Witnessing the evolution of families is something that I have had the privilege of enjoying. Usually, you just see the wedding imagery side of my photography business and I love to share that with you, but I wanted to take a step back, shift gears for the night, and share with you something that is truly special to me – family. And today I was lucky enough to document a beautiful family.
In photography packages for my clients I sneak in magnets, with the famous and often used quote from Dr Suess; “Sometimes you don’t know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory.” I use this, because I think that it is inherently true and is the ideal description of what I do – capture the moments in our lives that are incredibly special, and enable them to remain as vivid memories. That is the value of photography.
The memories that I have captured with my clients start with their engagement photography, move into their wedding photography, and then I am blessed to celebrate these clients growing their families in maternity and newborn photography. Or sometimes, we start with family photography and add to their albums with wedding portraits – daughters make the best flower girls!
These days, I’m incredibly busy with weddings and their associated travel, so I have had to cut back the amount of newborn and family photography to ensure that I get my own downtime, and most importantly, time with my family.
I am so so lucky to have beautiful nieces Lacey and Chelsea in my life, and am even more thankful for them knowing that a family like that might not be in my future. There are a lot of people that have difficulties growing their families, and my heart breaks in sympathy for the pain and devastation they go through. So when I am asked to photograph families in their beginnings I truly recognise and rejoice in the miracle that it is.
However, these little miracles don’t run on a schedule, and with my wedding photography taking me all over the state (I’ve still got my fingers crossed for an overseas wedding!) I am finding that I can’t commit to many new clients for their newborn photography – it is guaranteed that I will be in the wrong place at the wrong time to capture these cuties, and with my style of photography it is best to meet the babies in the first 2 weeks of life. I’m sad that I have had to photograph less of these miracles, and all the fun that it involves, but I am glad that there are a few times where all of the planets align and I get to go back and visit clients who I have been friends with since their wedding photography or the beginning of my business, meet their new additions, or update the family photos.
The experiences I have had in photographing families, meeting newborns, learning miracle stories of children, being the recorder of a passage of time or a special person since passed has taught me important things – like making time for family and friends and arranging priorities to suit what is best for you – not just your business. A VERY tough lesson in a small business! But the biggest thing this has taught me is to find something that you appreciate in every day. Practice gratitude and the very fact that you make the effort to find something to be thankful really will change your perspective on life.
What am I thankful for everyday? My family: Family is forever, its like branches of a tree growing in different directions yet your roots remain as one. You can travel the world in search of what you need only to return home to find it….