Catching a little moment of solitude for myself, walking the two miles from my apartment through city streets to the beach and taking photographs while listening to the sounds of the water out on the shore of Michigan Lake.

Finding solitude, peace and being alone in the city. It’s a different animal entirely to the true solitude you can find out in the vast fields or trees of the country. There are always people somewhere in the city, even in the worst of weather or the dead of night. I do enjoy that about city living, strange as that may sound.

But it is possible to find solitude even here, to look down an alleyway as you pass and find it empty of people, to come across the odd empty house or lot, or find an empty train stop when it’s not rush hour. In Chicago during the winter, the beaches along Lake Michigan are quiet and empty save for the odd couple walking their dog along the sand. Of course, the evidence of people is always there in an urban environment, it’s almost never quiet and sometimes you just have to take a different view or sometimes squint a little to imagine that you have absolute solitude. But there is a quiet internal and even noble solitude to be found in the city, even amongst the busyness of other people.

 
We’re so excited to be able to offer you all some amazing tutorials, freebies and exclusive discounts for the duration of the photo challenge! Head on over to Kristi’s blog, Live and Love Out Loud today for a wonderful tutorial on using textures with your photographs, with a beautiful exclusive, limited edition solitude texture freebie from Life-n-Reflection!

Thanks to the following sponsors for partnering with us to bring you these fabulous deals; created exclusively for Poetic Winter Photo Challenge participants and valid throughout the month of February.

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I’m teaming up with Kristi of Live and Love Out Loud, Alicia of Project Alicia and Faith of Sweet Violet for the Poetic Winter Photography Challenge – an inspiring 4-week photo challenge aimed at capturing the poetic beauty of winter through photography.

Just a few details:

All are welcome regardless of skill level, time commitment and geographic location.

Each Friday, we’ll have freebies, discounts to some of the hottest photography resources, photography tips and inspirational quotes or poems to get your creative photography juices flowing.

Share your favorite images inspired by the weekly prompt. The linky will remain open from 9am Friday – 9am Thursday CST. Link directly to your Poetic Winter blog post or Flickr photo, not your blog’s home page or Flickr Photostream.

Feel free to share your photos in our Poetic Winter Flickr Group as well and don’t forget to visit and comment on the previous entry in the linky list.

This time around, we’ll be pinning our favorite photos to the Poetic Winter Pinterest Board. Not on Pinterest and need an invite? Let me know in the comments section and I’ll be more than happy to send you one.

And last, but not least, don’t forget to grab our lovely button.

Next week’s prompt will be warmth. For a complete list of upcoming prompts, head on over to the Winter Photo Challenge page.

Olivia came over again on Sunday, for a girls afternoon. She arrived wearing this wonderful red coat and amazing lipstick, so I couldn’t resist taking a few shots and I love how they turned out!

My Lensbaby 21 day rental from LensProToGo arrived on Monday, after hanging around in the house and pacing past the windows waiting for the UPS guy to arrive. I’ve played with it a little since it arrived but my, it’s a whole different animal. It’s going to take some getting used to! I’m hoping to use it to take some photos for the Poetic Winter Photography Challenge that begins this Friday!

I’m so excited to get the challenge going! I’m teaming up with Kristi of Live and Love Out Loud, Alicia of Project Alicia and Faith of Sweet Violet to bring you an awesome Photography Challenge this Winter. It begins this Friday (Feb 3rd) and we’re going to have inspirational prompts, tips, tutorials, freebies, and exclusive discounts to some of the hottest photography resources each week throughout the month of February! Just stop by on Friday and share your photos inspired by the weekly prompt, the first prompt will be solitude.

We’ll be pinning some our favourites to our new Poetic Winter Pinterest board, so please hop on over to follow along! You can find more information and a list of all the prompts on the Poetic Winter Photography Challenge Page.

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I thought I might share a few photographs with you, before I get too far behind on my everyday life Project 52. These are weeks 3 and 4 respectively, (the photographs for weeks 1 and 2 are buried within some of my previous posts) the first photograph being of my reading chair which sits in one corner of our dining room next to shelves sagging with the weight of all of our books. It’s the same corner where my husband keeps his guitars and where Mikey’s little box of writing materials lives. The chair was one of the first pieces of furniture we bought when we were married, we got it used with a bundle of other things from a family who no longer wanted it. It’s been cold lately, even in the apartment, but there is a radiator just behind the chair which makes it the perfect little cozy spot in the evenings. I don’t utilize it as much as I perhaps should, there’s always other things to be getting on with.

