Shutterbug Mama

Well, April has been true to her motto, and we've sure had our share of rainy days this month, that's for sure.

I'm not complaining, though, when I get treated to sights like this one. The magnolias bloomed late this year, but look how beautiful they are!

Hopefully, all the rain and somewhat chilly temps we've been having will mean abundant and glorious flowers for May and the rest of summer.

I took the photos above on Thursday evening before a show at the Lincoln Square Theatre (housed in Berry Church) that was curated by Berry's band-in-residence Anathallo. The show consisted of Lake, a band from Olympia, WA who was touring w/ Half-handed Cloud (John Ringhofer) who was the headliner and also included performances by the Think/Dance collective. The show was amazing. All 3 performances would've been worth the price of admission on their own. I'm really glad I went, even though it was on a weeknight. Sometimes, I just have to make myself get out of the house after a long day of work, or I'll miss out on memorable events like this one. This was totally worth the loss of sleep. Here are some of my favorite photos from the show:

And here's a photo of Cadence for good measure. Man, I love thrift stores.


You can see more folk's Best Shot's on Tracey' Mother May I.

Labels: anathallo, best.shots.monday, i.heart.berry.church, live.music, spring.fever, think.dance.collective

I sliced my finger on a knife while doing the dishes a few nights ago. I happened to be talking on the phone at the time, which goes to show that I'm just not that great of a multi-tasker. At least I got a Love Thursday photo out of it, I guess (see the hearts? see the hearts?).

It's been a rough few days. First, I lost my cellphone at the park Saturday morning. Then I sliced my finger Saturday night. Then on Monday morning, I thought I lost my wallet and missed my early train to work. I then learned that someone had found my cellphone and used it to send 90 text messages and make 50-some calls. Tuesday morning, I fell flat on my face (almost) while crossing the street and I twisted my ankle and shed some more blood. I couldn't walk and I missed the early AND late trains and had to drive to work on a morning when the Edens was two hours from the Kennedy junction to Lake Cook (usually less than 20 minutes when there's no traffic). Wednesday, I had an allergy attack that lasted the whole day (and is still going on as I type this), and I basically didn't stop sneezing the whole day. And these were no sissy sneezes. I'm talking side-and-ear-splitting sneezes that made the windows rattle.

On the bright side, I found that the lovely skirt I bought for Cadence at the thrift store a couple weeks ago has an ADJUSTABLE WAIST, so I got it to fit just right on her. Not only that, a shirt I found at a different thrift store last month matches the skirt perfectly. And the whole outfit goes great with white socks in black sparkly shoes.

So while my body is one big lump of pain and discomfort, I have to admit that putting this outfit together made my day. Simple pleasures, folks.

It's Love Thursday, folks. Go check out all the love on Shutter Sisters.

Labels: love.thursday, technical.difficulties

This spring, I am attempting to get more experience in shooting photos of folks who are taller than 3-and-a-half feet. A few of my friends have volunteered for this experiment, and I had my first shoot with one of them Sunday afternoon. It was with Ben Miranda, my friend from the Detholz!.

We shot for a couple hours in the Lincoln Square area, mainly on the grounds of Waters Academy, which has a community garden. We did some typical portrait shots, like the one above, but I wanted to do something a little more interesting.

Luckily, Ben was happy to oblige with some interesting props and poses. This is one of my favorites.

I was especially happy with the shots taken in front of the very colorful fieldhouse next to the garden in the school.

All in all, it was a great learning experience for me, and I look forward to doing some more shoots in the coming weeks. Ben was such a good sport about it all, and it was a lot of fun. You can see some of my other favorite shots in the slideshow below. To see all the shots from the session, you can visit my more "serious" Flickr account.

Labels: detholz, friends, friends.who.rock, photography

Folks, I took hundreds of photos this weekend at two photoshoots, and I am mentally and physically exhausted (but in a good, satisfying way). A few of my favorite shots, however, are more snap-shotty candids of other people's kids. Like Caely here with her totally kick-ass skull tattoo. I like me a good color combo, and that fuschia and green is one of my favorites.

