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Malibu, California  |  August 20, 2017  |  On the day before the Great Eclipse, I met this beautiful family in Malibu to document their love as a family of three, a few short weeks before they became a family of four. We had planned to run on the beach, only to find out the tide was the highest I had ever seen. There was simply no beach to run on. I’ve played on this particular beach what feels like a thousand times, and the only explanation I can think of for the extreme tide, was the Great Eclipse. On this beautifully warm evening, the universe taking a moment to reminding me I am not in charge here. I can’t control the tides, or the weather, and sometimes that’s the best kind of reminder we can receive. So, a change in tide predictions, meant a change in plans. And I got to see how this beautiful family, was simply that…beautiful. There love for one another was as genuine and infectious as the day is long. They were never stressed. They just loved and loved. All considering, this session ended up being one of my all time favorites. 

 

 

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  • February 6, 2018 - 9:35 pm

    Sarah Landa - Such a gorgeous season lady!!ReplyCancel

  • February 8, 2018 - 7:11 pm

    Alce - LOVE these!! so so beautiful!ReplyCancel

  • February 8, 2018 - 7:32 pm

    angela doran - What a gorgeous family! Absolutely lovely session!ReplyCancel

  • February 8, 2018 - 9:47 pm

    Katie Kolbrick - Kelly, your work is so beautiful and inspiring!ReplyCancel

Sleeping In The Forest // by Mary Oliver

I thought the earth remembered me,
She took me back so tenderly
Arranging her skirts
Her pockets full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before
A stone on the riverbed,
Nothing between me and the white fire of the stars,
But my thoughts.
And they floated light as moths
Among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
Breathing around me.
The insects and the birds
Who do their work in darkness.
All night I rose and fell,
As if water, grappling with luminous doom.
By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times
Into something better.

Again

// Yosemite National Park, Thanksgiving 2017 //

Here we find ourselves again.

How often is it we find our shadows lost in the shadows of iconic granite giants?

This valley of majesty and grace pulls our hearts for another round of falling in love all over again, just as we have every time before.

My greatest wishes

this beauty always pulls a flutter of new, shiny, and happy.

this beauty is never becomes anything less than magical.

this beauty pulls your heart to it’s valley,

again, again, again.

Keep the Blog Circle Going!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for journeying through to the very end. Now continue the journey with the incredibly talented and always inspirational Celeste Pavlik, and then keep on going until you’ve walked around the whole freelensed world and seen all the amazing posts.

Click Here for Celeste’s Blog.

// a bit about our group //
We as a group of artist mothers from all over the world are making it our priority to turn off the tv/video games so that we can give our children the sacred experience to connect with the fast disappearing natural world. We will freelens our adventures into the wild and share them through this monthly project.
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  • December 1, 2017 - 9:07 am

    Nikki - Again??!! Yes please bring images from Yosemite again and again. I love that your children are snuggled my these incredible mountains, and so grateful there are still such majestic places to find solace. Nix xxReplyCancel

  • December 1, 2017 - 9:20 pm

    Cindy - Oh, my word! How majestic. You have captured a sense of adventure and those mountains…wow!ReplyCancel

  • December 1, 2017 - 9:29 pm

    Kate Cuenoud - I feel more alive having looked at these images. Thank you for sharing this beauty. Where photography creates the icon, freelensing brings the icon back to the form of a memory.ReplyCancel

  • December 1, 2017 - 9:45 pm

    Léa - so grandiose!!! i love the juxtaposition of your little ones and the big mountains. What a beautiful post. I want to visit even more. xxx, LéaReplyCancel

  • December 2, 2017 - 12:48 am

    Barb - Wow Kelly. What a breathtaking set of images. I love how you captured the scale of these majestic mountains and the tiny humans exploring them. That black and white portrait of your son front of the mountain range and forest took my breath away.ReplyCancel

  • December 2, 2017 - 2:22 am

    Sherri - Oh my goodness, I am so glad you could join us this month. What a beautiful place, the way you see the world is so inspiring!ReplyCancel

  • December 2, 2017 - 4:14 pm

    Celeste Pavlik - Oh goodness what an amazing place to visit. I have never been!! I love seeing Yosemite through yours and your children’s eyes. beautiful work <3ReplyCancel

Sleeping In The Forest  //  by Mary Oliver
 
I thought the earth remembered me,
She took me back so tenderly
Arranging her skirts
Her pockets full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before
A stone on the riverbed,
Nothing between me and the white fire of the stars,
But my thoughts.
And they floated light as moths
Among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
Breathing around me.
The insects and the birds
Who do their work in darkness.
All night I rose and fell,
As if water, grappling with luminous doom.
By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times
Into something better.