The second photograph was taken early Wednesday morning. Mikey in his mismatched pajamas: Mickey Mouse pants and a Star Wars shirt. Sleeping alongside him is Luigi, I think Mario and Yoshi must be buried somewhere under the blanket. I was wondering what photograph that I was going to take for this week’s Project 52 and, as I went into the bedroom to grab a sweater that morning after making my coffee, noticed how the light falls so beautifully in that room in the early morning and how comfortable Mikey looks in the bed, despite his somewhat bizarre position. I remember thinking that it struck me as funny, at the time, how deeply I felt that the way he was sleeping came so close to describing his personality when awake. I can’t exactly put my finger on it now as I write, but I felt it so strongly then.

Some photographs, taken a few weeks ago, of our friend Olivia (Mikey says that she’s a princess, I think he’s a little smitten). Olivia and I took a day to go out for coffee, take a few photos and do a little shopping. The portraits are mostly black and white, but I had to show a colour one too because don’t you just adore those incredible shoes? I know I do. I think we’re going to go out and shoot together some more, as soon as Chicago weather decides to stop being as completely bizarre as it has been during this past week, and I’m looking forward to going out together again.

Honestly though, last week was just one of those weeks. I barely even touched my camera, which doesn’t help a whole lot with the project 52 that I’m trying to do and is also quite unlike me. We’ve been busy with various other little things, but for the most part we’ve been either playing in the snow when it’s been there or hiding out from thunderstorms and the freezing rain. I’ve really been battling with a lack of inspiration photography-wise, I think that the long arduous task of pulling photos for the (as yet unfinished) portfolio I’m trying to put together has been taking it out of me. There are plenty of things I think I’d like to shoot but of course it would involve leaving our cozy little nest and venturing out into the uncertain weather!

The Poetic Winter Photography Challenge begins next week, on Friday February 3rd. I know at least for me it is coming just in time to pull me out of this uninspired funk that I find myself in! I’m very excited about being able to host this with such an awesome team of ladies, Kristi from Live and Love Out Loud, Faith from Sweet Violet and Alicia from Project Alicia, and I think we’re all going to have a lot of fun looking through your gorgeous photos and pinning them to our Poetic Winter Pinterest Board each week. We’re also going to be offering hints, tips and freebies along with each Friday’s link-up post during February so I hope you’ll stop by and take part, all are welcome to participate. Don’t worry if you’re not experiencing winter in your part of the world at the moment, you can still interpret the prompts in your own way. During our Shades of Autumn challenge last year we had some amazing entries from all over the world! For more and for a list of the prompts please read through our Poetic Winter information page.

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It started snowing in Chicago late last week, one entire day of snow followed by some short flurries in the days following. The first time since we’ve been living in Chicago that it’s snowed enough for Mikey to be able to throw snowballs, which was something he’s been looking forward to since the first small hint of snow in December last year. We spent an afternoon out playing in it, by the end of which we were both covered from head to toe in snow from throwing it at one another. The following day the snow was even higher, in places it came over the top of Mikey’s snow boots and was taller than the little dog that we take on walks for my neighbour during the week. In the evening I took a moment to try out some low-light photography in the snow on nearby streets, the brightness of it acting as a wonderful reflector for the deep blue evening sky and orange city lights.

The last few weeks have been filled with little spots of busyness, working on various little projects. Ordering some test prints of my photos, organizing a portfolio, editing some photographs from a little photoshoot with a friend and having my husband start back at school after the lovely long Christmas break we had.

I’ve also been working hard, along with the lovely ladies from Live and Love Out Loud, Project Alicia and Sweet Violet on a new photography challenge which was announced on Monday this week: Poetic Winter, A Photography Challenge. We would love for all of you to take part when it begins on February 3rd! You can read the announcement post here and find more details on the challenge right here. Winter can sometimes seem quite uninspiring when it’s cold and grey outside, so I’m very much looking forward to giving my creative side more of a kick start and seeing what beautiful photographs you can all come up with from the challenge prompts.

