great wide open • valley storms KimberlyElaine365 D33

Even though there have been some crazy obstacles lately, it seems like there have also been a lot of opportunity which feels good. That is how I view kids, endless possibilities their lives are wide open for whatever they want to do. I always thought we should pay more attention to how children are, to how they view things. Kids minds aren't all clouded up with adult problems, they are so simple at how they view the world... more realistic.

Somebody definitely conquered her fears!

 I love this image of Joe & Kailyn...

and Ohio outdoes itself with some cool valley storm clouds! I thought I was done photographing for the day but then I saw that wall cloud Sunday evening.

 I spend so much time as a photographer trying to freeze action, this time I decided to do some longer exposures than normal to express how quickly these clouds were moving and the crazy wind that came with it. The trees were shaking back and forth violently.

These exposures (above & below on left) are between 2-3 seconds each. The next image on the right is as the scene actually looked with a normal exposure to freeze the clouds. It was a mean storm, but it was certainly beautiful. Everyone came outside just to stare up at the sky.

little girls KimberlyElaine365 D32

Catch up time again for my 365 posts, so thankful I have had time to shoot, read my manual and research everyday... but have needed to do several client projects that I put before catching up the posts.

For Day 32 my family went to a festival and little water park in Columbus. My daughter loves the time she spends with our family and lately she has gotten a couple of fantastic opportunities to play with her cousin Natalie who is a couple months younger. Since they are both two now they play so awesome together and are becoming such good friends. It was adorable to watch them go round and round holding hands. Kailyn was leading Natalie through the park, I would say probably pulling her at some points but she does mean well!

It is so important to build our little girls up, lift then up as high as you can. Little girls have the ability to change the world. I'm not sure what it is about little girls but they can bring a smile to any face, or somehow turn a bad day to good without even trying.

This one will definitely be hanging on my wall... and probably Kailyn's too!

The next image is from my mom who is also a photographer. I got a lot of my interest for photography from my mom and the countless images she took of me and my brothers and sister, and all our vacations.

Kailyn and her big cousin Siena taking a much earned and needed break. I love it!

the moon • jubilant & melancholy KimberlyElaine365 D31

I couldn't pass up photographing the moon again for Day 31. As soon as I saw that giant full moon I just had to, especially after my whole revelation about needing to photograph the things I used to... years ago when I first fell in love with photography.

I really am coming to a nice balance of shooting the nature shots that I love, the family stuff that I cherish... and all that portrait and wedding photography that motivated me into starting my business.

The moment I saw these next images of my daughter come across the screen the word jubilant popped into my head. I have no clue where my brain pulled that from, haven't heard or thought of the word in years. Sadly, I even had to look it up to make sure I was accurate on my "feeling" of what these images should be called. But it's funny, jubilant is just perfect. Life does that to you sometimes, gives you what you need at exactly the right moment.

The next image turned out to be my favorite, Kailyn just came over plopped down and looked exactly like this...

Perfectly melancholy. I don't mean that as depressed or anything bad, but anyone who knows my daughter well knows that she is super dramatic. She really feels things and I mean it really more as being pensive or thoughtful. Either way, it's real and I love it.

*FREEdom* shoot updates

Thank you to everyone for being patient while I figured out some more details on my FREEdom shoot next week. I'm getting so excited, I think it is going to turn out awesome!! For those of you who haven't heard about the event before I am photographing all the kids at the same time, in a huge "freedom" group so your child will make up a part of a big beautiful image for the veterans as a thank you.

The official date and time will be next Saturday, July 3rd at 1:30 pm @ Cox Arboretum. 

I am still working on some of the final details but I'm thinking there will be balloons and bubbles involved for all the kids. There is no cost for the children to participate and the only requirement is for the kids to wear red, white & blue. I estimate 1/2 hour for the shoot but it might be good for everyone to plan for 45 minutes to allow for a few candid individual shots of the participants.

I will be designing a Freedom Thank You card for the veterans through Honor Flights of Dayton and we will also be giving them 50% of the profits from any Freedom shoot prints that are sold in the weeks following the event. I would love to be able to fly a vet out the memorials in D.C. All participants will get their kids photographed for free and will also receive a digital file of the winning "FREEdom" image and there is no obligation to purchase anything.

