Kristen Schmid Photography

My younger son, Eli, age two, loves being wrapped in his lion towel after a bath in our Springfield, Ill., home.

The other day I had 75 minutes of quiet time in the car to think (well, first I listened to loud music, then I thought). I had been going through the year’s photos, choosing family pictures to print for grandparents. Certain images held my interest in a way they hadn’t at the time I took them. I kept returning to photos that revealed my two young sons’ independence and vulnerability. My presence as the unseen adult was implied but not part of the picture. The pictures resonate with me because they describe a kind of flow state important to childhood. That morning I read yet another devastating article about childhood sexual abuse. The innocence shown in the photographs seemed all the more special, and all the more fragile. “The Bubble” gallery

Tom Dougherty of Groveland, Ill., has a spacer where his left hip used to be. He is waiting for an infection caused by an all-metal hip to clear up so that he can get a new artificial joint.

To read the story, or see more of writer Barry Meier’s series on hip replacements: The High Cost of Failing Artificial Hips

The prints (and the dog) were both temporary visitors. The prints are headed to Milwaukee for an exhibition at Walker’s Point Center for the Arts organized by the Coalition of Photographic Arts. Juror was Catherine Edelman, director of the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago. Although Ted is wearing the same fleece jacket in both photos, they were taken several months apart in 2008 as part of my Father to Son series.

When my five-year-old son wanted to wear $2.99 broken Salvation Army Buzz Lightyear wings, a 99-cent construction hat and white cotton archival gloves on a hike, I stifled a smile, said okay, and brought my camera. But when he announced his intention to jump from the playground’s surprisingly tall climbing rock, it was time for some motherly quashing.

“Honey, I’m so sorry, but those wings won’t help you fly.” He scowled and ignored me, already knowing the truth but not wanting to hear it out loud.

As I watched him move away from me and toward the crowded playground, I silently willed the world to be kind to him. I wanted to protect his innocence even more than I wanted to protect his body. I didn’t want anyone to tell him the truth, that he was just a little boy in hand-me-downs and a plastic helmet.

Some grownups smiled, but no one laughed or said anything mean. And Sam did jump from the very high rock. On his wings in red letters it says “THIS WING PACK IS NOT A FLYING TOY.” Clearly they were wrong.

From the series “Domestic Life.”

It was well worth the drive to Iowa City to see the Realizing Educational and Career Hopes program in action. It helps students with intellectual disabilities, including Down Syndrome, reach their full potential by learning social and job skills. It also gives them the opportunity to have a college experience. There are programs like this across the country, largely as a result of parent activism. I photographed 20-year-old Kelly Nagle, who loves to help people and is especially interested in working with the elderly. That day she practiced shaking hands for a job interview, and found out that she had an internship interview at an adult day health center. Photographed for The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Two recent corporate assignments.

Bayer CropScience’s Museum of Modern Agriculture at the 2011 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Ill., on Tuesday August 30.

Sixth-grade students participate in balloon race science experiments led by Bayer CropScience employees at Lincoln Magnet School in Springfield, Ill., on August 29, 2011, as part of the “Making Science Make Sense” program.

Tim Walker, 41, photographed in Quincy, Ill., started the website movingscam.com after a moving company tried to charge him more than twice their estimate and kept his possessions hostage for six weeks in 2001. Assignment for USA Today.

Assignment for the Chronicle of Higher Education

From left, Carol Symes, Associate Professor of History, Theater and Medieval Studies; Gabriel Solis, Associate Professor of Music; Lynne Dearborn, Associate Director of the School of Architecture; Christopher M. Span, Associate Dean of Academic Programs and Associate Professor in the College of Education, photographed in front of Altgeld Hall at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The four associates took a yearlong workshop about becoming full professors.

Tomorrow raise a virtual (or real) glass of something bubbly and make meaningful artistic commentary in honor of the FRESH opening at Klompching Gallery in Brooklyn. Four photos from my “Father to Son” series were chosen for the online showcase by W.M. Hunt and Darren Ching for the gallery’s first annual photo competition for new voices in contemporary photography. Thanks to Klompching for the opportunity.

Sam likes it when Ted squirts him with the hose or throws him in the pool, but he also screams at him to stop.

Ongoing project