We had just come home, with my mother complaining about being exhausted and her feet hurting. With this shot, I found it important to start with this action of her putting her jacket away to be a great start to what her day is like as soon as she comes home. I also wanted to play around with tone and the contrasting colors of a bright light in the background verses the dark colors is our main subject thats is centered in the frame.

As we started to prepare dinner, I found this lonesome Kale sitting out to dry all the way from this morning. I felt this was very telling with how much we are constantly running around and getting to that exhaustion point that we couldn't take a moment to even put this Kale back in the fridge. I wanted to play around with keeping the foreground blurred so that we can focus on the Kale. I also felt that the shot worked well as I feel that the vanishing point leads the viewers eye towards that Kale as well.

Before we cook, we must get rid of the dishes first. I was actually surprised to find that there was not much in here, as on a typical day it is absolutely packed and would have furthered the story about how things tend to get ignored. Again, I personally like that the foreground is blurred so that we can focus on the dishes, and that the contrast between the grey sink and white plates really allows the plates to pop out.

After the dishes, my mom is even more exhausted and must "rest" before actually cooking. Within this moment, I had already helped prepare what to eat and sat to talk with her and make her laugh. Now, I know in the rule of thirds that we shouldn't cut the top of the head off, but I really wanted to focus on her facial expression. I had a very hard time trying to capture her expressions all night and this was the only one I was able to capture that seemed light and genuine. The lighting on her face also helps elevate her expression.

This is the moment I dread the most and wish that my mother would try to pick up hobbies rather than spending her time on facebook. I really wanted to focus on her feet but honestly I was not able to figure how to blur the background as well. I wanted to capture her feet to show that this is what she really believes is relaxing and a moment to wind down.

After resting, we get up to cook something very simple but very delicious. Now, here the mushrooms had already caught my eye and I thought that they looked beautiful up against the green cutting board. This reminded me of art, vibrant colors and rhythm as there is somewhat of a pattern with the mushrooms. I also had a difficult time trying to get a sharper image, but this was the best that I could produce.

Here she is salting the mushrooms to get ready to go in to the oven. This moves the story along to show how little time we try to spend on cooking. Again, the background is blurred to keep focus on her and her cooking.

Looking back at this photo set, this is not my favorite pick but it does move the story along. I originally wanted to work with focus again, which I thought I had accomplished until uploading. I can see the issues in the framing and placement of my subject. To give myself some credit, I do not have much room as we live in a pretty small apartment. I did want to include this in the photoset, though, because it does show the clutter and craziness that we constantly keep on racking up.

Here is a close up of the steak with the spacing more towards the left side of the frame. Having the black from the inside of the pan is a tonal/color separation against the meat itself allowing it to be the star of this frame.

Here is the end to the story. Here I tried to play around with the perspective as I did move around to a different angle and disliked it. I feel like the shape of the table closer to her allows us to look at her and the two plates as we follow the table with our eyes. There is also tonal/color separation when it comes to her shirt versus the white wall.