy, I was a little more familiar with my camera and the day was perfect; a relaxed, sunny Saturday morning. I told my kids to come and play in the schoolyard and took action shots. I had my daughter dress up in her Halloween costume (which she loves) and tried to capture interesting pictures. This was my favorite.

In No Jumping on the Couch well, the title says it all. Saturday morning, after breakfast, the sun not quite high enough to lit the living room. I did gave them quite a few directions for this one because the kept running and jumping completely out of the frame or in the wrong direction. They were crazy wild and I was crazy tired. 

For Say Hello to my Little Friend, I wanted to try something a little more subtle in terms of blur motion, in the spirit of Alex Webb's photographs. My son Victor loves his Nerf guns and was walking around the house with one. I asked him to do the same thing he was doing but in his room (where the early afternoon light was better) and took some shots. This is the one I preferred. 

The night photography was a bit of a challenge but I had a lot of fun with my daughter in Stranger in the night. Lydia loves to pose for me, well, most of the time, and she was more than happy to help me with it. It was around 6:30pm and since my house is at the corner of a boulevard, there is quite a bit of light going on. I was very happy to catch the dark blue sky in the photo. And Lydia was a real trooper for playing ''Statue'' many, many time...

The last one Can we go Home Now? was the only picture taken away from my house. And it was a hell of a night. I had this great idea to go take some night shots at the Botanical Garden during the Lights event. I said: let's bring the kids and have a fabulous family evening while working on some assignment! Well that was a mistake. It was Thursday night, it was full of people and from the start, my camera battery died. My husband was nice enough to go back home (while I waited with the kids) to go get the needed battery. When we were ready to go see the lights, the kids were already tired. I kept trying to find interesting spots, not covered by people, to pose my camera and take pictures. It was long, tiring and frustrating, for everyone. Yes, I took some nice shots of the lights but for some reason, I found them boring. This is the one that spoke to me the most . It was taken in a hurry, on a high fence, behind a Japanese Garden installation.

As I said before, this was an amazing experience. Like a lot of us, I am extremely busy with school, work and everything. I don't feel I spend enough time with my children and I am extremely thankful to have had this opportunity to share these precious moments with them. 

I took pictures of them, they took pictures of me and of each other and we had a blast (except for that one Thursday night)... It brought us closer and I'm looking forward to more of it. 

Here's some example of their shots for the assignment;

Victor's Freeze shot:

Lydia's Blur Motion shot: (I'm jealous I wasn't the one who took it)