A family portrait, once a week, every week in 2015 (fingers crossed)
Willy: Got teary eyed watching that Apple commercial where the granddaughter remakes a Christmas song for her grandma. You can watch it here and report back to me as to whether you got tears in your eyes too. Ha.
Hooper: So sincerely thanked Willy for taking care of him yesterday when he wasn’t feeling well. That kid has a heart of gold. He’s also the third one to barf. There’s only me left. Dun dun dun.
Van: Continues to blame the potty accidents he does have on the fact he “doesn’t like Christmas”. Yesterday he added, “because I don’t like jingle bells” to the list of excuses. It makes no sense.
Me: Fretting about having to spend the weekend doing stupid stuff like cleaning up a ridiculously messy house and doing loads of laundry. But what else is new? I bet I could say this for every week throughout the year. I’ll just copy and paste this exact statement from week to week. Grrrrr.
Each year, I contemplate what I’m going to do or if I’m going to do another 52 week series. The first year I participated, I dedicated the series to Willy and posted a picture each week of him. Then, this past year, I started out by trying to capture single portraits of each of us. That only lasted a few weeks before it dwindled down to simply portraits of the boys, which was easy since they tend to be my subjects more times than not anyway. Well, this time around, I’m back to trying to capture each of us; only this time, all in the same frame. It’s my goal to snap a pic, once a week, of all of us – on the same bed – throughout the year. I’m going to do my best to concentrate less on composition, lighting, etc and instead turn my focus to simply capturing us, all of us, in one shot.
I ran my idea by Willy first, to be sure he was up for it. I always try my best to protect my photography passion by preventing it from any potential stress. But, he said he was on board with no hesitation. So I was a bit shocked when, the other day, he huffed and puffed when I suggested we all gather onto the bed to snap a few pics. He mentioned earlier that his stomach was hurting, but I shrugged it off. He sat for a few pics, left in a hurry, threw up, and came back for a few more. He clearly has an ominous expression in that first shot, wouldn’t you say?
And so, that’s the story behind this first, of what I hope will be 52, family portraits. Are you doing a portrait series this year? If so, share your links in the comments below!
Gorgeous photo… so real and perfectly imperfect. Love it!
Good luck with your 52 family portraits challenge. I’m about to start year 3 of taking monthly family photos and its hands down the very best thing I’ve ever done. The subtle changes in my kids are so clear when they are photographed alongside us. And it’s just a lovely collection of photos to have. I’m sure you’re going to love it… although I admire you for attempting weekly ones, monthly is challenge enough for us sometimes.
xx
What a beautiful idea! I love, love, love it! I think I will run this by my husband to see if he’s on board too.
So beautiful Ashley – I’m lucky as my other half is a photographer too so he’s always pushing me to take pics of him! Bit of a pain really… 😉
Your year last year inspired me to start one of my little boy this year. Wish me luck… x
I’m going for way more modest– monthly family portrait. I’m excited to have your more frequent portraits for inspiration.
I just posted my first one. I’m excited and hoping I can keep it up. I am looking forward to you being able to capture all of you together. That might be something I will try in the future.
Love this. The boys will be so happy to have all these when they’re older (and you guys, too). xo
dammit. not even a lump. i love things that make me teary since i’m not really a sentimental kind of gal, except when it comes to my babe. motherhood has definitely helped soften me up, i can make myself tear up (with happiness & love) just thinking about my darling. thanks for the attempt though!! post more!! an oddly weird game…. 🙂
Yes, so happy you’re doing this!
Oooooh, snap, mama!!! I sincerely love your 52 family pic idea – it’s perfect! Getting family pics is a nightmare, but I do cherish the images of us all together the most. Having them all made on the bed is a perfect idea…I like the central location for corralling everyone. I’m really tempted to do something like this, but might end up getting flogged by my family. hehe! Maybe once a month! 😉
I’m so excited to continue following along here this year! Thank you for sharing all of these great moments of yours with us! Your littles are going to cherish this blog so much as they grow up!
Love and light,
Jessica
Wonderful! You inspired me to start a portrait project of my own! I’m going to do a weekly portrait of play to try to capture my daughter’s fleeting moments of wild imagination. I look forward to following your family portrait project along!
Best of luck! Sounds like an awesome series 🙂 Will check it out!
Beautiful as always Ashley! I am doing something similar for my weekly portrait. https://stephaniesanchez.squarespace.com/blog-1/2015/1/4/152-for-us-and-for-them
Looking forward to following along with yours! xo
Hi there, just stumbled upon your blog a couple of weeks ago, I think through The Ma Books. I really liked your post on potty training. I have two boys 4 and 7, so I’ve been there. You take beautiful pictures.
I love the idea of a 52 family portrait project!
I totally cried at that commercial and I think my mother in law did too. I think we both watched it together the first time, which is why I know that.