One of the questions I ask every student of mine in their personal bio is,
“What is your favorite thing to photograph?”
The more specific I have gotten about answering that question the more I have learned about myself. My answer has always been, “Laughter”.
I’m attracted to joy.
I’m attracted to the beauty of the human spirit that shines forth and radiates through the whole body when those lovely moments of release are shared.
But life isn’t always joyful.
In fact, some days are so hard that when Ben arrives home he finds me dazed and bordering on insanity as I prostrate myself across the couch with my hands over my eyes trying to not pay attention to the tipped pictures on the wall, the stuffing from pillows flying around the room, the torn books, the unfinished puzzles with dozens of pieces missing, and the super sonic two year old swinging from the chandelier. Usually when that is the scene that greets him, he quietly takes Buzzy into another room and whispers, “I’ve got it.”
It’s amazing how 5:00 p.m. hits and a switch happens inside of me that turns off all my capabilities of rising above. My patience is gone. I’m hungry. I’m tired. And everything in life is about twenty thousand times harder than normal.
Today was the third time this week Ben has had that type of homecoming. He handed me a protein bar and told me to go outside while he restrained the screaming child.
So I did.
I sat in a chair in the backyard staring at our garage while eating my protein bar and slowly feeling life creep back into my body.
And then I remembered I hadn’t taken my Family Life Pictures yet. The daylight was escaping and I was enjoying my solitude. I quietly creeped into the house to steal away my camera and tri-pod and put on some make-up. Amazing how just the 5 minutes of trying to look pretty helped me start to feel better about my “oh so tragic” life.
The first million pictures I took showed how grumpy I felt. I don’t like grumpy pictures. I like laughter and joy pictures.
Then it started to rain.
And then I started to laugh.
Technically this week is supposed to be based on the theme “eyes”. Given life circumstances and the caveat that this is supposed to not stress me out, I made up my own theme 🙂
Check out Rhonda’s post HERE.
Brooke Snow is a Lifestyle photographer in Cache Valley, Utah. When life is gets especially hard she has a secret stash of imported chocolate. It only takes one piece carefully enjoyed in an environment of peace and solitude to bring some spark back. She prides herself on her restraint of only eating one, but secretly her strategy is also with a mind of preservation since she’ll likely need another piece tomorrow.
Brooke teaches inspiring online photography classes that bring you confidence in your skills and creativity.
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12 Responses
that second picture of you is gorgeous!
i totally understand those days… i have a lot of them 🙂
Those are soooooooo PRETTY! I wish I had self portraits that looked like that! I’ve got a 3 year old that likes to challenge my sanity too- lol. What would we do without our awesome hubbies..and chocolate…and rain?!!! Have a happy Friday 🙂
Oh my do I have these days or WHAT!!! Get it and LOVE that it ended up lifting your spirits. In your blog your voice has always been strong but I feel like these posts we are doing together I am hearing even more of YOU. And I like it 🙂 Love it my friend.
It is about the eyes…about how you were able to see that there is joy inside you and find it and let it out, even amongst the stress of being a stay at home mom-the hardest job in the world.
I absolutely love the last one! To have a such picture of yourself is pure magic and then the cherry on top is that you took it yourself. I would say you hit the eye theme perfectly – the expression of happiness is in your eyes!
These images are beautiful! They were perfectly captured-in fact it looks like someone was holding the camera for you!! I love reading your honest and heartfelt posts. Thanks so much!
You are beautiful. Your writing is beautiful. I think most mom’s sing the five o’clock blues too. My husband has been in Switzerland all week on business and I always have to step up my game when I take on the role of single mom. Sure makes me appreciate when he’s here to “rescue” me. (I think I need to have him bring me home some imported chocolate) 🙂
Love it girl!
It isn’t easy being a mom but it looks to me like you are doing a great job so far. We have all had those days, sometimes for months at a time, where we just feel like it’s all too much and we just can’t take one more day of it. Hang in there Brooke,cut yourself some slack and stop being so tough on yourself, you’re doing wonderfully. One of these days Buzzy will be a bit older and less of a handful and you won’t have to eat quite so much chocolate as you need to now! Mwah! Love your work, love your honesty – you go girl!
Lovely set of images, Brooke. Sometimes it is important to remember that you are SOOOO not alone :o) …Sounds like you are doing an awesome job, Mom! …How good is that Ben bloke!? Take care
Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments! I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one that has “those days” 🙂 Your words mean the world!
Thanks for this post. I needed to read this this week.