© 2012, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.

I mentioned before how much I love taking pictures but have been shy about sharing them and how one of my goals for this year is to do a 365 project.  You know the one where you post a photo a day for one full year.  Well, I’ve started it and wanted to give you the link and personally invite you to come over and keep up with what I’m doing and how I’m doing on my 365 project.

Here’s the page for you:  http://www.photographybynan.com  You can even subscribe and get each days’ photo in your inbox or if you are a big facebook fan, there’s a fan page set up too: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Photography-By-Nan/146815078763105

Here’s a sneak peek from one of my favorites from this week.

Stop by and tell me which one you liked from my first week.  I’d love to know what you think. One thing I’ve notice is I really like taking photos at night.

© 2012, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.

Who owns your family photos?  The photos of my kids and my husband which I hold in my home belong to us as a couple and our kids.  At least this is how I see it.

While visiting my mom recently, I came across this problem.  With seven daughters there are a ton of photographs many of which there is only one copy of and there are a ton of them which were group photos. With us all so very close in age we were all very young when they were taken.  Now, who does that photo belong to?  Does it belong to mom whose had them in her photo albums since they were taken?  Do any of us have the right to take them without asking the others in the photos if they would like them?  How do you decided? Does everyone get the chance to claim it or voice their desire for it before someone takes it or should it remain with mom? All these questions popped into my head and quite honestly I don’t like the way it was handled.

What about rare photos of a lost loved one? How do you not get your feelings hurt when one person takes photos and refuses to share or tells you to scan a copy if you want one even though there are enough for each family member  to have at least one original photograph?

How do you not get offended?  How do you not get your feelings hurt or get upset about it?  Just because some family members don’t live close to “home” does that mean they don’t get any photos? How do you decide? Who decides and who should be consulted when that decision is made?

What do you think, who owns the family pictures?

© 2011, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.

I hear this a lot especially in relation to what one blogs about.  You should write about your passion.  I do, well one of them anyway because parenting and my children are my passion.  They are what I live for, they bring me joy, happiness beyond belief and a strength from within me I never knew I had.  So yes, I do blog about my passion.  I’m sure you do to.

But are there any other passions in your life that maybe you don’t do?  I’d have to admit yes there is.  Well, maybe it’s not so secret a passion but still not one I feel I can’t openly share though I wish I could. Back in high school, (decades ago) I took a class and it just felt like that’s what I was meant to do.  Of course over time, I drifted away from it somewhat but always kept it close by.  What was it? My camera.  I love photography, especially black and white photography.  I take pictures and always have but I’ve moved away from the things I used to like to photograph ’cause I just don’t think people get it or at least no one I know.

My family like snapshots and photos of the kids.  And I do too don’t get me wrong. We have thousands of pictures of them and I love each and every one of them.  But sometimes, I just get this urge to photograph something totally different, sometimes something off the wall and I get a strange look from my husband or kids who wonder why are you taking a picture of that or why aren’t there any people in your picture? LOL  I know how they think and that’s ok I completely understand their logic but sometimes they just don’t get mine. I can’t be alone in this am I?

And color, oh I love color but there is just something about black and white photographs that just draw you into them that make you feel as though you are right there in them or at least it does for me.  I’m talking crazy aren’t I?

Am I or is that pre-teen girl with the art book and pencils or pencil and paper for writing poetry on the playground still there and just trying to find her creative way back out? Am I letting some fear hold her back, hold me back from indulging in my passion or sharing it?  What about you, are you letting something or someone maybe even yourself hold you back from enjoying or sharing your passion?

© 2011, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.

I remember when Buggy was an infant we took portraits monthly of him, and the same with Princess not to mention the zillions of photos I used to take of the kids.  We did the same with family portraits for awhile but then they seem to just fall by the wayside and my efforts of photographing the kids lapsed as well.

We were thinking back as to when the last family portrait was and oh my, it was back when Princess was about two years old.  We remember it because unfortunately, she wasn’t very cooperative that day and our family photos didn’t even turn out with one of her priceless smiles.  By the end of that day, we knew why. She was getting sick and it hadn’t fully kicked in till that evening.  Talk about feeling guilty putting her through that photo session.

As the years went on, life just got more hectic, money got tighter, we just didn’t think about it as much.  Now, I’m sad we didn’t as they kids have grown oh so much.  But this past weekend, we did it. We went and had our family portraits taken.  Now we just have to wait two weeks to see them.

The photo session wasn’t quite what we had expected.  We got all dressed up and expected the typical in studio shots.  We ended up taking the photos outside which I prefer the natural light anyway but the one thing I found odd – she asked the kids to take their shoes off.  I’m not a fan of dressed up kids without shoes. Buggy was wearing a dress shirt and tie and Princess a very fancy dress.  No shoes? Really? Princess again wasn’t the most cooperative one but she wasn’t sick this time.  I think just being in front a professional photographer makes her a little uncomfortable.  I know not having her shoes on made her uncomfortable, I could tell. Maybe someday I’ll find a photographer that she’ll feel comfortable enough in front of to share her beautiful smile (with her shoes on).  Well, at least I’ve captured her beautiful smile. I’d just really like to get a nice photograph of her and I together, more than just a snapshot.

Then once we are done, hubby in his suit, realized his tie wasn’t tight. And neither the photographer nor her assistant said anything? Hubby was upset about that. Maybe not the best photo shoot or just maybe far from what we were expecting, either way I’m just really hoping they turn out well.

So tell me, how often do you take family portraits? Were you really good at one point and then sort of just got lazy about it like me? Are all of your kids pretty good about smiling and being comfortable in front of a professional photographer?

© 2011, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.

As I mentioned to you before, I’m taking part in Adventuroo’s Week In My Life project this week.  So you get a peek into what my daily life is like. This is day 3.

Today was a little different from the norm.  The beds didn’t get made, I wasn’t able to get the kids to school (grandma came over to take them) and I didn’t get to do my morning work routine. But that doesn’t mean today wasn’t fun.  Actually, for the first time I went downtown to Discovery Green for a VIP breakfast with Chevy (Chevy Girls).

We enjoyed a nice breakfast, chatted with other area bloggers and then it was time to check out the Traverse we’d get to drive around Houston for two weeks!  Pretty exciting huh?

I think there were 24 of us.

I got the grand tour of the Traverse but I’ll share that with you on another post and I’ll give you a sneak peek at it’s interior but for now, doesn’t it look great in my driveway?

Got home just in time to meet my son for his mid-day supplements, back to the house for lunch with hubby, and sat down at my computer for five minutes to check client emails before I was on the road again and off to the next therapist.

Of course coming home, we spent a lot of time sitting in this.

Traffic, traffic, traffic.  And by now, of course I’m starving again.  Fortunately for me, hubby was such a sweetheart and picked up dinner for us and had the table all ready and waiting for us when we walked in the door.

With dinner done, it was once again homework time, then off to bed for the kiddos.  That of course, left hubby working and I had dishes to take care of and laundry to wash AGAIN.  Seriously, I wash too many clothes. So while that’s working on getting dry I figured I’d get this post ready for posting so you’d have something to read.  Aren’t I sweet always thinking of you?

Well, I am tired now and ready to sleep.  What shall tomorrow bring?

© 2011, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.

© 2011, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.

© 2011, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.