The weather here has been less than conducive to taking photos. This time of year always seems to eat away at my creativity. I suppose I should look at it as a challenge. Last night I took all four kids to get haircuts, then to McDonald’s for dinner and then to Target. I love our little outings . . . especially when everyone gets along :).
Week 4: Four Speelmans Weekly
January 26, 2012 – 10:00 am
Week 3: Four Speelmans Weekly
January 19, 2012 – 12:47 pm
Nothing fancy this week, I just snapped a photo of the kids looking out the window by Barnes and Noble. I love how well they all get along (most of the time). They really look out for one another. Owen was looking at something on our way out of the store and Elle got so upset, “Mommy, don’t weave wif-out Owen!” I assured her that we would never “weave” him behind :).
Collaborative Collage Color Wheel
January 18, 2012 – 10:32 am
I haven’t been so good about sharing art projects this year. I grabbed my p+s yesterday so that I could share this little collaborative free time project. As any Art teacher knows students work at very different speeds. There always ends up being extra time for some students while others struggle to finish. I like to have a structured group project going on at all times for students to participate in whenever they have down time. Right now they are working on a large scale magazine collage color wheel. A few weeks back I ask students who finished early to start going through magazines and finding primary, secondary and tertiary colors. After tearing out the colors they separated them onto different paper plates. A few other students designed a color wheel on cardboard and then further separated the colors into the pure hue, tints and shades. Now we are collaging all the pieces together. I’ll post a photo of the finished project soon!
The final project . . . “Elle’s Adventures in Wonderland”
January 15, 2012 – 5:51 pm
Here it is! I hadn’t actually planned on making a book with these photos, but I have a Groupon for My Publisher that expires this Tuesday. My original plan was to put together a portfolio of my personal/client/published work. I just wasn’t into it so I decided to do something FUN instead. I have always loved the story of Alice in Wonderland. It’s possible I coerced Elle into loving the story too, but she truly does love all things Alice. I came across this website that had all of the original illustrations from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland books. I couldn’t stop looking at them. I just love those pen and ink drawings. After seeing them I got the idea to combine the photos of Elle with the original illustrations. I started with just the white rabbit running by with the stopwatch and then I couldn’t stop. I’m not a writer, but I came up with a story that fit both the photos and illustrations. I’m really happy with the result. I’m printing the book BIG . . . “15×11.5″. Click HERE to see the images in book format. The book is ordered and I’m dying to see it!!!
Working on a little project for Elle . . . wanna peek?
January 13, 2012 – 10:11 am
I’ll fill you in on the details once I have everything complete. It’s a fun one!
Week 2: Four Speelmans Weekly
January 9, 2012 – 8:37 pm
It was such a beautiful evening tonight. I rushed home from school (after buying 5 red balloons . . . one extra for the inevitable), piled the kids in the car and had about 8 minutes to shoot photos before the sun set. I was planning on shooting the kids as silhouettes so they just left their school uniforms on, but ended up liking this shot the best. Guess how long it took for someone to lose their balloon??? Let’s just say that I probably should have bought two extra ;).
2011 Year-at-a-glance Collage
January 8, 2012 – 6:38 pm
I just completed my 2011 year-at-a-glance collage! I have made these collages for the past three years. I absolutely love them and so does my family. It’s so fun to investigate all the little photos and see what we were up to for an entire year. I print the collages 12×12″ so the photos are a little over and inch square. See this post if you want to create your own collage or if you want to take a look at my 2010 and 2009 collages . . . http://frecklephoto.com/?p=3317 . There is a link to the free template I used too!
Four Speelmans Weekly . . . Join me!
January 5, 2012 – 8:40 pm
I’ve decided to add another little project to my plate. My goal is to photograph all four of my kids together once a week. I realize that this is not always going to be easy (tonight was proof of that). Isaac will officially be a TEENAGER this year (unbelievable). Tackling a project like this is only going to get more difficult as the kids get older. My plan is to put a book together of all 52 photos at the end of the year. It’s not too late to join me. You don’t need a fancy camera for this project, just a little stick-to-it-tiveness. The hardest part will be to get all of your kids in the frame at one time. So please join me! You have until this Sunday to get your first photo taken (and I won’t tell if you need Monday or Tuesday too).
Happy 2012!!!
January 1, 2012 – 1:27 pm
We rang in 2012 with our neighbors Tim and Nancy and our friends Dave and Andrea. We have all gotten together for years. It’s always a fun, laid back evening. The great part is that we only travel across the street, so our boys can just stay home, invite over friends and play video games all night. I ask the boys to come over at 11:30 to ring in the new year with us. After the ball dropped, Dave set off a few fireworks. All in all it was a perfect way to greet 2012!!! Oh, and just a quick disclaimer . . . that’s a fake strawberry flavored cigarette that Tim is smoking!
Happy New Year to all of you! Thanks so much for stopping by frecklephoto!
The Annual Speelman Family Slideshow!
December 29, 2011 – 7:15 pm
I I usually post this on New Year’s Eve, but I was too excited to wait this year! I did a little mix of photos and video for the first time. My goal this year is to really dig into video. I’m finding video to have a big learning curve for me, but I’m determined to keep at it.
Hope you had a wonderful 2011 and 2012 brings even more joy!!!