Photo bug

Capturing childhood, life, fleeting moments.  Hoping to remember every expression, every stage, all those important moments.  I love photography for this reason.  I thought we were pretty good photographers until we had someone take professional photos of our girls.  She captured every eyelash, their exact eye color, and the color and texture of their hair in a way I never have.

• Andrea O'Connell Photography http://www.aoconnellphoto.com

The quilt made by my step-mom Penny was shown in an art gallery in Lowell MA.
The girls went to the opening in their white dresses. 

I realized professional photographs are so important to have done but the day to day ones are fun to take and capture every day life.  My dad has always liked taking photographs.  Mostly of flowers and boats and sometimes scenes.  Often people.  But he doesn't like posed pictures so we are often chewing or talking so we don't always like how we look in them.  But they are real.  They capture real life..bad hair, goofy faces and all.  Our favorites are his flowers.   My step mom now quilts his photographs into wall quilts.  Very creative combination!  She even quilted the one of my three girls over the wishing well.  What a beautiful handmade gift!

I like to pretend I am a photographer.  Big camera, nice lenses, lots of pictures.  If you take enough you usually get a few really good ones.  Professional quality?  Not quite.  But fun nonetheless.  I like to capture the mundane.  The bad hair, the goofy faces, the memories.  I capture birthdays and big events.  I don't bring my nice camera everywhere with me but have a few favorite places that I'll bring it for a photo shoot.

One of those places is the Decordova Museum in Lincoln where my husband and I got engaged.  It has an outdoor sculpture park.  Nice lighting, fun backgrounds, outdoors.  Usually a picnic is involved and often a walk.  Sometimes it's just my husband and I, often we bring the girls, and once a year some of our grandparents and Aunts and Uncles and cousins come too.  It is always a fun place to take pictures.  And it's fun to see the girls grow in front of the same sculptures over the years.  Some sculptures disappear and new ones appear.  There is always something interesting to shoot.

I also love the beach.  An ever changing backdrop that is always the same.  A good backdrop for pictures from year to year.  A great place for the kids to relax and play and do cartwheels and just have fun in front of the lens.  We often do photo shoots on August 23rd each year because it is our anniversary and our oldest daughter's birthday and because it's summer they are often taken at the beach. Cape Cod, North Carolina, Maine.  For some reason we like to celebrate this occasion near the ocean.

We also love taking pictures at Fruitlands Museum in Harvard MA.  We got married there and enjoy going back there on summer nights with family and friends for the outdoor concert series.  Beautiful sunsets and the soft light that accompany them.  Good friends, fun music and food.  Summer nights in a place we love.  Doesn't get much better than that.

Sunsets.  My favorite time of day to take pictures.  I pride myself in taking more than a few of my friends Christmas photos for their cards.  Truthfully I don't deserve the credit.  The sunset does.

Turn the lens away from the sunset a minute and capture the beauty of your friends and family!

I'm sure I will be taking lots of pictures at the lake.  Sunsets, special occasions, everyday moments.  Maybe even a Christmas card picture or two.  Can't wait to share them here.  It's fun to watch my kids as they start to get the photo bug!  They spend entire afternoons taking pictures with their friends for entertainment.  My mother's day presents this year were photographs they took of flowers around our yard and collages of pictures of favorite moments.  It seems to be contagious or at the very least, hereditary.