Ever see a photographer who starts out with a 365 day project, or even a 52 week project and never finishes? Yeah, me too.  Well, I recently joined a group of a few other busy photographers who decided to commit to a 12 month project! Wish us luck!

The best part is that it will be totally candid, lifestyle shots of each of our own families/lives.  This is a challenge for us to capture our every day worlds and hopefully make us and everyone aware that our “ordinary” is actually “extraordinary.”  We’re calling the series “The Story of ________” and we’ll each be filling in our own blanks. At the end of this post is a link to another photographer who participated and she’ll be linking to someone else. It’s a whole big circle of stories in pictures. Click through and enjoy!

I decided to start with our annual trip to Joan’s Farm and Pumpkin Patch in Livermore, CA. We have gone here almost every year since we first discovered it, and it’s always so much fun.  This was a huge challenge for me, as these were shot in full sun in the middle of the day.  Photographers know what a challenge light can be at this time of day, so I did my best to just go for it, and enjoy capturing my family just doing what they do.

One of the things that the kids love about this place is all the cool trees.

This cracked me up watching my daughter try to make it up the tree.  When I saw that little hand make it’s way up the branch, I knew she was on her way!

Three years ago, I took a picture of my daughter on this tree, and this year I tried to recreate it.  It’s strange how much these images make me feel.  Proud for the wonderful person my daughter is becoming, and sad for the fact that three years flew by so quickly.  I am so very happy that I have this gift of photography to capture my children at this moment in time.

Time is so fleeting.

But while we loved playing in the trees, we were here for the pumpkins!  He loved seeing how strong he was!   haha!  I love that little man.

Some of my favorite shots of the day.  I stole borrowed my dad’s fisheye.  This lens is a lot of fun.  Cracks me up that you can see my finger on the pumpkin in the second shot.

And dang oh man, do I ever love these ones.

Leaving the farm!  We’ll be back next year!

And no trip to Livermore would be complete without a trip to In-N-Out Burgers!  Love that place!

Well, this was fun for me!  I hope you enjoyed it too.

Next up is Arna Photography by Rachel.  Enjoy!  And come back next month for a whole new story!