Project 52 | Images of Inspiration | Weeks 1-4

February 03, 2015 • Leave a Comment

I've quickly discovered, after starting my business, the importance in making sure I to continue to shoot and create for myself. For one, I don't want to have less pictures of my own son because I'm so busy taking pictures of everyone else's children. Personal projects are also sometimes the best way to grow as an artist, try new things, and really work at honing and fine-tuning my skills. So when a group of my fellow photographers from NAPCP were forming a group to do a Project 52, I immediately joined! I'm excited to add a personal project for myself this year and happy to have other professionals to help cheer each other on and keep motivating each other to complete the project. Themes were chosen for each week, and it's fun to see how each photographer interprets and executes the theme each week. I'm hoping to blog these monthly to share with you all! So here are the first 4 images of the year.

Week 1 | Gratitude

Sweet SleepProject 52 | Week 1 | Gratitude | Copyright 2015 Kimberly Tank Art & Photography This was the perfect start to the year. I knew my gratitude image would be of my son, but I wasn't sure about anything else until the day before this image was taken and my son skipped his nap. It came to me that I wanted my image to speak not only to the gratitude I feel for my son but also for nap time! Thankfully he took a nap the next day so that I could take this picture. I tried various angles and distances and knew as soon as I saw this one that it was the "one". It is now my computer wallpaper and I printed it to be framed and hung on the wall; I love it.

There is so much about this image that I am so so grateful for. My son, who just turned 3, is my world. He is sweet, smart, funny, the best snuggler, and a challenge, but worth every second. We tried for 2 years to get pregnant, with a miscarriage around the 1 year mark, and then lost his twin around 7.5 weeks. I am forever thankful to have the honor of loving and raising him. And then of course I'm grateful for the fact that he is napping so I can get something done!

Week 2 | Bokeh

For the non-photographers reading this, bokeh is the soft, out of focus blurring of the background (created when using a fast lens at a low aperture which creates a shallow depth of field).

We went to Disney World to celebrate my son's 3rd birthday so I thought it would be fun to try some nighttime photography and get the lights of Main Street at the Magic Kingdom to be the bokeh for this image.

Week 3 | Music

PJ Dance PartyProject 52 | Week 3 | Music | Copyright 2015 Kimberly Tank Art & Photography It was hard to choose which image I wanted to use for this week. We had a dance party in our pjs and I had originally hoped to maybe get a shot of him dancing/running with his play silks like he usually does or even playing one of his many instruments. Of course being a toddler, he decided to not do much of that but was plenty silly enough for me to capture this image. I can totally see him trying to break dance when he gets a little older. He reminded me that when it comes to photographing young children, you just have to go with their flow!

Week 4 | Cake

Chocolate Cake FaceProject 52 | Week 4 | Cake | Copyright 2015 Kimberly Tank Art & Photography For week 4, we had leftover birthday cake from my son's birthday that I pulled out of the freezer and let him eat while I photographed. In typically boy, toddler fashion, he made a bit of a mess and I was sure to capture a mouth full of chocolate cake!