There are many interested participants so far and I would love to have any willing kids join us to support the veterans!

I would appreciate your comment below if you would like to have your kids participate so I can get an estimate of our final numbers. Thanks again for everyone's help!

unknown thought KimberlyElaine365 D30

As I'm looking through all my images for D30 I'm realizing that there is definitely a theme going on. I'm seeing my big girl all grown up and looking at the images it made me think of my favorite song, my new favorite song that is.

I really think favorite songs have a lot to do with what state of life you are in. For a long time my song was Rearviewmirror by Pearl Jam. Now for those of you who know this song, I don't relate to it literally however the music is rocking & passionate and being an artist I can easily relate to the lyrics symbolically. I spent most of my teen years and most of my twenties living with this song as my theme.

Then something happened and the way I looked at the world completely changed. Certain things that had held such importance to me for so many years were just not that important any more. These things no longer defined who I was as a person, I define me... not what has happened to me. A tough, and long lesson for me to learn.

My husband and daughter had such a big impact on my life, on the way I think about things and weigh their importance. My new favorite song is powerful and motivational to me, I had to listen to it everyday the final year I worked at my last designer job. Listening to it every morning gave me the will power to show up there, deal with every obstacle that would find it's way into my office, and somehow smile back defiantly at all those... shall we call them "obstacles."

The state of life I'm in now, I appreciate wholeheartedly.

My new favorite song... Unknown Thought: by Pearl Jam (of course ;)

All the thoughts you never see 

You are always thinking 

Brain is wide, the brain is deep

Oh, are you sinking? 

Feel the path of every day 

Which road you taking? 

Breathing hard, making hay 

Yeah, this is living

 Look for love in evidence That you're worth keeping 

Swallowed whole in negatives It's so sad and sickening

Feel the air up above Oh, pool of blue sky 

Fill the air up with love All black with starlight

Feel the sky blanket you 

With gems and rhinestones!!! 

See the path cut by the moon 

For you to walk on...

 

See the waves on distant shores 

Awaiting your arrival 

Dream the dreams of other men 

You'll be no one's rival 

Dream the dreams of others then 

You will be no one's rival...

You will be no one's rival 

A distant time, a distant space 

That's where we're living 

A distant time, a distant place 

So what ya giving? 

What ya giving?

The main reason it made me think of the song when I was looking through Kailyn's images from Day 30 was that she was so deep in thought. I have no way of really knowing what's going on in that brain of hers. So many things to thing about, so many decisions to make in life. Who knows where her path will go but I love watching the journey.

Albums & DVDs KimberlyElaine365 D29

For what it's worth I have noticed in the last few years that June is a difficult month. I'm not sure why it always works that way, but for me it just does. Good news though, I see July- it's in my sight.

Seriously though, there have been A LOT of obstacles lately. Luckily my camera didn't punk out on me like the old computer did and I have still been able to take my images everyday and do my various research for the project. My computer & time capsule hard drive went a bit haywire this week but with the effort of my husband the issue has now miraculously resolved. My cell phone which is supposed to help me stay in touch and caught up with my business has spent the entire month also punking out. The speaker goes in and out and basically decides to work whenever it feels like it. It rings out loud on maybe 1 out of 10 phone calls. The SD card which has over 1000 images on it randomly tells me the card is corrupt and blank. That doesn't work so well for me, I am now on my third phone in 3 weeks and this new one from 2 days ago is now acting up as well. The car, well don't even get me started there that's a whole blog post in itself. The moral of the story, I guess that would have to be that crappy things just seem to happen at the same time... it's just life. The sooner we realize that the better, no point in blaming anyone or getting discouraged because that will just make it snowball into a bigger problem. One day at a time, right?

Since it has been a rough week I took an easy day for D29 of the challenge. I shot some archival images of one of my client's wedding albums, Beth & Joe. It was a perfect wedding to shoot some archival images in an album because the wedding was gorgeous. The church they married in was beautiful and the reception was at the Dayton Art Institute which needless to say was stunning. Beth chose fantastic albums to preserve all her memories in. The details of how the albums are put together are great and of the highest quality.

