your life,
as art.
I get a lot of inquiries for extended family sessions. And while this is wonderful – I’m so glad so many people are wanting to be captured with their entire family – it also feels like families don’t feel justified in investing with photos *unless* their whole family is involved. And that is a disservice.
Because we want to make sure we get all the groupings that everyone wishes, extended family sessions are very pose-focused. Everyone looking at the camera and smiling. I try to get those little in-between moments, but the priority is definitely all the groupings.
What we should be chasing are interactions.
We *know* what we all look like. It’s definitely nice to make sure we get those one or two posed photos, to mark how big each kiddo was or how their features change over time, but the real valuable moments are the ones that show who we are on the inside. And how we love those outside of us.
A mom showing a little one how to blow on a dandelion to make a wish. A dad hunting for wild strawberries with his daughter. The look in your child’s eyes when they gaze at you – so full of trust and love. To see these interactions through someone else’s eyes – that is priceless.
The moments that show, not what your child looks like at a stage, but what their personality is. How they laugh at a particular joke, or frown if they’re concentrating, or have to explore literally *everything* they see.
those are the
stories
that will make them laugh when they are older. The things they will tell their own children, years later.
“Did you know that when I was little, I was obsessed with toy trucks and always had one with me?”
“Did you know that my grandpa taught me all about trees, and I loved exploring the woods with him.”
Things they may not remember, but the pictures will show them, and the stories will carry on.
Photos like these remind us that, while life is messy and doesn’t always feel beautiful, at the very heart of things it is unbelievably, heart-wrenchingly, achingly beautiful.
Your life.
Your life as it is *right now.*
It is so beautiful, that art can be made from it. Art that will carry you back to the feeling of your child’s hand in yours, their weight on your hip as you carried them, their joy as they discovered the world and their place in it.
Isn’t that incredible?? It’s like a superpower.
You deserve art like this. Extended family sessions are wonderful and hold their own value – but remember that you are valuable on your own, too.
The years go faster than you can believe – I can attest to this, I blinked and my children went from toddlers to teenagers. And as cheesy as it sounds, you *will* look back at these years and see how wonderful they were.
My goal is to help you see that *now*, in the present moment, and soak up every bit of joy that you can.
