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Emily contacted me to get some photographs of her with her brother Andrew before he heads to Korea. Andrew is going to be in Korea for a year and a half teaching English as a second language. How exciting is that? Here a couple photos from our session.
       Fitness Test Start/Week 3 day 1 Squat jumps – 27/32 Push ups (modified) – 22/28 Burpees – 13/15 High knees – 38/62 Switch lunges -22/32 Tuck jumps – 19/26 Straight abs– 13/22 I have been posting daily updates on my Facebook page. I thought I would post them here in one spot as well. Jan 16 Did hot yoga this am and completed day two of challenge. Day 2 routine was insane. Holy aching muscles batman.I did all 12 modified sans sand bag half way through I questioned my sanity signing up to do this but it was just 12 min some I just got through once man my hip flexors are sore! Felt good though. Will be curious if 12 minutes enough. Jan 17 Ok today’s workout was pretty tough to follow especially not having the balls or bag. Pretty upper body focused but good. I had a hard time with the jumping out to side knee elbow tuck jump one. It did wear me out though. Want to take a nap. Lol. 400 reps took me – 8:52 Did Sean’s routine in 12:43. My hip flexors were absolutely screaming from the high knees, it took everything in my might to get my knees up for the last 75. OMG. Then the half burpees I really hate those. LOL. Jan 18 Body rock day 4. Holy Hannah drying my hair this morning was not fun. My whole body is sore but it feels good! Jan 19-REST Jan 20 Day 5 this morning. Yowzers my hip flexors were screaming after the 400′s and those half burpees/rows from Sean are soooo bad and yet so good. Jan 21- REST Jan 22-REST Jan 23 Week 2 Day 1 at the gym. Kicked my butt! Not sure if it was the jump rope at the gym or that I am a dork-but skipping rope for 50 jumps proved to be a challenge- do you land on same foot each time? Then I tried double feet no landing in between-could do maybe 10-15 before tripping on rope. Yup-there were people at the gym and I felt a bit embarrassed but chose to risk feeling like a dork and kept doing the jump rope intervals anyway. Something about BodyRock makes me want to succeed at work out more than care how dorky I look. Sean makes the pushups using ball and only one leg look like a reasonable exercise but I had to do knees down on ground pushups because my arms were shaking so much. When I got to the close diamond pushups I could only do 6 of the 15. Was great workout! Feel sore but good. Jan 24 Week 2 day 2. pike pushups are insane. Thank goodness the workout was only 12 minutes. I have been feeling so flat out lethargic- not sure if it is the overcast days- not drinking enough water- or my body adjusting to these workouts or that I am getting sick. I am just getting sick of feeling this way. Ughh.I did day 2 tonight. Man those jack presses were nearly possible had a tough time with exercises tonight. I feel so sore. I know I will be better at pushups by the end of the thirty days. Hope I am pushing myself enough. Jan 25 Did week 2 day 3 today. I used the medicine ball instead of the sandbag for some- curl bar for a few others, for Sean’s lunges I used a 15 pound dumbbell instead. Used the assisted pull up machine instead of the dip station. Only problem is I can’t do the switch lunges-it’s like my body can’t register how to do them or my legs are too tired. Took me 18min 10 seconds to complete Sean’s workout. Those jump squats were torturous-I think I lost count the second time through. Great workout though. Jan 26 My neck hurt on those 5 star sit ups. Were we supposed to go to full sit up? I still have hard time counting reps when following routine. Too much for my brain to absorb at once. LOL. I did the press up and squat jump up to the step in basement-not nearly as high as a trunk. The sit back I used Trey’s little tyke table and two 5 pound weights held in front of me- didn’t jump too high but on last round really felt my neck was aching. Tap jumps-used stair- at first I felt like my ankles were going to crack in half-it hurt then I just tapped instead of jumping up onto step completely then did mountain climbs. I did count the last round and I did 7 press up burpee (felt like same as did first two rounds-lame), 24 star sit ups (first round was 17 second was 18, Sit back on chair-no clue lol-probably like 9 maybe 10, tap jumps/mountain climb- I did 10 each for 5 rounds I think. My butt hurts. Jan 27 Week 2 day 4 – I started doing workouts in the morning then it moved to afternoons/evenings. This is why I am posting on the day prior. Yesterday was pretty simple workout – 4 combo exercises 3 times through. I like the variety. Just jumped up on step-didn’t have a high trunk and don’t think I could have made it onto one if I did. The sit back/press up jumps were killer. My neck was a bit achey after the triangle abs but overall it was a great workout. I don’t think it is my imagination…I swear my body is really changing-especially my glutes. So happy about this! So glad I kept up with the routine even through those few days of feeling completely worn out. Jan 28 Can barely type my biceps are in spasm. Jan 29 – REST Jan 30 Fit test was harder than I thought. Switch lunges were easier using my arms-swinging. If that makes sense. LOL. I used my steps for the press and dips. For 21′s I did straight push ups without legs, the close grip I got barely 3-4 and the diamond ones- maybe one-they are impossible so I did reg pushups. Didn’t record amounts.
