Photo Challenge: Focus on Mom

One of the many hats I wear as a Mom is family historian. I take tons of pictures, keep official documents in safe places, stash random drawings and pieces of artwork and take of note of every milestone. Not because I have nothing better to do but because I know someday one of our girls will ask for it or will need a random picture for a school project or eventually a slideshow for their graduation party or wedding reception. Or maybe just for fun their want to see our house from when they were little or what they looked like. I want to be able to share the memories of their first steps and cute way they played with their toys but our family history is not just about them, it's about all of us. Those images need to include Mom, not just the kids. Believe me the kids will want to know what you looked like and see you and your husband together. Probably so they can laugh at your hair and your outfits but either way it's fun to look back and give your kids a peek into your life at all different stages.

With all of that in mind I decided to pose a challenge to each of you. Take more pictures of yourself with or without the kids. Specifically, take at least one a month and then come back here and link up your post. I'm not going to provide prompts but here are a few ideas to get you started and I'll post more at the beginning of each month.

Ideas and Suggestions:

• Daily Routine - pick something you do everyday with the kids and snap a shot of it. For example, making breakfast, getting dressed, playing dinosaurs. Anything that reflects your family right now.
• Story time - capture either bedtime reading or any other reading throughout the day.
• Preparing Meals - Miss. M loves to "help" in the kitchen. It's a great place to capture real moments. 

How to make it happen:

• Prop your camera up on some books or blocks and set the timer on your point and shot. If you don't know how to us your timer, just google "how to set a timer on (fill in your brand and model here) camera." You will find easy tutorials, some even on youtube. 
• Give the camera to someone else. Your husband or an older child. Ask them to just take some pictures. No real posing required. If you are cooking or playing have them just document the process. No pressure, just relax and keeping doing what you are doing. 
• A remote - if you have a point and shot or a DSLR then a remote is good tool to have. They are cheap and easy to use. I have this remote. It was less than $10 and works great for my canon. The name brand ones will cost more but in my opinion for these purposes you don't really need it.

I know it can be stressful to get in front of the camera so a few things to keep in mind.

1. You don't need a fancy camera. Any picture is better then no picture. A standard point and shoot or  even a camera phone will do the job.
2. Don't worry about it being posed and perfect. You are trying to capture real moments. Kids cry, people have bad hair days, sometimes we wear mismatched pajamas all day. Who cares. If that is who you are and how your family functions, then great. Capture that because looking back it will  remind you more about your day to day life then some posed picture that took 25 takes. 
3. This challenge is about you and your family. Capture anything you want to remember about this time in your life or will want to share with them later. For instance,  how much they loved you to read them a particular book or how you built endless towers of block together. You want to showcase you as a Mom.

The Details for the Link Up:

• Link you post starting the first day of the month. 
• The link will be open all month.
• Your post can contain one or many pictures. It can be wordless or wordy but it must contain a photo of you within it.
• Link back to this blog or post our button in your post. \
• If you tweet about post please use the hashtag #FocusOnMom so I can retweet easily.
• Tag me on Facebook in your post and I'll share you post on my page too.
• Please visit others and leave some love on their blogs.
• HAVE FUN!