Beauty in the Mess

It's been a couple of ROUGH weeks around our house!  It's rained, the kids have been grumpy, our routine has been changed (mostly for the better) with B home from the government furlough.  To say I've had a little bit of time to myself would be wrong ... I've had no time!  To top it off the house and everything in it (including people) is a mess.

 Luckily the focus of my photo editing class through the week was finding beauty in the mess.  We had a guest poster / teacher Darrah Parker.  She's all about taking photos of real life at home and embracing what messes are in our lives.  Our assignment was to take pictures of the mess using 6 different composition ideas.  

 1.  Rule of thirds - divide the frame into thirds and put your subject in one of the thirds
Fairy Princes D (as she likes to be called) in the mess of her room

2.  Adjust your lens or camera to get closer / farther away

The kids' hands as they played together in the sand table
3.  Adjust body position to get a creative or different perspective
I took this from the deck looking down.
4.  Focus on the details
D's feet as she played with the Wheelies
5.  Focus on the big picture
The kids coloring together ... with the mess all around

One of S's many messes in a day
I really enjoyed the challenge of embracing the mess of my house and using these different composition tips.  I achieved 5 of the 6, which I think is pretty good.  I couldn't find a way to use negative space to draw the eye to my subject.  My house does not really lend itself to this but I'm definitely going to work on it outside.

Here's what I learned about the mess of my life this week .... Nothing in my life is perfect or completely neat but I wouldn't change it for the world!  I love everyone and everything that helps create the mess that is 100% beautiful!!

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