Welcome to my first blog carousel post! What’s a blog carousel you ask? Let me explain. How it works is this…you are given a “theme”, everyone in the blog carousel posts an image of their interpretation of that theme, and then links to the next person so readers are able to click through the carousel and read all the posts.  A group of pro photographers that I’m friends with have already been doing this for the past few months, and I decided to hop on board as well.  :) Themes from the previous month were reflection, monochrome, and framed, and this month’s theme is LAUGHTER.  Enjoy!

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When I heard the theme was going to be laughter, one image immediately came to mind.  It’s actually an image I took 2 years ago of my two oldest girls.  I had just gotten a new lens and bribed them into going out for a quick session with me so I could play with my new lens.  I had absolutely no other expectations except to get comfortable using the lens, but the moment I snapped this image, I knew it would be an instant favorite!   To me it speaks so much about the very essence of sisterhood.  While they may have their disagreements…they cry, they laugh, most importantly, they love…my girls are the best of friends, and I hope they will never forget that.  I love everything about this image…the flyaway hairs, wrinkled noses, missing teeth, and belly laughs.  I don’t even care that my younger daughter is slightly out of focus.  When I see this image, I can hear my girls laughing.  And maybe most importantly, it reminds me that some of the best photos are not ones where everyone is smiling perfectly at the camera, but rather where the subjects are showing emotion, and upon seeing them immediately take you back to the place and time the image was created.

My girls have a 24×36 canvas of this image in their room, and it makes me smile every time I look at it.

“A smile starts on the lips, a grin spreads to the eyes, a chuckle comes from the belly…but a good laugh bursts forth from the soul, overflows, and bubbles all around.”
–Carolyn Birmingham

To continue on the carousel head on over to the blog of Michigan child and baby photographer Dena Robles.

If you would like to view the carousels from the past months you can start HERE and HERE and HERE — just keep clicking through the links at the bottom of each post.