And then there's this cute shot of Rudden, Caely and Cadence. They were nice enough to pause their flurry of fun to pose for one group shot. Otherwise, I'd have a bunch of blurs. Not that I have anything against blurs, but it's nice to get a shot in which you can actually make out faces once in a while.

And then there's this shot of my cousin's baby Eden, who is now a toddler already (!!!) and who is extremely photogenic. It's already hard to remember when Cadence was this little.


Which brings us to the Robotic Housewives portion of this post. I had the pleasure of doing a photoshoot for my friend Jessica Hannah's performance installation titled Showroom No. 6. The slideshow above is of some of my favorite shots from the shoot. You can see the entire set on my other Flickr account. This was Jessica's graduate thesis for Columbia College's Interdisciplinary Art and Media department. Here's a description from her website:

"Her thesis work explores identity struggles, her subject being robotic housewives. Showroom No.6 is an installation/durational performance involving six live women displayed in the 1950s-era showroom of Renaldi Industries, a fictional manufacturer of robotic companions. Six phones allow audience members to hear the inner monologue of each female robot; lifting the phone receiver actives each robot to life. A video catalog details other companionship options provided by the company."

I also did a photoshoot Sunday afternoon of my friend Ben (of Detholz! notoriety), but I haven't had a chance to go through all of those yet.

I've gotten some of my friends to volunteer as guinea pigs for photoshoots (Ben was the first) because I'm trying to get more experience shooting grownups. With just these two photoshoots, I've already learned a lot, and I'm excited to be pushing my limits as a photographer!


You can see more folk's Best Shot's on Tracey' Mother May I.

Labels: best.shots.monday, friends, photography

Hi, folks. I've got a post up on Shutter Sisters today. Check it out:

Small Is Beautiful

Labels: photography, shutter.sisters

I happened upon this poem while reading my Howard Zinn this morning on the train, and I thought these lines were perfect for the photo I posted on Monday. They capture the sentiment I've been feeling these days as well as what I hope the photo communicates.

I've gotten through the first half of Zinn's book, and I am so angry that I am in the process of moving all our money out of our current bank. I'm sure our measly savings won't even be missed by that behemoth, but it's a small step towards aligning our daily lives with what we believe and value.

If you are interested in socially responsible banking, I encourage you to check out Shore Bank Corporation.

Labels: activism, books, public.service.announcement

...and we've all been told: Earthquake hits Illinois

New Madrid is one of my favorite songs ever, so while I'm happy to have that song stuck in my head upon reading today's headlines, I'm also glad that no one was seriously hurt by this earthquake. No, I didn't feel anything in Chicago, although my upstairs neighbor did shake our walls a bit by doing her laundry at 5:30 in the morning, on a day when I planned to sleep in til 6:45.

Nothing much else going on except a couple of photoshoots this weekend, one for my friend Jessica's graduate thesis (a visual art/performance thing) at Columbia College and a fun photoshoot w/ Mr. B (Ben Miranda) from my favorite Chicago band Detholz!.

Happy Weekend, everyone!

Labels: i.heart.uncle.tupelo

I've been reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States and getting mighty riled up. So it's quite appropriate that I got to do a photoshoot of Cadence with her Rogue Nation tattoo.

And while this photoshoot was tongue-in-cheek and more for our amusement than anything else, looking at the way the photos turned out makes me hopeful...

Don't be fooled by her looks. We are not raising this girl to be cute or to surrender to the culture of adoration.

And may she always dance in her own free-stylin' way to some Iron and Wine, and may she march to the beat of her own inner drum.

In case you're wondering, that Iron and Wine dress used to be Ted's Iron and Wine SHIRT. I restructured it into a dress in a fit of sewing frenzy (all by hand, mind you).

