My Own Session & Why Photography is SO Important

Getting in front of the camera… it’s something I rarely ever get to do, let alone feel comfortable doing! I’m amazed at my clients and friends who love doing it!

Recently my girlfriend Elizabeth and I have been planning a little mommy and me session. We’ve been planning for quite some time but it’s just been so hard. Linc has been at the wonderful stage of explore explore explore (which is nice for saying not so cooperative).

Plus let me just be honest… these first few months since January have been rough for me and this adjustment period has been a weird one!

Elizabeth finally sat me down and said look girlfriend, I need some new updated work to showcase my skills right now for my new blog and upcoming website… please please just come with me this weekend and sit for like 10 minutes even! It would really help me out!

In hindsight, what I think she was really saying was “Brooke, please get out of the house, get out of your rut and I’m doing this to help you see… visually see what you have right in front of you! Help you to see who you are and who you used to be rather than this shell that you think you’ve turned into!”

At least… that’s what I gathered from our walk back to the car that night (and that’s without even seeing one single image yet).

This is why I love photography so very much. It can take you to places and reveal to you things about yourself that you need to see but refuse to believe about yourself. Things and character traits that other people see every day and just associate with you as soon as your name pops into their head but because we are our own worst critics… we just are blind to them!

I am a planner person. I realized after having a baby that I love my schedules and I sometimes rigidly stick by them! I am in a season of my life right now where I am realizing I don’t want to be this type of person and I most definitely don’t want to always be this type of mom. Schedules are important don’t get me wrong and consistency is important for little ones; but there is also a time for letting go and going with the flow!

I loved that Elizabeth helped me break into that type of mommy-hood!

On a whim, that saturday I packed Linc and Elizabeth in the car and we went for a picnic dinner date! I didn’t worry about whether he would eat his dinner (which he didn’t… my kid is weird he wont’ do kid food so no pb and j for him, he prefers thai food or something that has peanut sauce on it or hummus!) I didn’t worry about his bed time that night or his crazy allergies right now!

We just played and we played HARD! We played well into the sunset hours and in doing so, I found my way back to this person that I was when I first met my husband: playful and goofy and carefree… relaxed! I found the person I have been fighting my way to get back to for so long now!

And you know what… this new mommy attitude has continued since that session and it’s just creating even more of special bond between me and my little Linc!

So please… the next time you are wondering if you should book that photo session that does cost quite a bit of money… I do understand that! Or whether you should save it or spend it on something else… please remember MY story!

Remember how even though I capture these moments every day for people, I had an amazing AHA moment myself! Remember that when I did get these images back and looked at them on the computer, I cried because I got to see the type of relationship I have with my son and how playful it is when sometimes I feel like all I do is say NO NO NO! Remember how I when I saw these images I felt beautiful and graceful which is amazing because I am clumsy and goofy!

Just remember that I will have these memories… and remember how I feel right now for the rest of my life but the nail polish will chip… the dinner you might go to on a date night will only last a few hours and the movie will always make it to DVD.

These feelings are irreplaceable! And they will always be here for me to look back and reflect on for as long as I am living. What’s even more beautiful is that they will be here for Linc to look back and reflect on, leaving behind my legacy and also providing him with beautiful memories from his childhood!

What could be more priceless than that?!