The Leap.

I made a decision over the last year to take photography more seriously and make the leap from hobby to business. Photography has always been a passion of mine. Since the days of my Vivitar 110 when I was a kid, I have always had a camera at my side. I love it. I see the world differently, more close up, with more interesting details, when my camera is with me. 

But taking the leap scares me. Now that I've said it (in cyberspace), I have to do it, right? What if I can't? What if I'm (gasp!) too old to start something new? What if someone pays me and all the photos come out blurry (a bad dream I had)? What if the business side is too complicated?

In three weeks I head off to Boulder, Colorado (yay!) for a photography workshop called "Substance", given by the amazing Jenna Walker of Jenna Walker Photography. When I told Jeff I needed to go all the way to Colorado for a photography workshop, I'm pretty sure he thought it was a boondoggle. (At least it's not ski season!) "Really?", he said. "There aren't ANY photography workshops in Boston?" 

Nope. Not like this one. I chose Substance because its goal is to help emerging photographers like me -- who may never have had a paying client, gain the skills and confidence they need to move forward. We'll do four photo shoots -- a wedding, an engagement, a family, and a baby to build our skills and portfolios. The workshop will also get into the all-important business side of photography -- contracts, insurance, and all that not-so-fun stuff that you still need to be legitimate. I also love that this workshop is only for women. Just ten of us. And there will wine. And time to talk about how scary it is to take that leap. All set at the foot of the Flatirons at Chatauqua Park in Boulder.

So, while I'm still taking this thing slowly so that I do it right, I think this workshop is going to be a great start. After that I'll continue to hone my technical skills through other workshops and build a business on a small scale. 

But I also need to build a portfolio, and over the next month I'll be looking for a few friends who want to volunteer their kiddos/family to help me do that. Local friends, let me know if you're interested (all the images will be yours to keep).

Stay tuned for my photographs from Boulder, but meanwhile, here are a few favorites of mine...

Help me choose...

I love gallery wraps. I have sold a couple and have bought them for myself and am amazed at the depth and art quality look they give to photographs. A gallery wrap is a photograph that is printed on canvas, then mounted onto a wooden stretcher frame. It takes away the need (and expense) of a frame and also eliminates that glare that glass would give. This wrap of a photo I took in Paris is hanging in my house and came out so beautifully it almost looks like a painting.

16x20 Canvas Gallery Wrap of Chez Marie in Paris

Gallery wrap detail.

I will be doing some craft fairs for the holidays and want to have a new wrap made to bring with me as a sample or to sell. I am having a really hard time deciding which photograph I should use so I thought I'd throw it out to whoever would like to give their opinion... So please help me decide!

Here are the photos I have narrowed it down to:

Canoe

Holt Hill Field

Iron Detail

Keith Farm

Edgartown Light

Whitefoot

Red Sail. Not sure how I feel about the people in the boat once it's enlarged.

Notre Dame Bridge

Eiffel Tower and Rooftops

Au Cadet de Gascogne

Pont Neuf

Notre Dame and Seine

Pink Tulips

Gazebo

Where does time go?

Cristen & Grace, summer 2001

I've been mulling that over a lot lately. I remember looking at the summer calendar in June and realizing that this school vacation was longer than my kids have had in the past couple of years. I decided on no camp for them this year, because the possibilities for fun were abundant now that they are older and appreciate many of the same kinds of adventures I do. So I made a long list of things we could do together and we made quite a dent in that list -- with trips to Newport, Western Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Martha's Vineyard, Philadelphia and Washington, DC among others. So. Much. Fun.

But now, the summer is gone, and the kids hopped back on the bus to school this morning as if they hadn't missed a day. And suddenly I have a second grader and a fifth grader, entering her last year in elementary school.

How did we get to September 6th, 2011? Ten years ago I had a four and a half month old baby; I was a working mom with a job at a great company, and we were a city family. I close my eyes and it seems like yesterday. And then there was the event none of us will forget -- 9/11 -- and right now it is hard to escape the reminders that we are almost at the tenth anniversary of that defining day. How can that have happened ten years ago? So much has changed. How different life is. Every day is appreciated a little bit more as well. Maybe the events of that day have something to do with my attempt to make the most of every summer day with my kids.

And while those ten years have passed more quickly than I could have imagined, I don't want to think about how fast the next ten are going to go. I realized recently that in less time than Grace has been alive, we will be sending her off to college. I can barely think about it without a tear coming to my eye. So, while there are days I might be willing to sell my kids to the highest bidder, more often than not, I stop to remind myself that these days are fleeting and I need to hold on to them tightly.

And that's where photography comes in... with its ability to capture a moment that might otherwise be lost to foggy memories and the swiftness of time. My kids don't understand this and get so tired of waiting for me and my camera, or, worse yet, having to pose for it. But I know that when they get older they will probably also look back with disbelief at how fast time has marched on. And they'll appreciate that I had my camera with me along the way.

Going off to 2nd and 5th Grade, 2011