 

// a bit about our group //
We as a group of artist mothers from all over the world are making it our priority to turn off the tv/video games so that we can give our children the sacred experience to connect with the fast disappearing natural world. We will freelens our adventures into the wild and share them through this monthly project.
_____________________________________________
This is a special Blog circle, full of incredible artists from all over the world. Please follow along through the whole loop to enjoy the wealth of talent. Next blog, Heather of Heather Lindsey Robinson, who was one of the first photographers I came across that had me jumping from my seat. She is a true inspiration.
____________________________________________________________
Yosemite.

Magical. It’s the only word I continue to find my way back to.

No other words seem to carry the weight of this most special of all places.

I remember running amongst these same trees, in the same shadows of these granite walls, and over the same constant flow of waters,

years younger, the same age, and even in years beyond the ages of these five cousins.

This was our favorite place, and now it will be there’s too.

A special place all their own, and they too will find no words…just magical.

_____________________________________________
I so appreciate you taking the time to journey through a small corner of Yosemite National Park with me. Please make sure to keep on to Heather’s “Into Something Better”
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  • September 27, 2017 - 8:03 pm

    Barb Toyama - Wow, what a magical place! You captured the majesty and beauty and the children’s awe of it so perfectly.ReplyCancel

  • September 28, 2017 - 4:16 pm

    Léa - Oh Kelly, i love these. the boys look so little and nature so majestic. fantastic images. xo, LéaReplyCancel

  • September 29, 2017 - 4:34 pm

    Melissa L - Kelly, you really captured the majestic feel of this place. I have never been and I loved seeing it through your eyes and hearing about how it was the very most special place to you. the lines in your compositions are so good and the feeling of awe from the 5 cousins, so pure. the last shot is my favorite and could be made huge as a print.♥ReplyCancel

  • October 2, 2017 - 1:50 pm

    Kate Cuenoud - Stunningly and beautifully captured. The image of the pink sky, mountains and focus on the river touched me so deeply. What an amazing adventure you had! xxoo Kate.ReplyCancel

Sleeping In The Forest  //  by Mary Oliver
I thought the earth remembered me,
She took me back so tenderly
Arranging her skirts
Her pockets full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before
A stone on the riverbed,
Nothing between me and the white fire of the stars,
But my thoughts.
And they floated light as moths
Among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
Breathing around me.
The insects and the birds
Who do their work in darkness.
All night I rose and fell,
As if water, grappling with luminous doom.
By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times
Into something better.
 ___________________________________________
For about a year now, we’ve adventured on early weekend mornings, in search of quiet beaches, all to ourselves.
The boys run, and carrying shells in their pockets.
Coffee in hand, we follow them the length of the beach, and back again.
And as the rising sun shortens our shadows, we head home.
Windows down, hands riding their warm salt air, sandy feet dangling from car seats behind us.
We began this tradition in hopes of leaving the Saturday morning cartoons behind.
And found the calm of our breath, and have begun to understand how our bodies depend on it.
 ____________________________________________
// a bit about our group //
We as a group of artist mothers from all over the world are making it our priority to turn off the tv/video games so that we can give our children the sacred experience to connect with the fast disappearing natural world. We will freelens our adventures into the wild and share them through this monthly project.
To find out more about the beautiful art of freelensing, follow this link to Erin Hensley’s Freelensing Tutorial
_____________________________________________
This is a special Blog circle, full of incredible artists from all over the world. Please follow along through the whole loop to enjoy the wealth of talent. Next blog, a personal inspiration Sherri Davis
I so appreciate you taking the time to look through to the end. Please make sure to keep on to Sherri Davis’s Beautiful work
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  • May 30, 2017 - 12:47 pm

    Into Something Better: Sturbridge Conservation Area, Massachusetts USA May 2017 – Léa Jones - […] Next on the circle is the work of Kelly Sutton in California.  I have admired her work for a few years now and you will not be disappointed, and my guess is that it will be a lot more summery :-). You can read and admire Kelly’s work in this link. […]ReplyCancel

  • May 31, 2017 - 7:28 am

    Kate Cuenoud - Magically,your images are at once calming and invigorating! My heart is quickening while at the same time, my breath is deepening. Thank you for making my day instantly better. xxoo Kate.ReplyCancel

