The Motherhood Memoirs | Fresh Cuts

When I was a little girl, your grandma never allowed your auntie, or I get a haircut. She'd point to one of the ubiquitous Sears photo studio shots of us and our glorious manes, exclaiming, "You want someone to chop off all of this beautiful hair?!... The answer is NO!" Ugh.

The "before" shots.

The "before" shots.

Classic Vera.

Classic Vera.

So. Ready!

So. Ready!

But, I rebelled. Second grade picture day rolled around. I just *knew* the super-short, asymmetrical bang look would work for me. And I went for it. Your grandmother was none too pleased. At five, I promised myself I'd NEVER make my children endure such brutal oppression.

 
Lookin' fly with my sweet bangs.

Lookin' fly with my sweet bangs.

 

Flash forward thirty years. It's bath time. You two 4.5-year-old divas are reenacting Mama Imelda's epic rendition of La Llorona at Ernesto de la Cruz's sunrise spectacular.

Then a pause.

"Hey, moooooom! When can me and sissy get our hairs cut?!"

Time to uphold my childhood promise. We went for it. Found example images. Despite the disappointment of not being able to get longer hair, or change your hair from curly to straight (and vice versa) we trudged on.

Ru, as usual, your inner *spa girl* took the reigns. You sat up on that chair, said "I'm the qweeen  of the wuuwld!" and let the professional do her thang. Delightful. Every few mins since you've done a little hair toss, mixed with a duck face lip pucker. Big success.

Vera, you cracked me up. Always suspect, I was SURE you'd end up changing your mind the second we walked into the shop. Your excitement to have a new 'do won out, however (thank GOODNESS). Anyway, even though you were letting her cut your hair, your face said something closer to, "Is she sure, I mean REALLY SURE, she knows what she's doing?" But, every single time I pointed the camera at you, you smiled a huge sh@t-eating grin. Eventually, I got a shot of your classic "Vera the Skeptic" expression. It was all worth it. You hopped up and down for joy after checking yourself out. Too good.

Gotcha!

Gotcha!

All in all, it was a lovely day with you newly-coiffed cuties.

37/52: Bokeh

 

"In photography, bokeh (Originally /ˈboʊkɛ/, /ˈboʊkeɪ/ BOH-kay — also sometimes pronounced as /ˈboʊkə/ BOH-kə, Japanese: [boke]) is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens. Bokeh has been defined as "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light"

 

Single hibiscus. Lovely bokeh.

16/52: Center Composition

Yesterday I did something that I rarely do. I strapped on my camera and purposefully (ON PURPOSE) headed to where I knew there would be crowds of peoples; The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. I know I live in Berkeley, but I certainly wouldn’t consider myself estranged from San Francisco enough to refer to myself as a tourist. Well, pathetically, I guess I was mistaken.

This weekend was the annual “ClickinWalk 2015.” This is a meetup activity put on by the popular women’s online photography community, Clickin Moms. As described in the info page, “ClickinWalk is an opportunity for women who know one another in the virtual world to come together in the physical world and bond with others who share their passion for photography.”

Pretty sweet, huh? Well, I’m sure it would have been, had I not gotten lost for the first 90 minutes I was there. Classic Melissa.

On the up side, though, I took that time to roam around, take a bunch of photos -- including this one in which I stood, primed to press the shutter for what felt like five minutes, waiting for this seagull to flap its wings -- and chat with a bunch of the sweet vendors at the market. Also, when I finally DID get my internal compass calibrated I had a chance to meet some very lovely fellow photo geeks. So, all in all, it was a good day.

Multiple Exposure Fun

While I have a lot of refining to do in this area, I've really been enjoying playing with the multiple exposure feature of my new camera. Finding the balance of exposures and composition is much more challenging than I had anticipated. But, that will make it that much more rewarding when I nail them (at some point!). These are the few (including the P52:4 from a few days ago) I'm reasonably happy with. Fortunately, I have some good base photos to work with (as you'll see the first and last photo have the same base exposure). So if I happen upon a particularly interesting floral cluster or other pattern that would work well for a second exposure, I can play with it some more.

Getting there!

4/52: Black & White

Exposure 1: My sister-in-law photographed here, Meggie, has been very patient with my most recent creative endeavors -- one of which being playing with my in-camera multiple exposure features.

Exposure 2: A few weeks ago Joe’s Uncle (also Joe) told us about the book “Telegraph Ave.” I was interested in picking it up, as it’s set in an area of the East Bay that we live in. There’s a house in our neighborhood where the owners set up a sort of book exchange/drop/pick-up wooden cubby. I was strolling by the other day and, lo and behold, a crisp copy of the book right before my eyes.

Exposure 3: Bamboo lines the outer perimeter of our backyard. Cool shapes, easy location to get to :)