Capturing the truest essence of family.
It was a Christmas gift from my parents the last year before I fell pregnant with my first son, and I loved it. A little Nikon 3200 camera, nature was my primary focus then as it was what seemed easiest for me to shoot, nothing moved, within reason, and there was no screaming anti-pic kiddos. The more I shot, the more I loved it and then....Lucas made his appearance and it was all change. I wanted to take 12 million pictures of him and capture all his little eccentricities as a baby growing and fitting perfectly into our lives. I used my phone, it was difficult as a new Mum to remember to take out my camera and I started then to realise I was missing out. The true moments should include me!
I started to think about all the parents who needed and wanted to capture their family at their best and all together.
The story of us.
The images I remember from my own childhood are shots of birthday cakes, friends, the 2nd half of the amazing team who raised my sister and I our Nan, but never really many images with my own mum in the frame. I have plenty of images from her younger days as she travelled in her late teens and early 20's and growing up with her own brothers but not so many with us altogether. This makes me realise that more and more people have those same images. Like my mum, I have the same sets of images, holidays, friends, parties but I've realised that I'm very reluctant to get in the frame with my kids. I guess partly to do with the fact that the profession I am in means I'm the one who takes the pictures and partly because I feel so uncomfortable in front of the camera. The Story Of Us is never going to be complete without me in there somewhere. I don't mean as the arm thats attached to the birthday cake or the knees bouncing the baby, I mean full on, dressed to impress Mum!
We all need to make sure we have made memories sure, but we also need to make sure we are seen to be there too! Memories fade and you find your kids asking, 'were you there that day?' the proof is in the pudding....well....the shot. The shot that shows the effort you went to simply to hand over a birthday cake to a baby who had no idea what was going on, or the sheer joy and absolute love on your face as you bounce that baby up and down on your knee.
Those moments are everything, to you, to your babies and to your babies babies! Even if it is just once a year, dress up and be in the frame with start The Story Of You.