I love: that my bedroom windows face the Southeast white flannel sheets naps (though I rarely take them) What do you love about where you lay your head?
That sounds very romantic Brittany. We have blinds too, that make it darkish….but I think I need an eye mask for the nights when Terry is reading and I am trying to go to sleep. I like the kitties cramming us too. Ooh the king bed and blue walls- sounds like a heavenly bedroom you have Bella. a rumpled bed with white sheets is so pretty to me. I am not great about making my bed. My husband usually is the one to make it. Your bedroom sounds lovely. such beautiful light! I love airy bedrooms and rumpled beds! this is gorgeous. that light is amazing. i love that you captured the coziness of your bed in its unmade glory. i love how soft and cozy our bed is and the color of the blue paint in the afternoon light. i’m currently working on a bedroom makover too. I love your space. It’s white & calm & peaceful. i love that room darkening blinds can make our room pitch black when i need it, so clean, light, and airy. our bedroom is merlot with white curtains and bedding, so it’s romantic and dark and quiet. I am revisiting routine.This time I decided to look at a weekly routine…grocery shopping. Stepping back and looking at these photographs, my first reaction was…man I want to paint those cabinets…I thought I liked that shirt and that dress but now not so much…my hair looks stringy, I have bad posture…as I looked longer I started to think…I love when I remember to bring my bags to the grocery store…I am so happy we have kittens…gosh I love the sun…there I am drinking more water…I love my boots…I am so grateful we have the ability to go to the store and buy healthy good food…I started seeing so many things to be grateful for. Can I bring that gratitude into my daily routine, even into the chores I don’t enjoy? Can looking at myself from a distance help me to shift my inner dialogue? What does your daily routine look like? If you would like to join me on this exploration of Across the Room Self Portraiture please leave a link in the comments or add your picture to the Flickr group: Across the Room
 Love you too sweets! Sometimes it takes that longer look…trying to bring this pausing into my day to day life more. I love you! Wonderful way to let your feelings evolve the longer and closer you looked. thea, i love what you shared here and i adore this set of photos… kind of like watching a movie…a snipit into your day…. xoxox Thanks Brittany! It is taking me a lot of practice to be more grateful…when I do it feels so good. this is a neat idea. i need to practice being more grateful with little things too… Some of you may know that I taught high school Biology for five years. Not only do I love understanding how living things work and feel completely inspired when teaching concepts to others, but I adore working with teenagers. Teenagers are at the stage in life where venturing into new territory is unavoidable. There are those who face this opportunity with courage and determination, and witnessing their excitement for life and possibility is infectious. I am young at heart and have such a fascination with individuals coming into knowing themselves on a deeper level and stepping into who they are, making photographing teens a fully enjoyable adventure for me. Dana has been one of my favorite teens to work with. When Dana emailed me about getting photographs for a new EP she was doing with her partner Louise, I was so excited. I had recently heard a song that Dana and Louise had posted on Facebook and loved what I heard. I instantly accepted the job and we started making plans for our session in Boston. Dana and Louise had a clear vision of what they wanted. We emailed thoughts back and forth and had a SKYPE meeting to be sure we were ready for our shoot. Here are the first four photos I have edited from our session.