It will be good to add the photos in to my business materials to show other clients available options for preserving all those wedding memories. I also chose to photograph a couple custom designs I've done. I've never taken the time to photograph all the work I do, but I have to say after this experience I'm going to photograph all of it. After some time you begin to forget all the projects you've worked on over the years, what better way to remember than documenting them with photos. It makes sense, it just doesn't make sense why I haven't done it sooner.  You have to start somewhere, and this was a good place to start for me.

summer KimberlyElaine365 D28

Summer is like endless sunlight and chasing bubbles all day long.

 

home sweet home KimberlyElaine365 D27

What is great about this challenge is that it gives me plenty of opportunities to try out  different ideas and in this case, create a surprise for someone. 

More specifically, to surprise my brother and sister-in-law. Last year they bought their first home, an adorable home. So my husband and I drove out there to surprise them with some long exposures of their new home. The moon happened to be right above their house, which I know they will probably both appreciate being nature lovers.

Who knows what the next 300 and some days will bring, but it has been a blast so far!


So, surprise... love you guys ;)

daddy KimberlyElaine365 D26

childhood KimberlyElaine365 D25

All of us have done it, wished we could be kids again. Ahhh, the greatest thing ever... childhood. No real responsibilities, endless playtime, the innocence and naivety to all the world's troubles. The great thing about being an adult though, is that you can sit back and really appreciate why this time is so important for little ones and you can almost enjoy it as much just watching how much fun they are having. Knowing this will stand out in their memory for a long time and getting satisfaction from knowing you helped them learn, grow and enjoy life.

Today was somewhat similar to D4 Conquering Fears in that Kailyn was quite apprehensive when we first arrived at the fountain. But it didn't take too long this time and she was off having a blast, all the kids were.

Kailyn, as usual was quite vocal. ;)

This is one of my favorites of Kailyn from the entire summer so far.

This too ;) Just for a second, she's actually still and just taking it all in.

Somehow in the middle of this week I decided I needed a new blog. This one just isn't cutting it for me anymore. I need larger space and more creativity with layout. I had my new blog nearly set to go, which is why my posts are somewhat delayed. Being the designer at heart that I am I just couldn't put it out there yet, until it was right. So for now I decided that I would continue my posts here and as soon as my new systems are up and working I will post the new links.

"Freedom" Ideas for 365 project

I've been thinking about some ideas for my 365 project, because with 341 days left- well it is somewhat daunting to imagine that I will have something worthwhile to photograph every single day although I think I have had great luck so far.

Since the 4th of July is coming up here and I have had interest from several mom's about having me photograph their children for the project I was thinking that I would have a childrens shoot at the park. The theme for the challenge that day would be "freedom" in honor of the 4th of July. The only requirement being that I would like to have all the kids that participate where a red, white & blue color scheme. I would love to have at least 10-15 kids but would settle for at least 5 in order to hold the event and will take as many children that would like to participate.

From KE365 Day6 In Memory

The event will cost nothing for the parents to attend and have the children photographed. It will be held at Cox Arboretum in Dayton. I was thinking I would set a time (to be determined very soon- the two days I am deciding upon are July 3rd or 4th) and have everyone meet at Cox to shoot for 1/2 hour approximately. Parents will have the option to purchase the 365 challenge "Freedom" image from the day and any other images that may be taken of the child/children during the shoot. 10% of all proceeds from the event will be given to the Honor Flight Dayton which flies veterans to see the memorial that was built in honor of their service to us and our country.

I would love to hear from you and be sure to let me know how many children and what ages they are if you would like to be included in the event. If you are interested please comment below or feel free to message me on facebook. Once I know for sure I have at least 5 kids interested I will post the official date and time to see how many we can get to participate.