  • May 31, 2017 - 8:13 am

    Amanda Voelker - MUCH better than Saturday morning cartoons. Beautiful!ReplyCancel

  • May 31, 2017 - 4:28 pm

    Beth Urban - Kelly, so beautiful and dreamy. These images make me long for the beach!!ReplyCancel

  • May 31, 2017 - 4:50 pm

    Lea Jones - Kelly, the sunshine, the wind and the smell of the beach just come right through these images. love them SO MUCH!
    xo, LéaReplyCancel

  • May 31, 2017 - 10:09 pm

    celeste pavlik - these are fabulous!! you’re making me want to trade in the woods for the beach!! so pretty. <3ReplyCancel

  • June 1, 2017 - 3:01 am

    Heather Robinson - Kelly, you make me long to be at the ocean!! I feel so soothed by these images. Soothed yet energized! I especially love the black and white of your boy jumping! Wonderful post.ReplyCancel

  • June 1, 2017 - 10:36 am

    Joni - These are amazing. So dreamy. I cannot wait to get to the beach. I love love love the colours and haze. You are awesome!ReplyCancel

  • June 3, 2017 - 11:13 am

    Nikki - Completely lost in your most beautiful day! Thank you for sharing xReplyCancel

  • June 3, 2017 - 3:49 pm

    Melissa L - Gosh Kelly, these make me long for California. They are incredible. There is such a peaceful feeling I get when I look at these. the oranges, blues, and greens take me right to Malibu. I also love your black and whites, the compositions are so good. beautiful work ♥ReplyCancel

A couple months into being five, and my oldest son is really trying to up his jumping game. But there’s a lot more to it than just that. So, let me tell you the story behind this story.  //  Make sure to skip onto the next blog and check out Andrea, of Little Story Studio‘s beautiful work. You can click on her name or right here: http://www.littlestorystudio.com/blog/pittsburgh-family-photographer-storytellers-blog-circle-january-2017

In a month, I’ll be teaching the first round of my Storytelling Workshop, “The Visual Narrative,” with The Bloom Forum. One of my goal is to make videos of how I shoot in documentary situations around my house. That’s right, I’m following myself around with another camera, and recording myself as I attempt to both parent and photograph. It’s actually pretty fun, other than the part where I watch myself back on camera. ha! Anyway, last week, my son was jumping on our red couch, like any other given day. He jumps on this couch for hours some days. I know that one day I’ll have to have the whole couch rebuilt, but today, I let him jump.

The light in my house was nice on this late morning. It’s been raining here. A lot. We don’t usually get rain, but for the last few weeks it’s felt nonstop. I love that soft gentle light we get in the house on days like these. So, inspired by the everyday jumping of my son, and motivated to film clips of my shooting, I pulled out the video camera, set it up, hit record.  My son jumps from one end of the couch, and back again, over, and over, and over. Since my couch sits pretty far into my house, in can it can be pretty dark without the direct light of the rising sun or golden hour. We have a huge eight foot slider that faces due South, that sits behind the couch, and lets in a lot of light, but between the late morning time, and the cloudy, rainy day, there was just not enough light to work with back lighting. I knew I would need to sit right at the end of the couch, with the slider on my right, to get a nice indirect side light from the window, to add interest to my photos.

If you look closely, you’ll notice the I missed the focus on my son’s feet, although thankfully, he was close enough to the plane of focus to be seemingly sharp. I don’t mind the missed focus at all, and perhaps even prefer it. The missed focus gives a nice softness to an otherwise busy photo. I sat on the ground at the end of the couch, and originally he was just standing on the edge of the couch just in front of me. If you spot meter, you also know that this will also focus the camera on the same point. And so, as I checked my settings, while spot metering while he stood on the edge of the couch, I grabbed focus on his feet. True to my son’s personality, out of nowhere, he decided to leap into the air for a forward flip. All I could do was start shooting, and magically came up with this capture of his flip mid-air. Thankfully, I was already in a good place, at the right time, with my shutter set to “continuous” (a must when shooting fast moving kids), and I was paying attention.  Most of the time I spend a bit waiting for the action that will be worth hitting my shutter button for, but in this case no waiting was necessary. And so, with a some healthy reflexes, a little bit of preparation, and a lot of luck, I was able to capture an image I am in love with.

If you’d like to learn more of my process for storytelling, and learn from many more images like this, as well as receive feedback on your own images, I’d love for you to join me in my WORKSHOP, beginning February 27th, with the Bloom Forum (http://www.everythingbloom.com/the-visual-narrative-with-kelly-sutton).

 

 

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