New

I am starting a new adventure in life.  It caught me by surprise.  I've been struggling with this ever since I quit work as an Interior Designer to become a mom.  One day those little ones would grow up enough that I would/could/might? go back to work.  Thing is...I didn't want to return to Design.  I loved it for the time it was in my life, but I didn't love the stress, crazy rules (building codes suck) and stress.  But what do I do with my life?  I don't want to go back to school to learn something new and I wouldn't know what to pick either.  Even if I wanted to go back to Interior Design, D's job makes that almost impossible.  Designers need to build up a reputation in a company, that can take years.  As soon as things became comfortable, we would have to move again.  I also have to consider those 3 little munchkins of mine.  I am a mom first, how do I balance a career when there are sick kids, summer breaks, after school activities?  I want to be there for my kids when they get home from school.  I need to be there when they need me.  With that said, having another income would be nice, but I need it to be on my terms. I am a creative person, I need to create to be happy.
Then like lightening, it hit me.  Okay probably not that fast, but the thoughts and ideas came out of the blue and from a place I never expected or considered.  I have become good friends with a local photographer.  She took my family pictures this last November and that's when I was hit by lightening.  I could do THIS.  So that's what I have been working on.  I am going to be a photographer.  I am starting slow, but as soon as the baby is ready for school, I will be ready to take this on full time.  So for now, I will be taking jobs here and there to build my portfolio and honing my skills and style.  I created a new blog, specifically for my photography.  michelleyoungphotography.blogspot.com.   I can't promise I'll post everyday on it.  I don't do that here, so I am pretty sure I won't do it there either.  It's a start, and I'm very excited for this new creative venture in my life.

Pictures, Lots of Pictures

 My name is Jocelyn, I like to eat tubs of lotion.

 Merry Christmas!

 Hiking after Christmas up Brown Canyon.

 We Have SNOW!!!!

Nothing more fun than a trampoline snow ball fight.

Out enjoying the nice weather

Sampling

I am trying something new and using some old knowledge to do it.  I have been a fan of photography for a long time.  A closet fan.  I never got around to taking very many pictures.  A few here and there, but for the most part, I am sure no one ever thought of me and a camera in the same breath of thought.  I had so many other things I enjoyed doing, adding photography too it seemed like I was trying to do too much.  Recently I decided I didn't care.  I wanted to learn photography.   It didn't matter that I was taking on one more hobby.  I wanted to learn how to make beautiful pictures, to capture those images I see everyday that stop be and make me look closer.  Because I have always seen those thing, always, for as long as I can remember.  But, I've never been able to capture them properly.  This was always frustrating to me, so I just assumed photography wasn't for me.  I couldn't translate the beautiful image I saw into one other people could see.  

I realized after my family photo session that the problem, the real problem was my camera.  I needed the camera, the big camera, the heavy camera, the one that scared me.  THAT camera would allow me to capture my vision, assuming I could learn how to use it.  

After a lot of research and a lot of help for other photographer friends, I found my camera.  We are getting along much better today than the first few days of our meeting.  I was so overwhelmed I wanted to say forget it, I'll shoot on Auto.  But I kept at it, and am still keeping at it.  Seriously you can't learn to shoot great pictures in a few days.  It's getting easier but I have so much still to learn and practice. I can't wait for spring and all the beautiful flowers to bloom so I can get out there and explore and take tons of pictures.  

These pictures where taken with my old point and shoot while the kids and I were out on walks in the beautiful December weather of Arizona.  I really have a thing for Macro Photography.  I just love getting right up close and in your face.  

 These pictures were taken with my new camera.

I don't have very many nice images with my good camera yet.  I have been focusing on learning the settings instead of creating an interesting composition.

I still have so much to learn.  I want to try my hand at portrait photography.  I may convince some of my friends to let me shoot a family session for them once I get a little more comfortable with my camera.

Halloween!

Halloween was really fun this year.  I ended up taking the kids to our Church's Trunk or Treat. I wasn't planning on it. I figured they would get enough candy walking the neighborhood and didn't need additional treats from Church, but at very short notice, Derek was called into work and may not be home in time to keep a sleeping Jocelyn so I could take the kids out.  Luckily he was able to get home soon enough so I didn't have to lug a screaming tired baby up and down the street.  

This year Charlie had his heart set on being a Mummy.  I remember my Sis-in-Law had her boys dress up as Mummy's last year (they looked way better), but after they got all wrapped up, there was no going to the bathroom. So I compromised on his costume so he could wear it all day and be able to take care of business.  Some people got right away that he was a Mummy, others thought he was a bandaged patient.  

Leah is slowing moving from little girl to pre-teen.  Instead of a princess, she wanted to be a rock star.  It is her life's ambition to become a rock-star.  No amount of dissuasion will change her mind either.  So we had fun picking out the fabric and I created a look circa 1980's rock-star.  We had planned on her wearing her costume to school on Halloween, but the day before the school sent home a notice saying kids could only dress up if they dressed like book characters.  A little notice would have been nice.  There was no way I was going to comply to that.  So with the help of friends, we altered her by name only to be Jem from Jem and the Holograms.  They had several books written in the 80's.  Good enough for me.  

My littlest munchkin was fun. I didn't need a crazy warm costume like I have in the past.  It was 80 degrees on Halloween.  I found some cute peacock costumes online and I recreated that for Jocelyn.  Her's was proabably the hardest only because I couldn't find what I wanted and I had to settle for what was available.  I wanted her in a turquoise blue onsie and orange tights.  Yeah, they don't make those.  I looked everywhere.  She still ended up stinking cute.  

 At the church for Trunk or Treat

Jocelyn's first sucker.  She was hillarious.  I had to pry it out of her fingers when the stick started to break.