Photographing myself into life

I am sure many of you will nod your head as you are reading this post. After looking through my project life pictures, I noticed a trend after my daughter was born. The pictures, of course all very lovely, were mostly composed of her, her with the dog, and her and my husband. Somewhere along the way, I disappeared. I will admit that early after I had her I was not feeling the most "photogenic" as I was totally convinced that I was going to be a size 5 when I left the hospital like all the celebrities are after they have their children, but that wasn't the case at all. I wanted the attention to be faaar away from me and now looking back I wished I hadn't done that. 

I also noticed that I rarely took any photos of our "special moments" like our morning walks when she was a newborn over the summer when the air was still crisp before the hazy sun almost melted the pavement. Sure, I took pictures of her and the dog, but where was I. I was there. I was in that moment, but why was I stuck behind the camera. 

For over a year I have an app on my phone to set a timer and I rarely ever use it, but that is changing. I am making an effort to photograph myself into my life. I think I read that somewhere once, maybe it was Ali Edwards. She is a smart cookie, maybe it was her, but I digress from the point I was trying to make which was that when my daughter looks through these albums that I spend countless hours creating and enjoying the process, I want her to see me as being a part of her life. I also want to document our "days". As a stay at home mom, our days are sometimes the same, but I want her to know what it was like. I want her to know what our routines were like. So that is my mission. 

The picture below is an ordinary morning for me and fofinha, but it is one of my favorite parts of the day. She loves eating breakfast and never gives me a hard time to eat her cereal with fruit. Now in the afternoon that is a whole other story because she is not on a phase of not eating any vegetables. She went from a baby who would even eat spinach to one who refuses to eat anything that is even remotely related to a vegetable, so on this day I mixed her veggies in her cereal and poof like magic she ate them...it was epic and I had one of those mommy brain moments of "why didn't I think of that earlier". See now I could have just journaled this when showing a picture of just my daughter, stuck it in our scrapbook and called it a day, but seeing me in the photo gives it more life. You know what I mean...

So with that I plan on setting my timer on my phone and taking at LEAST four pictures a week of me involved in what we are doing. Do you want to embark on this journey with me? Let me know how you plan to photograph yourself into your life...

Here is a link to some helpful hints on how to get you in front of the camera.