October 20 in Kansas City – Family Documentary Photographer

In October I took a quick trip home, just my son and I, to Kansas City.  I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t stressful; a three year old in a new place with new routines, trying to cram as much stuff as I possibly could into the few days I was home, and all while knowing I was going to have to just hit the ground running when I got back to Washington.  It was certainly not a relaxing, restorative vacation so much as a way to shake up the routine and break up the time my husband was away, as well as an excuse to get back home for a bit as I was long overdue for a visit.  Since my trip fell toward the middle of the month it also happened to fall during the week I shoot for my Here & Now project.

And while I was so enthused to shoot the next installment of my project while at home, by the time the day I planned to shoot rolled around I was already pretty wiped out by several days of battle royale with a certain little tyrant that still hasn’t fully mastered the ability to use the bathroom without assistance.  So I did what I always do.  I shot anyway.

I half heartedly got transition images.  I desperately searched for moments that I wanted to remember.  I recorded scenes that I knew future Erika would want for posterity.  Then I got home, uploaded the images, and sort of let myself forget about them for several weeks.

I had jobs lined up, fires that needed to be put out, and the last thing I needed was to bum myself out by studying images that I wanted to mean so much, but I couldn’t quite seem to get into the headspace to make.

But an odd thing happened.  Last week I finally found some time to start working back through some personal editing and decided to start with this collection of images.  As I culled through the images I kept finding ones that I liked, like really liked.  I also found a few images that I loved but normally wouldn’t have taken because the where not “pretty” enough, or because they were bound to be technically unsound images.

So the installment I thought was going to be a dud ends up being one of my favorite installments yet.