I loved documenting this family for their little guy's first birthday. Lifestyle sessions are my favorite way to document a first birthday. Seeing them taking a bath in the sink, reaching out for you in their crib, crawling away, these are all such fleeting moments. Everyone says how time goes so fast and while you are in the thick of it, you don't get to cherish these moments and realize how much you will miss them. Soon they will no longer fit in the sink, they will climb out of their cribs, and they will be running.
What is a lifestyle session?
You may have seen or heard me refer to a lifestyle session or lifestyle photography and be left wondering what the heck I am talking about. Well lifestyle photography is all about capturing the here and now. These sessions are different than your typical portrait sessions. These sessions are about emotion, connection and honesty. For me, my favorite photographs are not those of my family perfectly posed, but of my daughter trying on her "high heels" with her baby in her arms. My children will only be little once, they won't always want to play with legos, or draw Star Wars characters. One day I will look at my husband and say "remember when.." I want those memories captured, which is why I created my lifestyle sessions. I want to come into your home and document your family and what makes you unique. I want to tell YOUR story. Remember how he used to reach his arms up out of the crib? Remember how she used to love to play dress up? Remember how he smiled on the swing?
The Russo Family
I met Christine over ten years ago when I first started teaching in a new school and we were both teaching fourth grade together. I wish I could say we were instant friends, but that wasn't the case. Unfortunately for both of us what formed our friendship was the struggle of infertility and miscarriage. So you can imagine that being able to capture the love and bond between her and her boys is extremely special and sentimental to me. You never want to welcome someone into that club, you feel their pain and much as you feel your own. I am lucky that my miscarriage brought such amazing women into my life that are still such a huge part of my heart.
The Patten Family
A year ago we first met the Pattens. They had just moved into town and were looking to introduce their son to other kids who would also be in first grade. Our boys were in the same class and became the best of friends, and our little girls bonded over their love of Elsa. This family has become like a lifeline for me and my family, we are beyond lucky they moved into our neighborhood!
Wildflowers Workshop
While I was at Click Away (a photography conference) last year there was a keynote speaker, Joy Prouty, who gave a talk titled “Dream Big”. I didn’t realize that this would impact my life as much as it did, but I am so thankful that it did. During that heartfelt talk she asked “when was the last time you wanted to do a handstand in the setting sun for no other reason than your heart can’t stand still?” I wrote down those words, and I questioned, when was the last time I felt that way, and I can honestly say it has been WAY too long.
I am a passionate human being, I feel things deeply and greatly, and I hadn’t been feeling complete joy with my photography in a long time; not because I didn’t want to, or because I was in a depression, but because things were getting in the way. I was worried about what people were doing on facebook, did they “like” my picture, did I lose a facebook “fan”, is that photographer better than me? We have grown into a society that relies on social media for more than just communication but it has seeped into our self importance and our esteem. I wish I could say that I changed that day but habits are hard to break, and I went home with a new outlook from Click Away and vowed I would change and become more authentic in my photography. I went home and made some small changes and thought I had it all figured out. HA! Silly me!
Inside I continued to have this nagging feeling that something just wasn’t the way it was supposed to be with my photography. Maybe if I only had a new lens, or another camera body, or different photoshop actions I would feel better about it. I just knew something wasn’t right.
In January I took a break to have surgery and thought that the break would allow me to return with fresh eyes and a new outlook. It didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I was glad to get back to photography but I just felt like it was still missing something and I couldn’t figure out what it was and that was beyond frustrating. In March I saw that Joy Prouty, the same one who inspired me so much six months prior, would be in NY giving a photography workshop. I debated about going, stupid I know. I signed up.
This workshop was last week. I came home different. Joy shared her knowledge of lighting and camera settings, and editing and that was great and valuable, but what I really needed and what she gave me was my soul. You see the thing that had been missing from my photography was ME. It was missing me being authentic and trusting myself enough to capture my clients as they are. It was missing me giving them my truth so they coud in turn let me view and capture theirs.
I am so looking forward to changing my art. I hope you join me on my journey.
