I got something in the mail yesterday. It was the culmination of 365 days (+ a few more this year) of documentation, sweat, and tears. Literally. I was shaking a little bit as I opened it and flipped through all 242 pages of it. When I finished, I will admit to being a little tired. It was difficult to relive last year through these pictures, but at the same time, it was necessary and I was surprised to find that I was smiling more than I was teary. I will be ordering three more copies…one more for each of my children to keep forever as well. I am glad it’s over. But I am proud:

For the next 48 hrs, the THIS link will allow you the chance to flip through the entire album via iBooks on an iPad (for those that were asking to see the inside). Note that April 27th and May 2nd are not misprints. Those are very intentional and were the most appropriate ways I could think of to attempt to convey our feelings at that time. Once that link expires, you can always see all of the images in the collection via this Facebook album.

The book is 11×13 from Blurb designed using InDesign (which I learned via these album design tutorials). My husband hung up the shelves for me last night (I love him) so that our albums could be displayed and more readily accessible to everyone to flip through whenever we want. Though I would have preferred the shelves to be white and probably could have made them myself MUCH cheaper, I was in a hurry to take advantage of my husband’s willing spirit, so we snagged these from Target. The lip on the end is *very* important as they hold the books on the shelf and keep them from sliding off. They could also be a little bit deeper to hold more, but in this particular space, they work well and don’t get in the way of the walkway, so I guess that’s good.

Thank you to everyone that followed along with this project last year and I would LOVE to see anyone else’s 365’s if they are willing to share. Post in the comments below! And if you started one this year…GOOD LUCK!

P.S. My husband asked me two questions after looking through this book:

Him – “Are you glad you did it?”

Me – “Heck YES!”

Him – “Do you want to do it again?”

Me – “Heck NO!”

I was chatting with some photog friends today about sessions gone wrong. You see, I had big plans for a special Valentine’s Day image with all three of my kiddos, but because of all of the struggle and fighting it took to get there, I just can’t look at the pictures without thinking about how miserable our shoot was. Instead, I posted THIS ONE for today because it was more authentic and in the moment and not forced. I don’t understand why it’s so hard for me to photograph my kids together. Individually, I’m good, but the three of them together and it just ends up with me being a manic maniac and my kids in tears. I don’t like that. I don’t want them to hate the camera.

Time and time again, I remember that the best images are usually the ones that are unplanned (like the one from this morning), but it is my nature to plan. A lot. To a fault. And when things don’t fall in line with my plan, I shut down. When you have three children, you *do* have to plan. Someday, I hope I will learn to plan enough and at the same time, be flexible enough with my own kiddos to adapt. I can do that with my clients. I do it ALL the time with my clients. I preach about it over and over again at my workshops. And yet, I can’t apply it to myself. I started to go down memory lane of all of my personal photo shoots gone wrong (this one in particular comes to mind) and I suppose I’m thankful for those images, too. But I don’t know…I just wish it wasn’t such an ORDEAL whenever we try to do a shoot.

All this leads up to these images that follow up to her four year photo session. I had big plans for the shoot. In my head. But unfortunately, her birthday falls in line with holiday season…the busiest time of year for family photographers. It had been nagging in the back of my mind for weeks, “I have to get those 4 year pics taken! I have to make time for that! I have to have the perfect dress! The perfect shoes! Must have 4 balloons! I need NO rain and beautiful light!” Etc, etc, etc. There were other things going on, too…I was trying to get ready for the Holiday Mini Sessions, my grandmother was very sick, and we were very worried about why my husband’s brother had become so suddenly ill.  My mom (AKA MeeMaw) was in town to help out and I was spilling out all of my worries to her. She listened patiently, like she always does, and she said, “Let’s just go do her shoot right now. Why not? Let’s just do it.” But I wasn’t ready. I hadn’t finished planning. Where would we shoot? I was planning to drive out to this wall downtown, but even if we left right away, we would never make it before sunset. This would be a disaster!

It turned out to be a beautiful evening with my mom, my baby girl, MeeMaw’s pup, and a delicious golden sunset right here in our yard. It was all of 15 minutes. Tear free. And some of my favorite images of my little girl perfectly captured at four. I needed to go back and look at these images tonight. These were taken just days before the holiday season turned into heartbreak for all of us. It was pure joy. It was time spent with my mom. It was perfectly unplanned. It is a nice reminder to me today. Just let go, Michele. Let go and enjoy these moments enough to capture them how they deserved to be captured.

Couple of non-session related things to note:

1. Getting ready for the last Austin workshop this weekend, so I’m going to be away for a few days. In other words, don’t panic if you send me an e-mail and you don’t hear back from me for a while.

2. After that, we get to spend some time with Jim’s kiddos for a while and we are very excited about that. Their cousins are pretty darned excited, too. In case you missed it, I posted an update on Jim PLUS some exciting new limited edition releases for j.imprints!

3. Did you hear that we opened up two more on-the-road workshops this summer? One in St. Louis (which, by the way, is filling up very quickly) and one in TORONTO, Ontario, Canada!!! If you are a professional photographer (or working to be coming a professional family photographer) in/near these areas, see this page to submit an interest form and I’ll make sure you get all of the details.

4. Have you been following my 365 project? I’m proud to say that I have completed the FIRST month! Only 11 more months to go!

5. And don’t forget, you have until Feb 6th to vote for your favorite image in round 1 of Pinkle’s Pic of the year.

…and I welcome the opportunity to recenter myself and make the most out of you. This year will be about refocusing on the simple pleasures of life, like the sound of the dryer humming in the background or the way my eldest gets so excited over each and every beautiful sunrise or the downy fur my middle son still has or the feel of my daughter’s warm little body when she climbs into bed with us each morning. I am redirecting my energies inward…to my family and friends and myself. I will only do things that are good for my soul and the outlook of others. I will take pride in all that I do and treat every moment as if it were the last of its kind. My glass will be half full…if not completely full…if not positively overflowing.

This marks day one of my three sixty five: a recreation of one of my most favorite images of my kids ever. I can’t think of a better way to kick this off than by getting back to the very source of my purpose and happiness. I invite you to follow along. I also invite you to share your three sixty five if you’re doing one. We have the gift of 364 more days ahead of us this year. Let’s see what we can do with them.