Sophia

Photographing a baby is not something I take lightly. These images are going to be on their walls and in their albums for a lifetime. They are the images they will go back to, to remember the moments in time they cherish most. It is a humbling experience to have a client hire me (and for multiple times) to capture these glimpses. It actually makes me cry when I am editing what I know to be an important image, it moves me, it changes me. This session was no different, and not just because Joy is a good friend, and my birthday twin.

This beautiful family has big plans. Plans for more children laughing and making memories. Sophia is the beginning of these dreams coming true.

Daddies make my heart leap. Until I grew up, I didn't know dads could be great people in the lives of their little girls. Time and time again, my heart is reminded that good daddies are everywhere, holding their babies with bows and ruffly butts.

 I love dogs. Like on a whole crazy level, I love them. Bella was the baby before the baby, so it just made sense to give her some special attention. This dog is hilarious, she stands in the window and watches the goings on in the neighborhood. Bella checks on her baby constantly, especially if a non-family member is holding her.

She gazes at dreams fulfilled. A sweet and precious perfect baby girl.

This is the image that brought me to tears. The guitar is Neil's, given to him by his grandmother after his grandfather passed. Someday, when I have a studio, this will hang over my desk.

Creativity, and a pleasant surprise.

I pride myself on being a decent cook. Like my photography, I am self-taught, with some help and collaboration with friends over the years. Although I can hold my own, even I have had a kitchen experiment go very wrong, and we end up eating cereal. So this evening, as I was starting at the pantry blankly, I got inspiration, and hoped for the best. This soup turned out delicious. If I were to work from a recipe, there are a few things I would add, but just by using items on hand 1) I saved money and a trip to the store, and 2) I surprised myself and am thankful for my culinary growth over the past 12 years.

Ingredients

Meatballs
1 pound ground beef
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
Up to 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce

Soup Base
1 TBSP coconut oil
2 Stalks celery finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2-3 cloves minced garlic
19oz can coconut milk
8 cups water
3 tbsp. Better than Boullion 
As much chopped kale as you can stand
Garlic Chili Sauce to taste
1 cup jasmine rice, cooked separately

For the Meatballs

Heat up dutch oven over med/med-hi heat.

combine all dry ingredients into ramekin or small bowl, and pour over ground beef in larger bowl along with the sweet chili sauce. Using a melon baller or spoon, make about 30 small meat balls. Place meat balls into dutch oven, and DO NOT TURN MEAT until it easily releases from pan. Cook meat balls thouroughly. Remove the meat and set aside. 

Soup Base

Add the coconut oil. If going for a lower fat version, drain some of the beef fat first. Add Vegetables and garlic, and saute until cooked through. Add coconut milk, and water. Dissolve beef bouillon in a bit of water before adding it to the soup base. If you don't, you could end up with a clump of beef base at the bottom of the soup. Stir in the chopped kale and chili garlic sauce, and rice. Simmer for 20 minutes to an hour depending on how tender you like your kale.. Serve!

ADDITIONS
If I were to make this soup again, I would add:
Lemongrass
Thai curry powder
Lime Leaves
Squeeze of lime

As I have explored photography, all the different aspects, I am almost certain newborn shoots are my favorite. There is something so relaxing spending an hour or more being quiet in a warm room shooting the most beautiful, new creatures on this earth. Keira's shoot was not exception. My neighbor brought this sweet girl over for a session, and here is a sampling. You can find more at my FB page.

Lily's 6 month shoot

 This girl! Her family has been richly blessed with one of God's great surprises. Six months old, little miss Lily is sweet and smiley. She has three older siblings who love her to pieces, and there are always open arms ready to scoop her up.

 I love this stage of babies. They are sitting up and getting everything into their mouths! It makes for some great shots. I am in love with bright black and whites. Especially for babies. This is just a sampling of her extra fun session.

 Her grandma hand made this dress for her to wear. The details on the cuffs and the ribbon make it something special.

Nothing like tulle for an afternoon snack

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He's Growing

 This adorable little man is such fun to watch grow!

I love when I capture these unexpected gems. There isn't much that compares to a mother's love.

 Like a sweet doll!

Yummy hands!

Frosty

As I went to my car to warm it up, my windshield greeted me with this beautiful frosted art. I don't ever think I have seen a frost pattern so extraordinary, and in such an unexpected place. It is perfect, engaging, and graceful. This is such a great reminder beauty graces us in unlikely and even unsavory places. Weather we are facing a personal battle, or relationships are upside down, beautiful moments are peeking through the storm. 

My car is a mess (ask anyone who knows me, it usually is), my windshield has become many a bug's graveyard, and yet it produces beauty. 

Maybe even though I am a mess, I fu** up, maybe I am beautiful too, and so are you.

Photo-A-Day Slacker

Who knew disciplining myself to shoot, edit and post one photograph a day would be such a challenge? It certainly is. I am climbing back on this daily wagon!

The last few weeks, I have been watching documentaries, and reading about better nutrition. I have struggled with  my weight most of my life, and like many of you have tried everything. Well, almost. After learning so much the last bit of time, I have come to the conclusion that better nutrition should be the first line of defense for, well most anything that ails us. 

Well, that was obvious. 

We are marketed to sooooo much about this pill and that diet, we forget all we need to have strong lean bodies comes from what God has already provided. Unfortunately, our magic bullet never comes. We are left being fatter and sicker than when we start. At least I am. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of eating food-like products that perpetuate my biggest insecurity.

So here, I start my quest. Fresh slate, renewed endurance. This is a long race I have before me. I'd love to swap recipes and ideas with each of you, or your favorite workouts and tricks. Email me, FB me and share your secrets. If you are on a journey like myself, and have walked away from the challenge, go back and fight for your health, you are worth it.

