As time goes by on my photography journey, I feel increasingly overwhelmed by how much I still have to learn.  And there are times when I realize that I haven’t picked up my camera in a couple of weeks to take pictures of my own family, as I’m busy editing photos I’ve done for clients.  I absolutely LOVE getting to take photos for other families, meeting all those personalities and then the challenge of capturing real moments during our time together.  That said, lately the images that are grabbing my attention when I scroll through pinterest, flip through magazines and browse blogs are the documentary ones.  The ones that are messy and real and seem to scream at me, “You’re missing these ones!”  As a lifestyle photographer, I adore real emotion and quirks, and it brings so much joy to frame those with glowing light and clean backgrounds.  What I’ve ended up missing are the personal moments that happen in disgusting light with my endlessly tornado-stricken surfaces surrounding them.  It was too heavy for me to try and pick up my camera in those times (which, let’s be honest, was most of the time).  I wanted to clean up first.  I wanted the kids in cuter outfits first.  I wanted to move the action to our best light first.

So, to kick myself right out of that safe place, I signed up for a class.  That’s what I do.  When life is super busy, I’m co-leading a moms’ group at church, buying a house, preparing to move, raising four very needy kids (every child in the world would fit into that category, by definition of being a dependent),  doing my photography business…. well, that’s when I sign up to take a class.  In actuality, there is never a good time.  Life is always busy.  And this is important.

The title of the class is “The Documentary Approach,”, taught by Jessica Thomason (http://jessicathomason.com/) through Click Photo School.  We’re just finishing up week three of our four week class, and this week’s assignment was to do a DITL (Day in the Life).  This meant sleeping with my camera beside my bed so that from the very first moment, I wasn’t missing a thing.  Except lunch, naptime, and pretty much meal times in general.  I missed those. But here is what I did capture.  Our typical Friday.