Why do YOU take pictures?

Why do you take pictures?  I really want to know (insert your answer right here?!)  Gosh I wish you could!  I wish you could say it out loud and I could hear it!  I wish I could sit down with you and meet you for coffee and have this conversation with you!  A coke would work too and don’t get me wrong there are mornings where a coke works just as well… come on, I know those mom’s are out there too holla!!!

But seriously… why do you take pictures of your family?!  Is it because you just love taking pictures?!  Is it because you have a truly awesome and amazing camera?!  Is it because everyone else is doing it?!  Those might be some of the reasons (maybe just the first two) but I highly doubt those are the real reasons.

I think it’s because there is something inside you that is just screaming please stop this moment!  Please hold on to this one second and let me have it forever!  Please let me keep them this way just a little while longer before they are so grown up and independent and don’t need me the way that they do now.  Let them be little just a while longer!

I always say that children have a unique magic in them.  A magic that is completely and uniquely theirs.  They see the world in a fantastic way that isn’t bothered by fear or self consciousness.  When they look at the world it is a wonderful place of adventure and mystery ready to be taken on feet first at full speed as soon at the sun breaks the sky!  Everything is more vibrant and every sense is appreciated with a depth that is more intense:  treats are sweeter, colors are more vivid and the smallest detail is magnified and exciting!

We were like that once!  Can you remember?

I think as adults when we have our own children we are gifted in so many ways but living life again through the eyes of our children is the sweetest experience!  It is indescribable for me and that’s saying something.  I’m never at a loss for words but living life again through my son’s eyes, it’s a joy I can’t express.

Do you ever find yourself wanting to whip out your camera and click away at those moments of magic?!  Where the pool becomes an ocean of sharks and mermaids or the backyard is a jungle to explore and your kids become the wild things?!  Do you ever listen to your child play?  Do you ever want to just go there with them… become that super hero or that fairy princess?

Why do YOU take pictures of your children?

I’ll let you in on a little secret I’ve been keeping for years… I am NOT A FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER!  I am NOT A CHILD PHOTOGRAPHER!

I am just a mom like you who captures your magic!  I am a mom who truly believes that families have magic of their own and it’s that magic where the love lives.  I say I’m not a family photographer because I don’t just meet you in a random spot and take your picture.  NO WAY JOSE!  I could never do that!  I feel deeply!  That is what makes me the mom that I am.  When I am behind my camera I feel even more and I capture the love that exists between parent and child/brother and sister.

I pick up my camera for you because it is my dream that these moments where the love so strongly can be felt leaves its legacy in a tangible way… a photograph.  A photograph can be held on to long after we are gone.  It can be seen and felt and more importantly touched again and again by your son and your daughter and their sons and their daughters and their sons and their daughters.

That love that we show in our every day moments whether it’s a big belly laugh, a tickle fight, a sweet soft hug, or a hand in hand walk will, and should and needs to be held onto!  We don’t get to stay forever!  Our loved ones don’t get to stay forever.  But as a mom I know how important it is to say hey… this one story, this one tradition we have where we make pancakes and Linc is always in his underpants with a star wars gun shoved in the side… THAT DOES get to stay forever!  That gets paused!  That goes in a yearly album with my own written word so we can visit it any time we want.  Years from now when I am 80 and Linc is  50, I will place that album on my lap and with my wrinkled and hard worked hands,  we will rock on his front porch with my grandchildren and laugh about that story!

You see… I am not a family photographer because I am a mom just like you!  I want the same things that you do which is why I see your family, I truly see your family!  I don’t just capture family portraits for you.  NO that would be a shame.

I capture your true love that binds you together.  I capture your real moments that you will want to stay AFTER you have gone.  Moments that won’t just capture your family for now, moments that will leave your imprint and your legacy for generations to come!  Moments that capture your magic!  Your very own magic that no other family has but you!

I do this for you because this is what I want for myself!

So my friends, I still want to know… why do YOU take pictures?