Thanks to the reminders pinging off of my phone every day, I’m more acutely aware than ever how frighteningly fast my son is growing up before my eyes. This week, he’s learned to take after me in yelling at the cat (“Ar-THUR!”) and comes in for snuggles with a vengeance and as gone as soon as he arrived.
I’m also reaching a place of creative growth in which I’m exhausted by the thought of giving anything other than exactly who I am to what I’m creating. It’s a beast, selling the thing you hold so closely to your heart. There are lots of people out there doing this, and doing it well. It doesn’t help that Instagram’s algorithm is increasingly punishing to creatives, and before I go on complaining let me say this. I love creating beautiful images. I love creating beautiful images that carry deep meaning for others. I love creating beautiful images that carry deep meaning for others and being seen for it. I won’t lie and say that last part isn’t important, because it is.
In this current state of creative growth and awareness, I’m honored by the people who choose me to carry their memories on into the permanent state of a photograph. Someone I was talking to recently said that the photos of the memories soon become the memories. The way they’re captured shapes the way they’re remembered. I was stunned at her ability to put into words what I wasn’t able to, and then enamored and in-love-all-over with photography. It’s important in the moments you’re wondering what the heck all of this work is for that you can come back to something like that and get completely punched in the gut with truth and meaning.
All of this to say, I’m feeling so, so, so soft and sweet about capturing families right now. In having my own, I see what a precious and challenging and completely worthy thing it is to bring a child into the world and shape its memories and experiences and really to just create a reality for a tiny vulnerable being. It’s a ton of pressure, and it’s more rewarding than anything I’ve ever done in my life.
Doing this in-home session with the Newells in Portland brought me to that place of gratitude. Doing photo sessions in a park is fine, but gosh, being in the space where you actually create your history is better than anything. It really doesn’t matter if your decorating is good or garbage. It doesn’t matter if it’s a rental or if you own it. It’s part of the story, another family member worth including. I loved every second of this family session and I hope you do too.
