sarah null photography ~ family, newborn, and children photography in raleigh, nc

Did I Not Mention This?

Sarah — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:42:21 +0000

Y’all, I feel terrible. It’s been a wild and woolly month of April and somehow I did not manage to remember to post here to say that I’ve overhauled my blog, and that I now blog over here. With my name in the url and everything (Well la-dee-dah!).

I hope you can stop by, re-bookmark it perhaps, and see what’s what.

Oh the Humanity (and a Housekeeping Note)

Sarah — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:03:23 +0000

We recently took a spontaneous trip to Washington DC with the kids. They weren’t too excited about it until we talked up things like “dinosaurs” and “eat astronaut ice cream.” We also enjoyed riding the Metro, chasing pigeons and ducks on the Mall, and waving hello to all the policemen we saw.

What the kids did not enjoy, however, was all the walking you do in DC. I read to them from a book about DC how it is a true walking city. They were really unimpressed by the walking. I mean REALLY not fans. So they took a moment out of sight-seeing to demonstrate exactly how exhausting they found all that walking to be….

Good thing they don’t have a flair for drama or anything!

Also I wanted to give a heads up: I’ll be updating my 2010 pricing later this month, but I will be honoring 2009 prices on sessions booked before then. I’m booking for spring and on into the summer, contact me for availability. Thanks!

Barefoot on a Spring Afternoon

Sarah — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:32:57 +0000

After a long winter full of snow and cold and weather forecasts that had us afraid to get out of bed in the morning, you can imagine how happy we were to spend the afternoon enjoying the lovely springtime weather out on some of the greenest grass possibly ever seen on the earth.

Yep, we even took our shoes off and walked barefoot in the grass. It was heavenly!

No Day But Today

Sarah — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:53:15 +0000

Five years ago today, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

It was a shock and left us reeling, for sure. But I’m a twinmama; our boys were nine months old (and one day) at the time of my diagnosis. I quickly realized that it simply was not an option for the cancer to win, to leave my sweet husband and my precious children. No, I clearly had to kick some cancer ass.

Knowing that it was not an option to not fight the cancer, to not win, I took the approach I learned early on as a twinmama: Rise to the Occasion. With the Rise to the Occasion philosophy, you just do. You don’t give up. You do the not-fun stuff because you know (or you hope) that that will get you to the fun and happy stuff that much sooner.

There wasn’t a lot of whining or why meeeeee or pityparties because, well, surgery and chemo and hair loss and all that is simply What Must Be Done to get to the end result of spending more time with my family and watching the children grow up.

I’ll be the first to say that I was very fortunate in that we caught the cancer early and the chemotherapy and bilateral mastectomy and other superfun surgeries seem to have done the trick so that I am still cancer-free five years later. But, you know, I rather think that rising to the occasion sure didn’t hurt anything, either.

So why am I a photographer now, in my AD (After Diagnosis) life? Because one of the major lessons (or even gifts) that I gained from having cancer is to not waste time, not regret not doing something, to find happiness where you can, and to strive to give happiness to others. To steal a phrase from Rent:

“Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.”

I would regret not going for photography, not going for giving others that little joy or thrill from seeing their child captured perfectly in a photograph. I would regret not paying it forward, the little kindnesses shown to me when I was sick by friends and strangers alike. I would regret not reaching for and giving into the creativity and beauty I’m allowed to work with behind the camera lens. I would regret not taking this extra time on earth to do something that gives happiness to others. I would regret not taking a golden opportunity such as the workshop to learn more and truly expand my horizons — I have come a very long way in five years, but there’s oh so much more I can learn.

So I don’t regret and I’m sure as hell not missing out on life.

a great many thanks to Summer of Real Promises Photography for taking these beautiful photos of me to mark the occasion of my Fifth Diagnosiversary.

A Morning with Grandchildren

Sarah — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:36:00 +0000

B and Z are some super-lucky little kids to have a grandfather who is so crazy about them. And he’s awfully fantastically lucky himself to have grandkids like B and Z.

Fishface kisses!

Many thanks to the whole M family for inviting me out for the morning to bear witness to your lovely, loving family. Fishface kisses to you!

Nine Days Old

Sarah — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:52:29 +0000

I recently got to meet a sweet little guy, Harrison, who was just nine days old! I’m so glad he was able to take a little time out from his busy schedule of getting to know his family (mom, dad, big brother and big sister) to let me take some photos.

He’s truly a little sweetheart. Welcome to the world, Harrison!

Let it Snow!

Sarah — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:18:51 +0000

I may have grown up in the northeast, but my husband and boys are Southern born-and-bred. They can count on one hand the times they’ve gotten to play in actual snow.

Well, they’re one finger closer to a full hand now! We just had an official snowstorm here in Raleigh and the kids had some big big plans for that snow: snowmen, snowball fights, and sledding. Turned out the snowmen and snowball fights left their mittens distressingly wet (funny how that shocks 5-year-olds), but they loved sledding. They loved it even more when a tweenage neighborgirl stopped by to give them her old sled that she’d outgrown. How sweet is that? She got some homemade cookies for that.

But back to the sledding. It could not have been any better for my boys, except for maybe if they’d had two sleds. They’re still not good about sharing with eachother.

Kicking Off ThreeSixtyFive in Twenty-Ten

Sarah — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:32:06 +0000

I don’t know about y’all, but so far 2010 has been a pretty wild ride for our family. About the one thing that’s been pretty constant so far has been my doing my own little Project 365. Wondering what’s that? It’s really pretty simple: it’s a photo a day, every day, for a year. I started a few days into the year, so this edition of the Project should run a smidge into 2011. I’m finding that my Project is turning more into a little photo journal as opposed to a photography workshopping or creativity tool, but that’s still cool, right?

I’m also finding that, because I’m using a pocket-sized point-and-shoot camera for the bulk of the Project, I have hardly picked up my beloved Nikon DSLR. That’s probably the one down side to the Project for me, but I’m working to improve my Equality among Cameras so that won’t hold true for the full 365.

Enough yapping. Here’s a quick link to my Project 365 slideshow; please keep up with me and cheer me on for the rest of the year!

Surfeit of Happiness (and Legos)

Sarah — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:28:01 +0000

Our family had a lovely Christmas, as evidenced by the possibly-excessive amount of Legos that Santa brought for the children. He didn’t stop with the little painful-to-step-on bricks themselves; he also brought pajamas with Legos on them and three separate books about Legos. If I’d been on the ball more, there would also have been an iPod speaker in the shape of Legos under the tree, but maybe that’ll be a better birthday gift.

Here’s hoping everyone has a wonderful end to 2009 and an even better 2010 waiting on deck!

Holiday Spirit Time

Sarah — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:20:27 +0000

It’s that time of year again, the time when parents planning a preschool holiday party suddenly can’t think of what the kids can do for a craft at the party. Like most of the rest of you, I was frozen with fear. Until I figured out what I could do! And it’s easy, incredibly easy! In the spirit of the holiday season, let me share it with you.

That’s green frosting (tint white frosting green, right in the can) spread on a sugar ice cream cone by parents, then let the kids roll the cones in their choice of “ornaments.” Sprinkles of various colors, M&Ms, marshmallows, let your imagination run with it!

Sure, it’s not the healthiest craft ever (um, that’s a lot of sugar), but it’s cute, fun for the kids, and oh-so-easy. Happy Holidays!