That frenzy also produced the dress you see above this weekend. I got the idea for this when Threadless had their $5 sale a couple weeks ago. This was one of the designs I had been waiting for like FOREVER for them to reprint on a kid-sized t-shirt. It happened to be on sale for $5, so I bought a girly-sized t-shirt instead and turned it into a dress. I'm gonna have to go through all my old band t-shirts that I don't wear any more...


Go see more folk's Best Shot's on Tracey' Mother May I.

Labels: best.shots.monday, cadence, i.heart.sam.beam, me.so.crafty

It is a well-documented fact that I live with two goofballs. Like father, like daughter, I suppose. Something new that Cadence has been manifesting lately, however, is an more emotional attachment to her dad. Last night, Cadence was having some painful, er, poop issues, and Ted was out w/ his brother. Cadence started crying and asking for her dad. It wasn't an angry, demanding, loud tantrumy kind of cry. It was a rather quietly pleading and sad cry accentuated by her crocodile tears. I thought my heart would break. I called Ted so Cadence could talk to him on the phone, and I think she nearly broke HIS heart too.

You know, I look that top photo of these two, and my heart just stops, wondering where the time has gone. It seems like just yesterday, she was a little burrito lovingly and shyly cradled in Ted's strong arms. I knew she'd grow up fast, but these days, when I look at her running around in her big girl undies, with her long wavy hair, and her so much more grown up emotions, I am stricken with a mix of love, pride, nostalgia, joy and excitement with a twinge of fear and sadness...

Well, it's Love Thursday over on Shutter Sisters, so go check it out.

Labels: cadence, family, love.thursday, parenting

So I've had a number of emails from folks who've had problems subscribing to the feed for this blog. When I changed domains, there was a bit of a mix-up. I won't go into all the details, but if you are interested in subscribing and haven't been able to, just copy and paste the feed URL into the reader of your choice:

http://www.shutterbugmama.com/atom.xml

My apologies if you somehow got subscribed to the old site.

That's all, folks!

Labels: blogging.schmlogging

The trees don't lie, folks. It's really spring in Chicago, and it's about time. We had our first weekend of abundant sunshine and above 60 degree weather. And today? We're back down to the 40's. So goes life in the Windy City.

It's been a crazy busy weekend for me. For someone who says she wants to practice voluntary simplicity, I sure do make life complicated for myself. On Saturday, we had a wedding at our church for our friend Karen and Mark. We only went to the wedding ceremony and then hurried home because we were having a small chili party with a few of Ted's friends to try out his Quinoa lager from his new (used) keg. That meant we needed to clean and make corn bread. Ted had the sense to make the chili the night before, so at least we didn't have to worry about that.

I could've cleaned during Friday night and during the day Saturday while Ted was at work, but I had other things to do. It was Tim Lowly's 50th Birthday Party on Sunday, and I had my heart set on making a mix cd. Make that TWO mix CDs. 50 songs for 50 years. And then I decided to put all that felt I bought to good use by making a double CD jacket to go along w/ the CDs. I take my mix CDs very seriously, and since Tim is a musician himself, I wanted to choose the songs carefully--some which I knew he'd like (the usual suspects like Roise Thomas, Sufjan, Iron & Wine) but others that he may not like too much but which I still think he should listen to because I like pushing my favorite music on other people (Arcade Fire, Blonde Redhead, The Mountain Goats, Kings of Convenience, etc). I'm actually surprised that I was able to choose all 50 songs, put them in proper order (very important, you know, if you've read/watched High Fidelity), burn the CDs, print the labels and track lists, AND sew the CD jacket, and all this by Sunday morning.

And the reason I had to be done w/ the CD project by Sunday morning was because I was shooting photos at Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church's Sunday Service so that they could have updated photos for their website, which Ted's brother is designing. After that gig, I had over 300 photos to go through and select and edit.

