Life with kids can sometimes feel like a blur. We’re all constantly on the go, and the energy around our house never seems to rev below 3000 rpms. In fact, just yesterday we spent part of the afternoon biking around the neighbourhood doing a “park crawl”, hitting up every swing, climber, and slide we could find. It’s truly the best way to have some family time with an active family like ours.
My goal this year with photography is to make pictures with a purpose, to aim to tell a story with each image and not simply post a photo for the sake of keeping my posting quota up.
The opportunity to walk out the door and start shooting here in Ottawa isn’t nearly as present as it was when I lived in Toronto, and that is one of the few things that has bothered me since making the move out here. With that said, I have decided to change my focus and “retrain” my mind’s eye. I have made it a goal to seek out specific opportunities and work on focused projects that I have laid out for 2015. Some projects I will keep under tight wraps until they begin to take shape in the form of real photographs, but one of those projects is to properly document my children.
I likely won’t share many of those images on this site, but I hope to capture a collection of images that they can look at years from now and feel the moment well after it has left their memories. I like to think of it as being a National Geographic photographer making images and documenting lives for a really long article. Perhaps I need a super wide angle lens and get right up in their faces to achieve the true NG feel.
The image above is one such image. This is my little guy’s second time on cross country skiis, and it’s clear that he truly loves it. Winters here are long and cold, but the good thing about Ottawa is that the locals embrace the outdoors no matter what the temperature is, and I want my boys to grow up with that same mentality. I’m really excited about this year and the plans I have. I just hope that the right combination of hard work, luck and timing help to make my goals a reality.
After a beautiful holiday long weekend here in Canada, we appear to be closing out the week with rainy and unseasonably hot weather. Today, my little guy and I had lunch and played in a park during a break in the weather.
He loves puddles, and puddles love him. What is it that makes puddles so attractive to children?
My life has moved in a completely different direction since the spring. As spring turned to summer, I spent my days working in the heart of Canada’s largest and busiest city, taking pictures of the people and things I saw on my travels around Toronto. Now, I live in a much smaller city, with beautiful, natural landscapes, and a winter that’ll be colder than anything I’ve experienced to date.
But the most significant change is the transition from being a working dad, to a stay-at-home dad. This change has had a massive affect on me both mentally and physically. It has been fun, exciting… an Adventure!
When I began this new way of life at the start of the summer, I had visions of planning exciting excursions, teaching my boys things they wouldn’t typically learn in school, and generally working toward making our family a closer unit than it already is. However, it was probably me who was the student, while my boys were the teachers. They’ve helped me forget about the trivialities of life that tend to bog us down as we grind it out to balance work and family; they laugh more than the average adult, which in turn makes me laugh more; and they’ve helped me see things from a different perspective… their perspective.
I’ve found it fascinating to watch them as they learn things for the first time, and experience their genuine curiosity for the world around them. It’s very refreshing, and because I know that not everyone has the chance to experience this kind of life I feel very blessed to spend this time with my wife and kids.
Besides, who better to have fun and exciting adventures with than a juggling Superman…
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