June, 2009; It had been raining and hot that June. I remember I was panicking to get ready one morning so that I would be downtown earlier than I needed to be for work for a presentation. I had gone out to my car late the night before to remove some boards that had been printed, I didn't want them to curl in the early summer dampness. Hands full, no shoes, risk of rain...I forgot to lock my car doors.
Morning comes and in the midst of filling my car up while watching the clock I didn't notice anything was off, until I sat in the drivers seat. The glove compartment was open and then my heart sank. My camera was gone. My eyes started to well up, my hands were shaking. Memories of my kids were gone. Someone stole them. Someone invaded my precious children. Moments in time gone forever. All of the photos that I had yet to download were running through my mind. And that's where they will stay; in my mind. Still brings a tear to my eye.
I pulled myself together and drove to work. My stomach felt like I had been punched, but what was I going to do? I did this. If only I had slowed down. If only I had taken that extra second to think about the larger picture and not just those boards. But I didn't. Which is way I always tell my kids, "we don't "what if" because we will "what if" ourselves into craziness".
The camera I lost was a point and shoot Sony. Nothing special other than the memory card that was within it. After that I said I was going to really start to create memories for my kids. I was getting a CAMERA. Thank you Air Miles! My Nikon D3200 arrived a few weeks later. I was in love.
I sat up at night reading how to use it, googled videos on what ISO was and F-Stop. I was determined to take the love of photography I had from a young age and actually USE my camera. Within a week my kids were sick of me and my new best friend.
Fast forward to August of the next year. My good friend on my street was outside with her daughter. Little Kas is sitting on my yard blowing bubbles, the sun is starting to drop, her long blonde hair is covering her one eye as it curls at the bottom. The bubbles are keeping her attention as they float away.
She looks up at me and SNAP.
After that one photo, friends started to ask me to take photos of their kids. One after another after another. I had no idea what I was doing, other than having so much fun. We drove to open fields, to places with cool fences, parks, every where. Then my dear friend Kim says "let's do ballet photos of Kas". How could I say no?!
That one photo session changed my life. Thank you Miss Kim and especially Kas.
Above is the first ballet session with Kas and below was taken in January of this year (2017)
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