"The days are long, but the years are short." -- Gretchen Rubin
I love that quote--but I sort of hate it, too. It's such a bracing reminder of how sneaky time can be, especially when it comes to children. You look up from your cereal bowl one morning and your "babies"--who, coincidentally, were both 6 pounds, 9 ounces when they were born--are now 7 and 11 years old and spout out words like "pathetically" and "unappetizing" (not together). When did that happen? Time is quite the rascal!
I remember collapsing in tears the first time I had to weed out the baby clothes that no longer fit my son. I put most of the clothes into storage boxes because I just couldn't part with them yet. With the years, I've gotten MUCH better at parting with the kids' outgrown clothes (fortunately, because I need to do it about every six months), but I still catch myself sometimes, wistfully looking at my children and seeing them as they were (wee little ones!), and as they are now (far less wee).
Being mindful is one of my ongoing struggles. It's so easy to get distracted, to lose sight of what's truly important. I know this will sound funny coming from a blogger, but I have a love/hate relationship with the internet. This is a business that I enjoy, but left to my own (distracting) devices, I could probably grind the blogging gears 'til 3 a.m. on a daily basis. (With great restraint, I don't.)
Photography makes me be more mindful because it literally lets me stop time for a split-second. And then I have digital proof that the moment happened--bonus! It also helps me re-focus, quite literally, on the things people I love.
It's with these sentiments in mind that I've created my newest photography e-course: The Charm of Children: How to Take Better Photos of Babies and Kids. I hope you'll join me on this journey of mindfully cherishing our little ones--capturing their beauty, their silliness, their cuddles--before they're not so little anymore. It's not just for parents and grandparents, but for aunts, uncles, godparents, cousins--anybody with lovable little ones buzzing about.
This course in a nutshell:
- No fancy camera is required. (You can even use the camera on your phone.)
- Yes, you can have a full-time job (which includes parenting!) and still take this course.
- You'll get an email with the daily lesson, which you can do (or not do!) at your own pace.
- You can post your photographs in our private classroom on Facebook, and get (positive) feedback from me and your fellow students (usually from all over the world, which is a fringe benefit--students in my previous e-courses have haled from all over America, Canada, England, and Australia).
- At the end of the course, I'll send you a personal evaluation to help you continue your photographic journey with your children.
- With busy parents in mind, this is my shortest photography e-course--just 7 days. (Monday, April 27 - Sunday, May 3, 2015)
Here are all the details, including registration: The Charm of Children: How to Take Better Photos of Babies and Kids
Because this is a brand-new course, I'm offering an Early Bird discount ($15 off) for two weeks instead of one, through Sunday, 4/12/15, so I hope you won't delay enrolling if this course resonates with you. Tempus fugit and all that jazz...
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© 2015 by Joy Sussman/JoyfullyGreen.com LLC. All rights reserved. All photos and text digitally fingerprinted and watermarked. Please do not use any of my photographs without asking me first for permission at [email protected] and then clearly linking back to this site with photo credits. Site licensed by Creative Commons.
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