30 Days and Counting

in General by admin — February 21, 2010 at 13:20 | 0 comments

Something I’m going to try for the next 30 days is to post daily at Susan B. Photography. For my long time clients, I should have warned them while they were sipping their coffee before I posted that sentence that they might be snorting a little bit now… “30 days?? With what time do you have?”. I know. I wonder where I will find it too! But it’s a challenge that some of us photographers have put out to each other and I’m game. Watch for vendor posts, idea posts, yes – more photo posts, contests, and much much more… and since I said 30 days, that means you get to go to Las Vegas with me! Ok, not physically go to Vegas, but that means I’ll be posting pictures from the trip there.

What? You really didn’t expect me NOT to take pictures on my vacation did you? If anything, I have the week planned with nothing BUT pictures being taken during the week, with my darling 16 year old daughter Jennifer in tow.

So – speaking of family and this is where I wanted today’s post to go – Family.

Why do I take pictures and what is my focus? I thought it was on High School Seniors, but I find that more of my session revolve around family, and that’s ok, I still take Senior pictures and I’m breaking into the wedding venues, but families are my focus. Why? Because I capture that one moment that will never be caught again. Never. That one event, that one time when you are either at your skinniest, your youngest age, your imperfects, your best moment, your milestone – I capture and it’s there forever. Then in a second, life moves on and it’s gone.

This is my mission:

The opportunity to capture your families memory is a PRIVILEGE, I as your photographer, don’t take this privilege lightly, I treat each session like it could NEVER be captured again because it CAN’T!
Long after our work here is done, someone will gaze into our images and see a reflection
of their LIFE, their HISTORY, and of loved ones long gone.
In each portrait we as photographers create; there is a STORY, a MOMENT stopped, captured and documented in the press of a shutter
although only a single moment in time, within the IMAGE there is a lifetime of
LOVE,      HOPE,    and JOY

This comes to mind an event that happened recently to a friend of mine. A couple I knew, who have 2 grown children, were in there 50′s. The husband had just recovered from skin cancer and everyone was rejoicing that he was cancer free. The wife shortly came down sick with pneumonia and within days she was in the hospital, slipped into a coma and died a few short days later. It was found out later she had been in contact with the H1N1 virus. Everyone in their circle were surprised of the events and sad in the turn of how quickly she left them.

What was discovered – is that the family had very little pictures of mom. She wanted to wait till she looked better weight wise and didn’t want her photo taken. Now think on that for a second. How many times have you said that? I know I have a dozen times plus hundred more!

A few months have past and the husband came to me the other day and asked me would I take a few photos of him for the kids. The grown children realized shortly later that there are very few pictures of dad and they asked him to get some photos taken. I happily said yes, and came over to his office, snapped a few of him working behind his desk, but told him I would like to wait till Spring for nicer photos. He said he didn’t want a fuse over the ordeal, and I said I understood where he was coming from, but I also saw it as a child of an aging parent where his kids were coming from.

What I’m getting at is – take pictures! Take pictures at school events, family events, work and daily life – but take pictures! Sure the teens are wearing braces, and possibly have some acne… but years from now, when they have the dazzling smile and gorgeous skin, they will laugh at it, and maybe groan a bit! (yes teens reading this – you. will. laugh!) Long after Grandma and Grandpa have passed on, you will smile when you see a picture of them when they were really still ‘kicking it’. The last thing you want is to find a picture of dad when he had a mustache and you know he had removed that thing because mom said so over 20 years ago!

They are only young once. Capture them on film, digital, video as much as possible. Because next thing you know, they are asking for the keys to the car, and off in different directions and you have to look UP into the baby brown eyes and say “did you shave today?” (reference towards to my baby boy who turned 15 today)

And I as your photographer – will capture all I can of that moment. The moment where you say “that’s her alright, just like her father / mother / brother / grandmother / etc.” That look, that pose, that thing that makes you laugh out loud when they do that funny thing they do… I’ll capture it all.

That’s what I love about photography. You make me smile, when I make you smile. I laugh out loud at those moments too when you all laughed so hard. The corny jokes, the goofy faces, the crazy poses – I love them all. Because in the end, I feel I’m more then your photographer, I’m the family member you like and let me in to take some family pictures. We are family.

Happy Picture Taking!