The above photo was taken on June 22nd at the second newborn session I ever shot. Their dog Buckley was not to be denied his moment on camera!

How to know your life is just a tad bit insane and surreal... Get an e-mail from a woman that tells you she's bought "matching panties" for when she sees you on Saturday, and how much she's looking forward to it. And it's not a scenario cooked up in a dream your husband had last night. It actually happened.

I have my second maternity photo session coming up this Saturday and I'm really excited about it. There's just something about photographing pregnant women and newborns. It's such an exciting, happy time in everyone's lives and it allows you just a small peek into that anticipation and joy, no matter how brief.

I'm still not ready to "go pro", although at times I guess it would certainly seem as if I'd made the leap or was well on my way. I'm so busy being mommy on Monday through Friday, that one session a weekend has almost been more than I can manage right now. It literally seems as if I just got this baby's newborn photos back from the lab, and I was already shooting his 3-month session.

Word of mouth is keeping the new dayplanner I just had to buy quite full. I'm not even advertising — every session I've done or booked thus far has been for friends or friends of friends. I hope that bodes well for me when and if I do decide to make the leap to the next level. I should have a decent portfolio together by then. Horse before the cart and all...

But one thing no one ever tells you when they say "you should really do this for other people" is that it absolutely KILLS your desire to take photographs for enjoyment almost instantly from that point on. Suddenly even a quick photo of the in the is weighed against the required time in Photoshop. The curse wrapped around the blessing of shooting in RAW... I can't even imagine what life would be like in proofing hell without my Powerbook.

At least I finished both of the boys' "first year frames" last month. By the time our oldest had turned one, I had FIVE 100-slot photo albums filled. Not to mention his baby book and scrapbook were both up-to-date. The youngest? Not a single photo album yet. I still don't have the majority of his birth-to-3 months photos printed. Other than photos I've framed on the walls, I haven't had a single photo of either of them printed since Halloween. I haven't even got anything ready for print since Thanksgiving. It's all waiting on CD for me. Someday. But if Flickr should go bye-bye tomorrow, so would my sanity.

Yes, you, too should become a photographer! You'll never want to take photos again. Ok, you'll still want to take them. But that's pretty much as far as it will go.

I haven't done linkage in awhile, so here are a few to keep you happy...

1. What is "Bokeh"
2. Backup your Flickr account (I so need to do this - they are owned by Yahoo! now)
3. Using Nikon strobes as wireless slaves (something I need to work on learning)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth holiday!
-Robyn