Mr. & Mrs. Mosher KimberlyElaine365 D24

Congratulations Aubrey & Andrew Mosher on their new marriage and beautiful wedding today! It was held at Grace Crossing Church in Beavercreek. The church is only seven months old and this was the first wedding ever held in the church, to make it even more special Aubrey's dad was the pastor for the ceremony. Awhile back I shot their engagement session where you can already see there adorable love for each other.

They had fabulous luck with the weather, we have been drenched with rain lately in Ohio but their wedding day could not have been more perfect. Bright beautiful blue skies, and the feeling of love was definitely in the air. Aubrey and Andrew are a perfect fit for each other and it is obvious to anyone who meets them how much in love they are.

We were lucky enough to have just a few moments during the reception to head outside and let Aubrey and Andrew have some time alone together. These are a couple images from those moments. What I love about these images is they are not edited at all, they were just still- enjoying the moment and I was able to get some long exposures which brought this beautiful vibrant color.

artistic expression KimberlyElaine365 D22

Father's Day is coming up and when Kailyn heard it was on Sunday she said she should get the paint out and make daddy a card. I was impressed, that was thoughtful of her and even though she has as my dad says "a memory like an elephant," it still surprises me what she remembers. We paint or color cards for daddy and papa each father's day. Since she was being so thoughtful I decided to deal with the mess and get the paint out to let her have a blast. Which she totally did.

I have to say I am proud of my little budding artist. For years art has provided me a necessary outlet for self expression, emotions, and now in my adulthood it has provided support for my family. I would love if my daughter had an appreciation for the arts and it definitely seems like she in interested. She seems to have an interest in all kinds of artistic expressions, even loves music and dancing... a whole lot!

During my research of another photographer's work today I was so touched that I wanted to share a link to the post. The photographer is Jasmine Star who is an LA based photog and she shoots fabulous images. This is her post called "Grace Anytime" about Grace, a fifteen year old girl with cancer who is stunningly beautiful inside and out.

In my own form of artistic expression, my images of my daughters artistic expression for her father:

One thing is for sure, artistic expression is exhausting.

But it sure is fun & brings such beautiful results.

ohio skies KimberlyElaine365 D22

While living in Ohio you get used to the up and down weather, raining one day then beautiful and sunny the next or seventy degrees one day and then fifty the next. You never quite no what the next week will bring. One thing is clear though, with all that crazy weather brings beautiful skies. If you ever have a chance to view a sunset from the coast of Lake Erie, or watch the sun go down literally all the way to the horizon because the land is so much flatter in Northwest Ohio.

You might not get to view the sun going all the way down to the horizon while living in Dayton, but the Ohio skies are still just as beautiful and captivating. With the gorgeous sunset today also came a beautiful dusk scene. The crescent moon was glowing and it gave me a great opportunity to get some more of those long exposure night photos that I love. Here are some of my favorites from Day 22 of my 365 challenge.

curiosity KimberlyElaine365 D21

With another day behind me in the challenge I have come to the end of my third week. Still enjoying it every bit as much as the first day. I love that there are so many photographer's taking part in the tasra365 challenge, and even other challenges yet there are so many new ideas and approaches. I have to say I am curious as to where this will take me, what new levels and insights I will have after a whole year of progression.

Also with the end of the third week came another opportunity for Kailyn to explore her curiosity. I keep wondering what it would be like to constantly see & learn new things and then I remind myself that is what a lot of adults would experience if they stopped and took a look around. I too am guilty of this, for much of my life I was the least observant person around. I remember on a family vacation to California when I was a teenager I ran out towards the beach as soon as we arrived to start our family beach walk. I was so wrapped up in getting out to the beach and start that walk that I missed seeing this awesome, gigantic conk shell which sat right in front of me in the sand, probably the same conk shell my brother still has to this day. ;) That's when I started to learn my lesson, look around and stop missing out and all the amazing things that the world has to offer.

expressions KimberlyElaine365 D20

For Day 20 I decided to photograph about expressions, my daughter sure has a few. So many things are new on a daily basis for kids that it always seems like there are so many new expressions that go right along with those new experiences. We were trying out a different park in West Carrollton for our daughter to use up the rest of her energy for the day, what we didn't realize is that there was a train track running right along the park on the opposite side from the trees. Anyone who know my Kailyn knows that she loves trains. She spent the majority of the time just staring at it go by, waving her arms, waving at the train... she loved it.




