Our 5 O’Clock | Part 1
Apr 15, 2015
It’s our crazy hour. Our witching hour. The hour that sometimes makes me want to just curl up and wish it was over. It’s 5:00 pm
I can actually remember not so many years ago when 5 pm meant relaxing after work watching Oprah…maybe thinking about what to make for dinner…maybe not. Sometimes I’d go the gym, other times I’d take a nap. Oh, how things have changed! My work is now mostly at home and 5 pm now means dinner, 2 tired kids, a tired mama, a husband who’s just getting off work, baths and sometimes even bed!
I decided April was going to be my month to find beauty in our crazy hour. To slow down and take it all in. To truly appreciate all of those little things that make my family amazing. Even crazy can be beautiful, right?
Our 5 O’Clock is a personal project. A project that feeds this photographer’s soul. One picture every day in April during the 5 O’Clock hour.
I’m half way through the month and am so very thankful that I started this project. It’s made me slow down and think a little differently about our routines. It’s also made me realize how much I can shove into a single hour! The kids have started to both wake up earlier which means earlier bedtimes. After working with a sleep coach for the first week of the month, we’ve started to put Willa to bed earlier than we used to. It means she’s usually in bed just after 6, which means dinner, baths, PJs, books, nursing and lullabies sometimes all before 6. But, it also means that we get some time to spend alone with Finley and we get our evenings back to be adults (YAY!).
This project has also forced me to shoot in some harsh evening light. I’ve tried to embrace the strong highlights and shadows and allow them to tell part of the story. I’ve also started to adore the way the light streams through our lattice work outside creating beautiful pattens on our counters and rugs. I might just convince my husband to keep all of that lattice we were going to tear down.
Here’s how our 5:oo looked for the first half of April.
(make sure to check out Part 2 here).
Fiddle Leaf Photography offers in home documentary family and newborn photography in Edmonton and surround areas. Ready to book your own photography session? Check out the Session Info page to find out what a session with me is like, or contact me directly using the ‘Book Now’ tab above or email kelly@fiddle-leaf.com
[…] enough, every single one of them was taken in my own home and half were taken as part of my 5 O’Clock project last April. I’m thinking I need to do a similar project again this year but with a different […]
[…] to take a picture every day for a whole month during the toughest hour of my day, which became the Our 5 O’Clock Project. At the time, when my kids were 3 years and 7 months old, 5:00 pm was the hour I did not look to […]