Image By: Erin Hautop
When Vicki made the assignment last week, I thought that I would struggle with finding something to photograph. I am not particularly creative (hence the need for these challenges :) and how do you photograph a chair and make it relevant? I then realized that I have been sitting in the same chair since Aug 1st, and this would be my last week sitting in that chair from the sidelines of football practice. For any parent (or former player) out there who is familiar with Pop Warner football, I am sure that you will all sympathize with my sadness (and joy) in the passing of the season. The boys played their bowl game this Saturday. It was an awesome game and I expected everyone to be thrilled and happy at the end...man was I wrong! The boys collectively cried, not because the team had lost (we tied against a much higher ranked team) but because the season was over! Despite the daily two hour long practices in the heat for the entire month of August, despite the bruises and cuts from learning to hit in their first season in pads, despite grueling conditioning, and despite the intense commitment they all were so very sad for it to be over! I still am not sure, as a mother, what I think about the fact that I let my 6 year old play tackle football but I can tell you that both he and the rest of the kids on the team LOVED it. My husband says that there is something about the bond on a football team that is so strong...something about going into "battle" together or some other gibberish, but whatever it is it happens at a very early age. I would like to say that it has more to do with the amazing kids, coaches, and parents on our team! All I know is that, like my son, I will also miss sitting on the sidelines in my camping chair watching these practices. Thanks for a great season and wonderful memories...Bulldogs Tiny Mite Black!!
Images By: Vicki Hautop
The clock in my son's room reads 2am when my ideas for this week's challenge came to me. I had already taken what I thought would be my "chair" picture. I wasn't thrilled with it; it lacked emotion. As I am rocking the littlest Hautop back to sleep my mind is running through ways to make it work. One thought leads to another and then to the realization that you can't force emotion into a photograph. You have to photograph the emotion in its natural state. Now this first picture of my rocking chair may not scream of feelings to everyone. But for me, it is the chair that I have spent more time in than any other over the past 4 and a half years. It is the chair that I have slept in, laughed in, cried in, dreamed in, sang in....the list goes on. It encompasses more personal emotion than any other. I look over and the clock says 3:30am. And I now have a flood of ideas to scribble down. Apparently, this is also the chair where I do my best thinking.
My second picture this week is a bit silly, but a scene that plays out almost every night at dinner. "All little ghosts and witches to the table!" And as if he were a circus elephant for Barnum & Bailey, Charleston hops right up. I suppose I have treated him like my first born. So why wouldn't I also be talking to him? The kids laugh and eat a little faster with big brother close by. I don't think he has a preference for any one chair. He'll pretty much do this any chance he gets.
Ok readers, here we are again at the beginning of the week. For challenge #3 we are borrowing an exercise from click it up a notch; one subject, many vantage points. So, you will see several pictures next week :-) Thanks again for reading! Comment below or send us an email with suggestions! hautopblog@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you!
No comments:
Post a Comment