McClay - Two shoots/same day

A Photo at Anytime

When I actual remember to bring a camera, I still sometimes need to remember that pictures can be taken even when they are not dressed up and when there is a very low interesting visual activity. Pulling branches around and painting seem pretty action-less, but I need to remember to stay open to capturing images at anytime and make the best of what there is.

There are little moments that are just perfect. When the lighting and the composition all come together perfectly. And it is nice to be a part of that moment and know that without you, there would be no perfect moment. No matter how bad you think that you are doing things, it looks like everything is just fine. I see that our bigger intention of love and support and fun shines brighter than the huge mistakes that you think you are making. I hope that the memories that my children have encompass more of the love and less of the pain and anger. Love and Light always.

Just pure love I feel looking at pictures of my babies. They are my best creation...I cannot even touch anything that I make by hand or capture in my lens. And it is of my greatest joy that I get to document these children that I got to bring into the world. And I am learning so much. Each one teaches me something new and I am so thankful. My life's purpose is to show the beauty of being on the planet and my children fill my heart with this knowledge everyday.

At one month

So for each of my three baby boys, I tried to document at which moment they changed and looked different. Do things happen from day to day, week to week, or what. I decided to photograph them in a "formal" portrait once a month for a year.

These images of my boys I find are the most important work I have created. They are closest to my heart and I create them solely for me. Yes, I appreciate the awards and parties and compliments of other bodies of work, but it is this work that completes my personal mission: To show the beauty of being on the planet.

Anyhow, the portraits show how each child changed each month and showcased what developmental stage they were at. In the first month portrait, here, baby Andrew now focuses on your eyes and face and can turn his head to focus on people talking to him or music playing and images or light areas. He smiled at four weeks, but only from time to time.

It is interesting as well, when I look at the baby images from years past, I do not see how tired I was, or stressed and overwhelmed at trying to manage the boys and house and schedule my husband kept as he went to school and worked, I just see how happy I am and they are and how wonderful everything looks. I hope the boys feel my good intentions as they look back at their life.
If I have hurt someone today in thought or word or deed, or failed another in his need, I now repent. If I could take those steps again, tomorrow I would make amends, and heal with love those hurts, I do now this request; If someone has hurt me deep, and no amends are made, I ask the Light to balance all, I count the debt as paid. Parental spirits whom I love and who I know love me, reach through the door I open wide, make clear my path to Thee.

I cannot express enough how much I love being a photographer when I have babies. I am trying to imprint as many moments as I can, but it makes it easier when I have these images. I loved sitting down the other evening and lining up all three baby shots of each of the boys and looking at what parts of them looked like one another. As a mom who is always holding them or tending to them, it is nice to have the images, especially close to the time that things are happening, and seeing them from a different vantage point. I notice it as well when my husband is holding the baby and not me. But, oh, how lovely it is to hold them. You can feel their great energy pouring off of them as newbies. They are so closely related to Creator.

Water

I remember as a kid I loved the water. I could play in it for hours. And I never ever noticed, or cared, how warm or cold the water was. We would fill balloons with water and chuck then at each other. Flop around in a baby pool in the backyard. Jump into a spring fed pool that was always under 70 degrees and not care if it were a cool May or hot August day. I cannot say that anymore now that I am an adult. When did this happen? I remember liking the water still in my early 20's, and I am an adult at that point. So at what moment to we turn into an adult and care if we get wet or what the water temperature is? And is there any reverse so I do not care about it anymore? I would love to be able to flop in the water like my kids do.