After far too many weeks of not shooting a single thing for a few of my series I’m working on, I finally got out today to do some shooting!
Every fall I seem to make these resolutions about what I want to accomplish; there seems to be this internal clock that is triggered at this time of year. Must be that feeling of a fresh start that comes with the beginning of a new school year we’re all accustomed to, whether in school or not.
One of my goals was to get out to shoot at least once a week…that lasted about two weeks, much like most people’s New Year’s Resolutions. After those two weeks of taking my almost 2 year old son out with me I quickly realized this was going to be impossible. He’s one of those kids that can only handle the confines of a stroller for about 10 minutes. After looking like the most negligent parent with him wandering around while I’m distracted shooting and almost getting his head stuck between two stone pillars, I decided something had to give, for his safety and my sanity!
There has been much debate, with myself and my husband, about how to actually find time to shoot…and edit, but at least the editing can be done when the kids are asleep. Clearly going out with a 2 year old isn’t working and weekends seem so full of activities that that wasn’t working so well either. So, the decision was made to have a sitter one day a week for my son for a few hours.
That’s all great, now to get over my internal struggle and guilt with feeling the need to justify getting a sitter for something that, at this stage, is not even covering the cost of the sitter. But for my sanity, it really needed to be done.
Sometimes I feel like I’m the only mother who struggles with this balance and guilt that comes with doing something for myself while still being a good mom, but I’m beginning to come to the realization that I HAVE to do something for myself to be a good parent. We all need that separation, right?
So, finally, today was the day I got out to shoot (after voting, of course) and I decided to work on my From the ‘L’ series. Seems every time I’ve been out shooting for this series we have the most overcast, dull gray skies and rain. Keeping it consistent, right?!
Today I took the green line west out of the loop…here are a few shots from my little adventure. And I have to say, it certainly felt great to have some time to myself to do something I love!