Why I'm Weird...

Planning a wedding is something that many girls enjoy and have looked forward to a majority of their lives.  I am not one of them.  This makes me a little strange.  It's not that I don't want to get married, because I do.  I love Bear and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him!  I'm just not wired to worry about dresses and color schemes and locations and fancy dinners.

Mostly, my excitement in this new phase of my life is the beginning of our little future family.  I have always loved kids.  Kids speak a language I totally understand.  Of course, then they become aliens known as teenagers, which I didn't even comprehend when I was one, but anyway... family.  I am very excited to have my own kids one day and photograph the heck out of them!

my future step-neice-in-law, with the camera pillow I made her last Christmas!

I realize that children are not little offshoots of us and instead are individuals.  They are not toys, dolls, little slaves for housework, or pets.  They are little human beings, full of their own insights, emotions, challenges, talents and life.  They are responsibilities that are reliant upon their parents almost entirely in their early years, and continue to need their parents throughout their lives (at least, I always think of some reason to call my parents!).

But I have to say, I can't wait to have the opportunity to stop time in my future kid's lives through such creative images as the ones I find on Flickr.  I am particularly inspired by the following members:

* gregariouspeach of course!  So full of color!  You can tell how much Georgia loves her kiddos in every shot.

* lauren {elycerose}.  So much emotion and complexity in each frame.  She reminds me of Sally Mann a bit in her compositional choices and the attitudes she captures.

* jwlphotography.  Each image tells a story and is very clever!  I love how involved the kids get!

* poppysmiles.  She's a pro photog in Australia, but she also has some pretty terrific, colorful portraits of her own kids, too!  So creative!

* reelgeek and dustindiaz.  Pro photog hubby and wife team who had their first baby!  They're strobists, so all the lighting is creative and set up, which makes for really dynamic images.  They don't have too many photos of the new edition up yet, but I am sure there will be more!

* This Flickr group, momshots, is super cute!

I am by no means baby-starved, and I don't want to have kids right off the bat, but I am excited for when that time comes!

Does anyone else feel the same way I do?  That somehow you missed out on the "wedding excitement" gene and jumped into "family" and "nesting" modes instead?!?!

I hope some of you check out the Flickr streams of the very talented mamas and papas I linked to!

Happy Thursday!

xo