We made it to Tim's birthday party, and we were there pretty much all evening. And contrary to what you might think about a party being thrown at a pastor's house (Tim is our Pastor Sherrie's husband), this was a KEG party. That's right. Ted brought his quinoa lager on tap, PLUS there was a keg of Virgil's Root Beer.

Cadence and I took advantage of the weather and visited the brand new playground across the street from the Lowlys in Winnemac Park. It was the first time I'd been to a park with Cadence this spring. It was kind of crowded, which is understandable, as this whole city's got cabin fever. It was nice, though, to soak in that late afternoon golden sun and to remember what spring is supposed to feel like.

Back at Tim's party, which was also a book-making party, many of the guests created collaged pages which were all taped together at the end to make one very long accordian book. It was very impressive, and I'm curious as to what Tim decides to do with that book.

I was so exhausted by the time Monday morning rolled around that I took the day off. And now after this blog post, I'm REALLY REALLY exhausted.

Oh, and I almost forgot! Another reason I was so crazy busy was that I posted on Shutter Sisters on Sunday (which I wrote an posted after our chili party guests left late on Saturday night). You can check out my post here.

Labels: best.shots.monday, friends, photos

For Parts 1 and 2, click here.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. While most people will associate Dr. King with the fight for racial equality in this country, you can't separate what he stood for from the fight of the LGBT community for their basic civil rights, let alone their natural right to dignity. It was Dr. King who said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

For more quotes by civil rights leaders in support of the rights of the LGBT community, visit the Soulforce website.

Labels: civil.rights, love.is.love.is.love

A couple weeks ago, I found this little heart-shaped white mark on Cadence's back. It's best to see the photo large to make out the heart (you have to scroll over until you encounter the little white mark). She just happened to be wearing her hugs and kisses pajamas, which I thought was really appropriate for documenting this little discovery.

And here's another Love-ly photo of Cadence and Rudden. They look like they're in a heart-shaped bubble. Don't get the wrong impression, though. They are great friends, but they do fight. Not too long before this photo was taken, they were fighting about something, and Rudden started to cry. Cadence immediately softened towards him and tried to comfort him. I could just hear the love in her voice as she put her hand on his shoulder and asked, "Are you sad, Rudden?" It was really sweet. And of course, in a few moments, they were laughing and playing as usual.

In case you haven't noticed, it's Love Thursday over on Shutter Sisters, so go check it out.

Labels: cadence, friends, love.thursday

There's a new Flickr group called Self-Portrait Truthiness and it's all about posting photos of ourselves in our bare skin. The idea brought back memories of my dad who was not a fan of make-up and who would always emphasize the importance of cultivating inner beauty, and not focusing on what I looked like on the outside. I have to admit that at the time, all I could think about was that all my friends got to wear make-up and I didn't and how I couldn't wait to be old enough to do what I wanted so I could wear some damn eye-liner and lipstick.

So I grew up to be the type of person who wouldn't go out in public without doing her makeup. I remember going camping with a bunch of my friends in my mid-twenties, and early in the morning, I was sitting at a picnic table looking into a mirror and curling my lashes, and I could sense some of my friends staring at me, and I declared, "Don't judge me." When I went on a week-long canoe trip w/ my friend John, he forbade me from wearing makeup on the trip, the thought of which horrified me at the time, but I think I managed to sneak in my eyelash curler.

Now that I'm a mother, I'm coming to terms with the values regarding outward beauty that I want to pass on to Cadence, which are surprisingly similar to what my dad tried to convey to me, although I won't forbid her from wearing makeup if that's what she chooses. This means that I will have to become comfortable in my own bare skin, so that she sees that you can be beautiful and feel beautiful without the aid of cosmetics or the latest fashions.

Honestly, I think that some of the most beautiful women I've ever seen are those who don't wear any makeup, even if their faces are weathered and wrinkled. If I can acknowledge the beauty and grace in the pure naked faces of other women, surely I can do the same for myself.

Labels: about.me, growing.up.fundie, memory.lane, motherhood, my.dad, parenting, truthiness.tuesday