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I’m so excited to finally announce our winter photography challenge! This Winter I’m teaming up with three amazingly talented ladies, Kristi of Live and Love Out Loud, Faith of Sweet Violet and Alicia of Project Alicia for an inspiring four-week challenge during the month of February, aimed at capturing the poetic beauty of winter through the medium of photography. As previously with our successful Shades of Autumn Photo Challenge, everyone is invited and encouraged to participate regardless of skill-level, equipment or geographic location.

For more details about the challenge and to see the upcoming photo prompts for each week, please visit the Photo Challenge Page.

We have a new Poetic Winter Pinterest Board set up, where we’ll be pinning some of our favourites from each prompt throughout the duration of the challenge. We’re looking forward to seeing all of your beautiful photographs in February!

I may have mentioned on the Bumbles & Light facebook page a while back that Mikey took part in a short 3 week art class at the Lillstreet Art Center just before Christmas. The Studio is just a block or so away from us, the class was an hour and a half, once per week, Mikey was in a class with an instructor and a few other children while I sat in the coffee shop just outside. He had a blast, and when the classes for the year finished he continued asking when he would be going again. So we signed him up for classes again this month, a slightly different one this time but I hope he’ll have just as much fun. His new class begins on Wednesday and he’s been asking about it since Christmas, so we’re really excited over here at the moment!

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Tuesday was our 5th wedding anniversary. We managed to escape for a lovely while, in downtown Chicago.

It’s become tradition now, somehow, that we go out for Sushi on our anniversary. When my husband and I first met in person (after speaking online for several months), he flew from where he was deployed in Kosovo to meet me in at Heathrow Airport in London. After a few days in London we took a short adventure to Paris, where we ate sushi in a Japanese restaurant on the top floor of a Parisian department store. (He then proposed a couple of days after we returned to Paris.) I suppose, because we’ve been able to visit and live in so many different places during our 5 years of marriage, we may have eaten sushi in three or four different countries, and two different states.

After eating, we wandered around in the freezing temperatures, to watch the ice skaters in Millennium Park and to walk over Michigan Avenue Bridge before making our way back home, both of us taking turns with the camera. And when we returned home, we hid ourselves away from the icy outdoors and watched some old episodes of Cheers. Laughing at ourselves really, for being wholly satisfied and happy with such a calm, silly sort of day together.

Of course, now I have spent a lot of time on Wednesday editing the photos that we had both taken. Instead of the housework routine that I was supposed to be sinking back into as my husband headed back to school today. And chatting online about ideas for a new upcoming photo challenge, which I honestly can’t wait to share with you all! I’ll be able to soon, once we get the finer details figured out.

Is it awful of me to say that I feel somewhat relieved that 2011 is over? It was a tumultuous year for us, and although it had it’s good aspects too I am very much done. With the changing of the date I feel a little like a weight was lifted from my shoulders, I know that I don’t have to hold onto so much of what happened last year anymore. I can stop dwelling on grievances and just let it be.

We spent a low-key New Year’s Eve at home, and although the ringing in of the New Year itself at midnight was somewhat anti-climactic because of that, I still have high hopes for 2012. I have made no real resolutions for the New Year I suppose, I’ve never been much good at that sort of thing, but I spent much of the weekend sitting with my notebook scratching down lists and ideas.

I have a number of projects planned that revolve around photography in some way, both art projects and physical real-world goals as such, or at least ideas. One of these is that I’m taking part in an Everyday Life Project 52 with develop and let’s lasso the moon. I’m looking forward to seeing how this unravels, and I’m hoping to be able to put all of the photographs together in a book by the end of it, be it a handmade journal or a professionally printed book, I haven’t decided on that part yet.

One of the personal projects I’m going to be undertaking this year is a street photography project. I’ve fallen in love with Chicago’s streets since we’ve been here and have really felt the need to get out there more. This will probably end up being something I do every few weeks, when I can find the time to get away, but I’m so looking forward to it.

I’d like to get a Portfolio website completed (because I’ve been dragging my heels on that), getting a Fine Art Print Store up and running, to actually print my photos, and also concentrating on trying to convince someone to exhibit some of my work locally. I feel as though a few of these are quite lofty things to hope to achieve, but I intend to work hard to complete them.

Despite what will likely be a lot of hard work again this year, I also have the intention of keeping things realistic. Minimal rushing and trying to exclude the bad kind of busyness, spending calm and thoughtful days. To love, be present, be healthy and make do. It’s easy to say all of this now, with the year ahead in it’s entirety. Cozy and warm in our little city apartment and the soft snow on the ground outside. I suppose all I can really say is, we’ll see how it goes.