But as with just about everything in life, it kept passing and eventually disappeared. Daddy had to come over to console her because in her own words "oh no, the train... i wost (lost) it."

Two of the hardest things for a child to learn in my opinion is why we have to say goodbye to things and that those things don't always happen the way we want them to.

journey • faces (part 2) • the wetlands KimberlyElaine365 D19

My journey is always up and down, back and forth probably how a lot of us have felt over the last few years. Sometimes it would be nice to have such a clear defined path for us, a nice, sturdy and smooth path to travel on. We all not it's just not that easy though.

Being a photographer & designer on my own isn't even a choice anymore, it's what I have to do to stay true to myself. In my previous full-time position at a promotion company I loved the work (when I actually got it) but was miserable with the situation. Stressed to the point of being ill. Being stuck in a job that is killing you from the inside out is not the way to go, trust me on that one. If I have learned anything the last year it is that I have to stay true to myself or happiness will never be within reach.



I actually thought this was something created by a child or maybe a playful adult.
Really it's just mother nature being a bit playful herself.


The wetlands series was done in my hometown of Beavercreek, Ohio. Much of the wetlands area has been destroyed through development but we were lucky that they preserved several sections of it. It is a beautiful area, I had never seen it quite this flooded before. My daughter was so disappointed that our journey through the wetlands ended a bit short as the only path to the back of the park was covered in swampy water. If you are from the area I highly suggest checking these parks out sometime.

22° halo KimberlyElaine365 D18

Well ironically I posted my "obstacles" work yesterday and then run into even more of them today. Life is just funny like that I guess.

One day at a time.

Lucky enough to get to see a 22° halo today in Bellbrook.

obstacles KimberlyElaine365 D17

Obstacles are in front of us on a day to day basis. The future looks unclear and obstacles seem quite impossible, but with a little perseverance can be overcome.

It seems this is somewhat symbolic for me the last few years. I feel our family has definitely had our fair share of obstacles, or I would even call it bad luck. I know I have said it before but somehow no matter how awful it seems, we always make it through. Just one day at a time, sort of like this challenge. It seems so overwhelming when I really think about taking my camera everywhere for an entire year and all the other aspects that come with the project. But when approached as a day to day project just one single day at a time it is actually quite doable and not so overwhelming anymore. I am definitely taking that concept over to remember wholeheartedly in my life. I used to be bitter and somewhat negative when it came to thinking about all the bad luck, now I appreciate every bit of it because it has made me one strong woman and mother who is determined not to give up. As my daughter would say, "never ever."


I know I'm not alone in my challenges with the obstacles in life, we all have them. It's because of this that I end today with a quote from someone who was quite pertinent in Dayton & Ohio history for that matter.

"Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down." ~Charles F. Kettering

city lights KimberlyElaine365 D16

Well the long exposures and night photography happened sooner than I thought, which is a good thing. My husband Joe and I went downtown tonight and got some shots of the city lights. I find it silly that I have lived in Dayton the majority of my life and have done long exposures is nearly every downtown city in western Ohio... except Dayton. Until now anyway! I have photographed in Dayton and even pictures of the skyline tons of times, but never to the extent of taking the time to tripod it and work with my bulb setting on the camera to get some sweet colors. Nice to get some cool shots of my hometown for a change. ;)

The lights from the cars, and even the bus turned out awesome. I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy night photography, absolutely still one of my favorites activities. I had never seen the light show on the bridge before, Joe has told me about it but I'm glad we got a chance to check it out together.

twilight KimberlyElaine365 D15

One of my favorite times of day is twilight, the light is stunning and this evening was no exception. I took a lot of images for Day 15 in my 365 challenge, but the twilight ones were my favorite.






Through my 365 journey I plan on getting back into long exposures and night photography which was one of my first passions in photography. Before my husband and I had our daughter we would go out and shoot night photography nearly every evening/night. So... I have also made it my goal to get out and shoot at least one long exposure or night image per month for the challenge and hopefully more!