Jedidiah and Jessica, Save the Date Shoot

 What a beautiful couple! I had the pleasure of meeting Jessica around 2 months ago, and am excited to reveal this sampling from their Save The Date Shoot.

Their chemistry is electric,  and so easy to shoot.

 I love detail shots, and accessories.

 There is an easy-ness about their love.

Most of my favorite shots came from this part of the session. I had them close, and just moved around them as they doted on each other. 

My favorite shot of the entire session! She is stunning.

Tiny Babies & A Woman in Waiting

My Sunday morning was spent with 

a friend from my teenage years working

at Marie Callender's. Not only is this

woman fabulous, but we are birthday twins, so we have a special connection. We started the morning shooting by the water, and walking our way up past the museum cone, past the wall of glass (above) and ended our time at Anthem coffee. I love shooting, but I confess, often the best part of my shoots are the excellent conversations with fabulous clients.

I am so happy for her and Neil. Entering into parenthood is an exhilarating time. Tiny Sophia, no doubt has a beautiful childhood just waiting to  greet her.

Later, I had a date with this tiny guy. Another childhood friend hired me to shoot her tiny son, Weston. Qianna is one of my favorite friends from high school. She is just pleasant to be around, easy to get along with. I admire this blended family. They are rocking it for sure. I see such love between all of them.

These have been such fun to edit, I can't wait for the proofing sessions with my clients.

On Monday...

Yet another high school friend hired me for a session. I am blessed by supportive friends. 

Carter's daddy is an artist, I was so stoked I got to use some of his paintings as a backdrop for this special session. Steve is one of those amazingly talented people who can do anything. Turns out he was a sponsored skateboarder, too. While Carter got his sleep in, I was took this detail shot.

  

It's evolving

No photograph today. I continued working on this damn logo. It is amazing how time consuming this stuff is. Who knew something so small could monopolize my time? Usually what takes up my time are Netflix marathons, eating, and well.... you know. All this work, and I STILL have twerking, I mean tweaking to do. For another day. I've got 6 seasons of Dexter to catch up on.

Distracted

Most of the time I cook, I enjoy it. Strike that, I am a damn liar. I love to cook when it doesn't feel like a monotonous chore to sustain two bottomless pits and a hungry husband. I love to cook when I am trying out a new recipe, or my whole house is spotless, and I can take my sweet time. I especially love to cook when I am bringing a meal to a potluck, and I know it will be devoured, leaving other no-so-good dishes lonely and untouched. I get a secret pleasure out of that. It's my favorite kind of race and luckily I am always victorious. The "Best Dish" race is the only one you will see me competing at.
Today, I got enthralled redesigning my logo and website. I had no plans on doing that today, and it made me utterly useless as a mom and housekeeper. My daughter even drew on the walls in marker while unsupervised, and was left to run around like a wild damn banshee. Stew was planned to be in the Crock Pot at 6:30 am, but when 4:30 rolled around, and the Crock was empty, I had to hurry my ass up and make something. So I sauteed all the vegetables, and potatoes, and seared the meat to make up for my laziness. I pretty much defeated the whole point of a Crock Pot today. Yay me.

Making him laugh

This boy. When he was born, I was head over heels. We had four years together before Amelia came along. So much changed when she came. If you are a parent to multiples, you are familiar with what I am talking about. With such a span of time between my children, there were so many benefits. Now, that Jairus is getting bigger, I am seeing some tension. His little heart misses me oohing and ahhing over him, and instead directing the verbal doting on his sister. He doesn't understand this is just because of her age, and when Jairus was that little, I was all over his intense cuteness.

I am making myself embrace and even cheer on his awkward smiles, and snaggly teeth. His chubby hands are gone, and his baby teeth smile is falling out before my eyes. I must embrace this, before I know it, this phase will be gone forever, and I will wish I leaned into it more. So, leaning, I am. I must find a special way for me to connect with just him. Take up a new mommy/son hobby... Any ideas?

My tackle list for 2014

For me, writing down goals and dreaming is fun. The actual discipline of accomplishing those goals is what intimidates me. This year, as with many of you, I have several goals. Here, I unveil them to you, throw them out, and hope I can make them stick.

1)      Shoot every day

To structure this, I am doing a 365 project, a challenge to pick up my camera every day and shoot. I will be posting each photograph daily on my Facebook Page, as well as my blog.

2)      Learn 10 hours a week

It is vital as a photographer for me to keep learning, keep fresh and keep growing.

3)      Read 1 book a month

I love to read, but I have not picked up a book in awhile. On my list are:

A)     Boundaries, a must read for anyone who is often violated by inconsiderate friends and family.

B)      Something from the author, Jodi Picoult. Two of my Facebook followers recommended her, so I’m going for it

C)      Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, suggested by another follower.

Please email me with any book recommendations you might have, I need ‘em.

4)      Keep up with our Budget

We start the month with a budget, but sometime between the 15^th and the 25^th, we lose momentum.

5)      Date my man

It is so hard to make one on one time a priority with small kids, jobs, homeschool and the hurdles of life. But because I so believe in investing in my best friend, I am going to work hard to make time with my man happen.

6)      Keep my car clean

Miracles do happen every day.

7)      Book 3 clients a month

God has blessed me with an already growing business, now I am working on consistent and long lasting growth.

8)      Take back my health

Gah, the cliche, and I hate it. I am slaying this monster this year.

9)      Control my lack of patience

People think, “Oh you home school, you must be so patient.” Not true. I am certain home school was made for impatient mothers like me to test my ability to not give in to urges of domestic violence and alcoholism.

10)   Be consistent

Applying liberally to all goals above.

There you have it. Out for all to see.  If you are taking back your health and strength this year, you can join me on myfitnesspal at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/user/juanitabarnard/status.