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I’m beginning to write this, and I find that I have little to no idea of what to write. This year has been such a year of rush, busyness and of transition.I wouldn’t change it for the world, but there have been those times when I’ve wished for life to just be a little easier on us. Above, is one photograph from each month of 2011.

Back in January we were still living in Heidelberg, Germany. I took some maternity photos for my friend Leslie, who has since had a beautiful baby boy. Took a trip to Frankfurt with fellow photographer Kim, to meet two other photographers living in Germany: Nelou and Laura. At this point we were still waiting for news as to what that military wanted to do with us.

In February I took some more maternity portraits for another friend, a photographer herself (now based in Austin, Texas). I managed to talk our neighbours into modelling for me so that I could have some practice at portraits. At the end of this month, we finally had our news from the Army. We were given less than three weeks for my husband to out-process from the military and for us to make an international move.

We arrived in the U.S. on March 5th and were met at the airport by my husband’s family and plenty of snow. The move was tough on Mikey, who had lived in Germany since he was 10 months old and didn’t really know any different. We moved into my husband’s parents basement and began the job of putting our lives back together and finding somewhere to live. This month, a little friend joined us in the house, a lamb who was born prematurely out in the cold and didn’t stand or eat fast enough to survive. We brought her inside and took care of her, her and Mikey became good friends.

April marked the start of Spring. We ventured to the city to look for somewhere to live several times again this month and finally found a sweet little apartment by the end of the month. We celebrated Easter and hunted for bugs. Life felt somewhat like it was on pause.

In May we moved into our new apartment in Chicago. Very happy to have a home again. We spent time exploring the local markets, streets and parks. When it started to get hot outside, we made sure to eat plenty of ice cream. I also posted the first in a short series [How to Take a Photograph].

June was my husband’s birthday, he also began school for the summer. I wrote some more for the [How to Take a Photograph] series and we went to Taste of Chicago.

July was hot. On the hottest days we managed to escape the city and head out to the suburbs to play in sprinklers and swim in pools. We were playing outside a whole lot, blowing bubbles in the courtyard of our building and drawing with sidewalk chalk.

In August we explored the city some more, visiting our local farmer’s market for some summer treats. My husband finished school for the summer, a short break where he was able to spend a lot of time with us, wandering around parts of the city both close to home or downtown. Finally in the last lazy days of August we visited Will County Fair where Mikey had his first taste of cotton candy.

September, I managed to convince one of our friends to let me take her photo. I’m sure I need to do some more portraits next year too. I had my 26th birthday, my husband started school again for the semester and Mikey and I played outside with the grass and leaves a whole lot. Autumn began to poke it’s head out here and there. At the end of the month my parents arrived to visit from England and Mikey celebrated his 4th birthday. Still hard to believe that my tiny little NICU baby is now four years old.

In October, I took some Maternity photos for my sister in-law and her husband. I also began hosting the Shades of Autumn Photo Challenge with Kristi of Live and Love Out Loud and Alicia of Project Alicia. The first colour was green, and I had a lot of fun at the Lincoln Park Zoo with Mikey and my parents taking green photos. I also attended the first annual ClickinMom’s ClickinWalk, and photographed the Occupy Chicago March. My dad and I took Mikey up on the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier, I photographed some yellow, orange and red and my parents took Mikey to get his pumpkin for Halloween before they left to return to England. At the end of October the family experienced the premature birth of Mikey’s cousin and the loss of another, her twin.

And so October ended, and November began, clouded in sadness, with a burial. Heading more firmly into Autumn and Winter now, the days were bright and cold. We completed the final colours of the Shades of Autumn Photo Challenge: purple, brown and white. I won tickets to the Chicago Children’s Theatre and we attended the Beckoning of Lovely at Millennium Park. We spent a lovely Thanksgiving with neighbours and friends.

Finally December. Time spent walking outside in the cold, wrapped in knitted scarves. Time spent inside, cozy and learning new things. The preparation for Christmas, baking cookies, fetching the tree, making decorations (with lots of glitter), watching the snow fall and finally the decorations themselves.

It’s been quite a year.

I have some goals and projects in mind for 2012, I’ll be sharing them with you next week along with some thoughts on the year ahead. I hope that you all had a very wonderful Christmas and that you have a Happy (and safe!) New Year.

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