Practice makes perfect.

Since I got my big girl camera last winter, I have been reading how-to books and practicing until my fingers cramp and my eyes hurt.  I read photography blogs and participate in a couple of challenges here and there to test my skills.  Usually I take pictures of my kids.  They're readily available and lack the ability to tell me to stop taking their picture - well, except Abby, who is getting to the "I don't want to have my picture taken today, thank you very much" stage, but I usually just ignore that and take her picture anyway.  Recently I started to take pictures of food.  For the most part it stays in one place and it doesn't roll its eyes.  Sometimes I take pictures of my extended family - one step removed from taking pictures of my kids and they tend to be a little more forgiving if, for example, it takes a girl a couple of months to get them a disk of the pictures from their kid's party because said girl was in the process of moving 500 miles away at the time and aforementioned pictures were on the computer that hasn't been hooked up yet.  

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, Uriah came home from work and asked me if I wanted to take some pictures at a birthday party.  As it turns out the daughter of one of his waitresses was turning 1 and they were having a big  birthday party with lots of extended family in town, so Uriah may or may not have volunteered my services.  I had a moment of panic.  I am, after all, not a professional.  I haven't taken any classes (although I've looked and hope to eventually); everything I know (and it is a pitifully small amount) is self taught, mostly by trial and error and lots of practice (see above).  But Uriah assured me that Caitlin and Josh both knew that I was basically going to be using them to practice and that they weren't going to expect Annie Leibovitz to show up at their party.

With that in mind, I arrived at Avery's first birthday party with sweaty palms and a lot of bravado.  It was soon apparent that being around Caitlin and Josh and their families was very easy and I calmed down immediately.  Both of their extended families were excited to have family pictures taken; like a lot of families, they aren't together very often and when they are, there is usually one person missing from the picture because that person is behind the camera.  What better time than celebrating a little person's first year?  I was happy to be able to help them out with some pictures.

Avery - oh, pretty little Avery - she was so darn cute with her pink bow and her pink sparkly shoes.  Once she got used to the crazy girl crawling on the floor with her and the camera in her face, she turned on the sweetest smiles.  I wanted to squeeze her little cheeks and invite her over for a play-date with Finneaus!

  

I took a ton of pictures, it's the amateur in me hoping that at least a couple would turn out all right.  And I think I surprised myself.  Although, I have to say, it's not hard to take a bad picture of such a sweet family.  I came home so excited because I had such a good time.  I will totally do that again!  I'm not perfect yet, so who's family wants me to practice on them next?