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I am the queen of nature…..

This months photo challenge at http://www.rocktheshotforum.com/ is Kids + Fall.  During our photo session at the park, Miss S found this huge leaf, and became the “queen of nature”. She had leaves and twigs in her hair, a twinkle in her eye and the best “crown”.

Click on  this link to see the other submissions: http://www.iheartfaces.com/2011/10/photo-challenge-hands/. As always, there are very creative submissions.

All of my kids love drawing, and I wanted to capture this love in a really creative way. As luck would have it, a friend of the family gave us a packet of window crayons. These are bright, colourful crayons that allow you to draw on the window. My kids love this, being able to draw on something else besides paper, and I think it feels mischievous and kind of naughty. My windows have become their canvas and I love seeing their artwork on constant display.

After a recent shopping trip to a sports store, the boys are paying off their debt by washing and cleaning the car. Thankfully, the weather has been warmer as they have spent more time washing Julian than the car. I love to see my boys playing like this. I think it is hard for us Mums to always enjoy the rough and tumble of boys at play. Many times, I take a deep breath and pause to stop myself getting involved. I have learnt to watch without watching, out of the corner of my eye. But here it was all smiles, as they chased, sprayed, and almost drowned each other while washing the car.

When I was young, we would always sit down at the family table to eat dinner together. It was one of the rules my Mum was not flexible about. I remember begging to eat in front of the TV and could not understand why we always ate at the table. Now, I am a mother and I have adopted this into our family routine. It is now my kids who beg to eat in front of the TV, and my only exception to the rule is our movie and pizza night.

However, we have an extremely busy schedule, and sometimes that means we don’t eat at the same time. To compensate, we have started eating Brunch on the weekend. We enjoy fruits, fresh breads, muffins, pao de queijo, juice and coffee. It is our time to catch up on the week and share our stories. It is a relaxed atmosphere, so we can enjoy just spending time together. I don’t know about the rest of my family, but it is my favourite time of the week.

Bumblebees and Race Horses
This is an extract taken The Triathlete’s Training Bible and is the philosophy my husband applies when training for marathon races. I have never been a person to set goals and then stick to them. So I am looking for ideas that I can apply to learning photography, being creative and growing my business. 



“A few years ago a group of scientists at NASA developed an interest in bumblebees. These scientists reckoned that these little insects held some secrets of flight that may provide some answers to questions about operating in space. After all, they asked, how could such small wings produce efficient lift for a relatively large and hairy torso? And how could a round body and flight position that violated many principles of aerodynamics move so efficiently through the air?
So the scientists set about studying the bumblebee to discover its flying secrets. As scientists always do, they hypothesised about, they scrutinised, examined, dissected, measured, timed, filmed, observed, compared, quantified, thought about and debated the bumblebee. After weeks of study they came to one conclusion: Bumblebees are not capable of flight.
Fortunately, no one told the bumblebee. The silly insects go right on believing that flight is normal for them despite what the best minds in the scientific world no as fact. 
We can learn a lot from the bumblebee. The single most critical piece of this multi-sport  puzzle is believing in yourself and your capacity to succeed. “if you think you can or you think you can’t,” automobile manufacturer Henry Ford said, “you’re probably right.” The bumblebee thinks it can fly. Actually, the thought of anything else never even crosses its tiny mind. It just keeps flying.
Then there’s the race horse. The philosophy of equine athletes is similar to that of human athletes, and they are trained in much the same manner as a runner. They use heart rate monitors, train with intervals and endurance, follow a periodization plan and eat a diet designed to enhance performance.
Psychologically, racehorses differ a great deal from the human athlete. They never question their training preparation. When it comes time for a workout designed by their trainer, they do it without wondering if its enough. They don’t go out in the morning and put in a few extra junk miles for “insurance”. They don’t worry and fret after a poor performance. Stable life goes on as usual.
On race day, racehorses are nervous just as human athletes are; they know what is about to happen, but they don’t magnify the tension by comparing themselves with the other horse (“look at the legs on that stud!”). Instead they are very purposeful in their approach to training and racing. There is but one reason for every day existence – to get faster. If the horse is physically strong and the trainer is smart, this happens.
If you are to succeed in the sport you have chosen, the first thing you must do is believe in yourself just as the bumblebee does. Without this, all of the science in the world won’t do any good. You must also have a purposeful, racehorse trust in your training. Continuously second guessing and changing training direction after every race are a sure way to fail. Think like a bumblebee, train like a horse.”

Article taken from Triathlete’s Training Bible by Joe Friel

The photo challenge at Rock the Shot the month is Backlighting and I am happy to share this photo. It was recently taken at sunrise, on a gorgeous morning in the mountains in Brazil.
Rise and shine…the hammocks are waiting for you.

http://www.rocktheshotforum.com/

Daniela and Sonja

Sonja and I met to discuss the best options over coffee and cake. To ask them to pose, was not going to happen. We would end up with silly faces and photos that did not represent the love this family has. We needed to distract them, keep them busy and hopefully not notice that I am taking their portraits. Sonja also realised that asking them to wear coordinated clothes was going to be a no-go. Instead, she decided to ask her family to wear their favourites, hopefully helping them to relax. 

We made a plan to meet at the family farm, just outside of Sao Jose dos Campos, and enjoy an afternoon tea to celebrate Sonja’s birthday.

At first, they were conscious of me with the camera. As the family sat around the dining room table, telling their stories and enjoying a lovely lemon meringue pie,  I quietly walked around the dining room taking photos. I used my zoom lens to get close, without the camera being in their face.  Eventually the shoulders relaxed and they chatted freely amongst themselves as if I were a bird on the windowsill.

After the cake and coffee, now full of sugar and caffeine, we went outside to take the group portraits. Now feeling truly relaxed, I was able to capture the fun side of this family. It was such a pleasure to see the joy and love they share.

Setting the table

Lovely Lemon Meringue Pie

The birthday girl

Mateus

Leonardo

Time for the family and to share the cake

Marcos and Sonja

Sonja with her two boys

Lillian with her two daughters, Daniela and Sonja