You can visit their Facebook Page HERE and hear their songs on Youtube HERE Dana Hom (New York, 1994) and Louise Rademakers (Antwerp, 1993) first met one another when they both started their study at the Berklee College of Music in September of 2011. Within a matter of days, Dana and Louise formed a strong friendship and discovered that they shared a passion for music and songwriting. Their first song “Again” launched the idea to release a five song EP in the spring of 2012. wow…what beautiful photos, beautiful girls…and a beautiful song. the trifecta! xo In this video I share about a struggle I am having with setting boundaries around my work and personal time while working from home and being my own boss. *Please forgive me, the top of my head is cut off in this video. I am still getting used to using my mac book for shooting video, and was so wrapped up in what I would say that I neglected to notice the cropping issue. Summary: I have struggled accepting I have done enough when it is time to stop working. As a result I have often found myself squeezing in just one more thing, ..taking up many more minutes-sometimes hours in the evenings.The past year or so, I have worked hard to set boundaries around my work hours, doing my best to wrap up work right before Trey gets home from school, even though I don’t feel I have done “enough”. In general I would say I have made great progress in setting and respecting these boundaries, yet I still find times when I fall back into this pattern and need to pull myself out of it. The past month I found myself on the computer night after night, and it just hasn’t felt good. So, the past week or so I have been working on not getting on the computer at night. I feel more balanced but also a bit more driven to get a lot done during the time I am working. I regularly hit the ground running each day, and love my work. Every once in a blue moon, I find myself needing to rest during the day, and instead of seeing it for what it is, a fear sets in that I have suddenly become lazy. The past two days I have felt wiped out and a burning need to rest. This past week I was out of town from early Wed morning until Thursday evening. Friday was unpack and repacking. Saturday I was out of the house at 6am and then Sunday I was out of the house by 7am- for a full day shoot in Boston-arriving home at 8pm. I have the time to rest, yet I can’t seem to let go of the long to-do list of projects I have in my head. .Yesterday I felt like a sloth, because I took 3 hours to lay in bed, take a nap and read with Trey, despite working from 9-noon getting a slideshow up for my clients I photographed Sunday, going to the gym, grocery shopping, making dinner, cleaning up around the house . I feel guilty because I didn’t get “enough” work done. Looking at it-rarely do I feel get “enough” done. Maybe if I learn to define what is enough, I will have the ability to feel satisfied. I woke up today still feeling exhausted, with the start of a sore throat, and an ache to rest. I am fighting rest, and it is counterproductive. I am not functioning at 100% so it makes sense that resting will help me rejuvenate. Where does this fear come from that if I rest, I won’t ever want to work again? Doing this video and writing this post has helped me see this is a bit ridiculous. I am going to force myself to take a nap, heck I may even watch an episode of Downtown Abby on demand. I know my body needs it. My to do list is just going to have to wait. I would love to hear your experience with setting work boundaries. Do you have a good gauge on what is enough? I circle too. Maya H has said many times to embrace this…it is our job as women to forage and collect berry’s so to speak-to keep our eye on the surroundings watching for danger, preparing food, gathering. I too can feel like I just don’t get as much done because of it but I think we do, I just need to give myself credit for it all You are so wise Amber. I am learning much from you. It is so true, yet my mind still has a hard time believing it! xo Thanks Kelly! It has really hit me lately-as my son just had a growth spurt that he will only be a little boy up for snuggles and playing for so long. I really do want to enjoy it! And isn’t it amazing how fast the school day goes by! I am actively working on releasing this notion. Writing about it has really helped. I am starting to feel better and back to myself after taking it easy…and you know what? Nothing spontaneously combusted from my lack of attention. Ha. xoxo fascinating. fascinating. fascinating. I feel the same thing– and it makes no sense at all. It simply defies logic– where does this kooky illusion come from? I don’t know the answer but there is comfort in knowing I have such a gorgeous cousin with the same disease . .. let’s hope we get cured and FREE of this kookiness in 2012!!! Hi Thea. Rest assured, you are not alone. What’s so funny to me is that I am in the same exact boat right now. In fact, at this moment I am researching new marketing strategies as I force myself to sit so as to not feel guilty about it. It is very easy to get wrapped up in editing and fixing your website, blog, etc. I would say to myself, ok I’ll give myself 1 hour and then get up and balance things out and take care of the laundry, etc., but before I know it, it’s 3:20 and I have to meet the bus. It’s hard to do it all, but like you said, boundaries are the answer. Don’t feel guilty about resting when you need it- sometimes that’s when the best ideas come to mind. And the kids are only kids for so long. Enjoy them. Kelly Yes, I know where you’re coming from. This is something I’ve struggled with as well, however I have little trouble listening to my body when it needs a break. I love my work and will only be of better service when I’m at full capacity and I’m typically eager to get back to it. Besides certain constitution/dosha types gain clarity and creativity with rest and relaxation. Listen. I love that you mentioned that videos are easier for you than writing a post, because half way through I started thinking… go take your nap! But now knowing that you were taking care of yourself by choosing the mode of most ease, I think you’ve already begun to set up a few boundaries. I think learning to shut down and turn off work is the challenge of this new age of technology. Thank you for opening the discussion. One of my biggest problems is trying to stay focused. Being at home for work means that there are constant distraction,s and I seem to circle from laundry, dishes, computer, etc. without fully completing anything on the first go around. I’m working on it. xx |
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© 2012, Thea Coughlin Photography --- thea@theacoughlin.com --- 518.253.8334 // Bio photo: Denise Andrade // Logo: Sarah Ahearn|ProPhoto Website by NetRivet Blogs
by Thea
Thank you Melissa!
What a fabulous session and such lovely people!