Photo Challenge #3 - Hobbies

Photo Challenge #3 this week was... favorite hobbies! I challenged my group to take photos of their favorite hobbies. This must have been a tough one or a busy week, because we didn't have as many entries as usual. I enjoyed this one, but it really made me realize I don't actually have that many hobbies LOL! My main "hobby" I would say is photography, but since it's also my job, I wanted to think outside of the box. So that left... working out, cooking, and reading. Working out feels a little more like a necessity than a hobby, as does cooking. I thought about choosing reading, but I also haven't been doing that much lately. But this past winter, AJ taught me chess and we've been playing quite a bit together, so I decided that would be perfect!

The shot I had envisioned for my entry this week

For me, its about spending quality time with my 12 year-old son, who I know my quality time is probably pretty limited with as we head into the teenage years. A lot of you have met AJ, as he's down in my studio with me quite a bit helping out. He is super smart and learned chess when he was like 6 or 7. I had never learned! I always thought it was much harder to learn for some reason! But one day after soccer, we stopped in at Oberweis (ice cream place) and they have chess boards on the tables there. He asked me to play and I said sure, and that's how our little hobby together started! (Yes, he won those first few games, haha!)

Our dining room table is where we always set up, after dinner and his little siblings have gone to bed

Now that I've had a few months to practice, I'm a little bit better and have even beat him a few games, which was pretty exciting for me. (I practice a lot on the app chess.com for those who play there and want to play with me! I'm not very good, but that's ok!)

This is the Harry Potter set and the pieces are so cool!

For this shoot, I actually had pink eye, and couldn't even play him! I could barely see, and I didn't want to spread my germs to him. So we set up a fake game and he played himself. Not exactly what I imagined when it was time to do this, but life works that way I guess! I had in mind some close ups and a shot of him playing from overhead, but I landed on this shot of him and Felix as my official entry of the week. If you've met Felix, you know that he is very social and nosy, so it is only fitting that he jumped up there and made our final shot!

My final entry for the week, with the cat peeking through.

If you haven't submitted your entry yet, you still have this weekend to do so! Go do something you enjoy FOR YOURSELF and snap a pic. We all need those things that we enjoy that we do for our own happiness. Even better if its with someone you love! :)

Bonus picture with Felix. I love how he is looking up at AJ here, waiting for his love haha