Pinteresting Birth + Cost-Effective Family Portraits

because it’s become such a huge interest and passion of mine, i’ve been collecting articles and photos about pregnancy, natural birth, and newborn care on pinterest for a while. part of my reason for doing this is so that i can share it with other women on the brink of motherhood. if that appeals to you, you might appreciate that board.

in photography world, i’m doing Spring Mini-Session Sunday on May 19. i just announced the date and details today, so there are lots of slots left. email me if you have questions or want to reserve a spot. or you can see more details on the facebook event page. 

 

since our son arrived…

Since our son arrived one week ago, our world has more or less been flipped upside down.  All schedules have been trampled upon, and all expectations have been suspended.  Soon we will resume everyday life, but for now, this is all we need.  We do all we can to take care of each other, and we wait for  a new routine to evolve.  We are re-learning how to manage a family, this time with as many children as each of us has hands.  Balance will come, and it will be beautiful.  But for now, our world is this simple life inside of our apartment, taking everything moment by moment, one day at a time.  I know that a time this simple will not come again.  Soon [daughter] will have her own world of friends and school, and [son] will begin his great journey of lifelong discovery.  But now- now all they need is their Mama and Papa, and each other, and this big world of family and food and rest and play inside of our little home.  [Husband] and I lay side by side in the darkness, ever so grateful to have one another in these amazingly beautiful and trying times.  Soon our whispered conversation evolves into sleep-deprived delirious laughter.  We laugh and laugh.  These are the days, we say.  This is family.  This is love.

from Belle over here. 

 

Leadership Development at the Stockbridge Boiler Room

Leadership Development at the Stockbridge Boiler Room

we proudly introduce The Vision Course

fall 2013

gus’ birth story

me clutching gus to my chest just moments after he was born. photo by Sarah Bultman

gus came into the world in a way completely his own. there was almost nothing in common between his labor/delivery and hazel’s. it was, in many ways, redemptive for me.

his birth left me feeling powerful and courageous, alive and aware.

for those of you who want to read the entire story, feel free to click here:  gus birth story.

for those who just want bare details….

• labor length: 5 hours
• pushes to get him out: 3
• where: on our bed
• when: 9 a.m. on march 10 (his due date)

my son

he’s here. came right on his due date. came quickly and beautifully.

full birth story to follow

photography: becoming a specialist

after spending more than 10 years with my eye pressed up against the viewfinder of an SLR camera (first it was 35 mm, then digital), after pointing it in the direction of so very many things, places, and people, some things have come started to come clear.

you look at my portfolio right now and you’ll see i have been a generalist: weddings, engagements, families-who-are-posed, mini-session portraits, babies, kids, graduation and anniversary parties,  multi-generational family groups, seniors, boudoir, and birth.

what a lovely, lovely world filled with a billions of beautiful faces and thousands of good reasons to celebrate and document those celebrations. i’ve seen the fresh love and creative pinnacle of a wedding day, the flirtatious adoration of an engaged couple, the traditions of families stopping to commemorate, the sensual daring of a woman who’ll be photographed in her undergarments to give some joy to the man she loves, and the tentative coming-into-self of a graduating senior. i have loved it all, each in its own way.

today, feeling now so blessed to have been allowed to witness and document so many sorts of breath-taking people and their moments in time, i feel i can now step back and ask myself: out of all of this varied glory, what is the one thing that resonates most deeply, that brings me so much life that i want to spend as much time around it as possible?

i might have answered this question differently 5 or 8 years ago, had i bothered to ask it of myself, but i didn’t. so today, the answer to this question is this:

that which is raw and ordinary, which is family, which is life. 

more specifically:

family photo-journalism

(the kind where no one gets especially dressed up, and they probably stay home and just do the sorts of things that families do while i just happen to be present to make note of it on film)

and

birth stories

(the sort where women – and their men – are transformed as they undergo the process of giving life to a new little person, and are brave enough to allow me into that space to witness it through my camera’s eye)

mmmm, yes. those things get my heart pumping. these are the ones that i look forward to doing more than any other sort of photography job.

so.

what if those two things became unapologetically my specialty? what if i began to say “no” to other sorts of work so that i could indulge in and master these two sorts? what if i gave myself over to that which i really love, and that which i think i do best?

there’s a degree of risk. will it shrink my client base too significantly? will it disappoint certain folks? will i be going back to square one to re-establish myself within these new parameters?

yup, risky, but it feels right.

this is the new plan, friends. website and blog and facebook page will begin to reflect said changes very soon (well, maybe after my maternity leave).

i’m very much looking forward to this new chapter of my photography career.

*i am sort of test-driving this post here on my “personal” blog before i post it to my professional blog.

pastor reverend tim

today’s mail brought an official document: the sort that you’re probably supposed to frame and hang on your office wall. 

it was a certificate of ordination. 

in some ways, it doesn’t mean much. i mean, it changes virtually nothing in terms of the work he does or the way he moves through this world as a minister of the gospel. 

it does have some implications for how we do our taxes, and perhaps for certain sub-sections of supporters and watchers of the boiler room it will cause them to feel more reassured about the legitimacy of it all. 

but mostly this feels like a fun piece of paper to celebrate something he’s been for a long while already.

i’m also looking at this piece of paper and all the implications that it carries, and i see that i am now more officially a pastor’s wife. which i wanted to be for a long while in college. and then i didn’t want to be one at all! and now what the word pastor means to me has changed so completely from what it had meant, that i feel actually pretty neutral about the title; it certainly feels less lofty. except that i know this piece of paper is one more outward sign of a commitment that we’ve made as a family to a particular life path. this little piece of paper seems to say, “there’s no turning back. this is your road now. you’ve been set apart until further notice. be true.” 

it also just so happens that today Tony sent us a link to this really great article by Tim Keller’s wife, called The Dangers of “Faking It” in Ministry. it’s real good. it cautions and exhorts me. if we’re going to do this, i want to be the real deal. but i have some fear and trembling about the dangers she describes in this article, because i am no stranger to their temptations, their constant presence at the fringes of our life. 

God, give us grace. Love us enough to keep us real, even if it hurts.