If you were to come over to my house, you’d notice that we’ve got a massive print hanging on the wall of the above image. Maggie was only a year old and obviously our family has changed substantially since it was taken. I love that picture and everything about it. It was taken on a weekend afternoon. Both Barry and I had done workouts that morning and he’d just gotten out of the shower with wet hair. Truthfully, his eyes were windblown and red. I hadn’t showered yet and changed into the jeans and blouse quickly for the photo. I set up my camera on top of the picnic table and set the timer….we got some of my very favorite family photos yet.
Now that we’re a two-kid family, getting family photos isn’t easy. Somebody is usually not looking at the camera, fully dressed, or crying….and we get images that look like the ones above or below. I know that lots of people love the staged images of a whole family sitting in the middle of a grassy field, with outfits coordinated by Pintrest. I enjoy looking at those images, and I think they’re important, mostly because they document a version of life. (The version that says “Hey, we can get our sh*t together….). I’ve finally decided that we’re just not that family. We’re not matching and we will probably never really be camera-ready. And I’m okay with that.
Your Pug Butt is a great photo bomb.
Love,
H
The pictures that I really, really love to look at, and to take, are the real ones. No, not the pictures of Sydney’s butt or or Maggie’s boots 3 sizes too big, but more of the ones that show REAL life. Moments that are not usually documented…I’ve been daydreaming a ton these days about becoming a ‘real’ photographer and the type of images that I’d like to get. I’ve always been passionate about children, but I’m learning that I’m also passionate about motherhood, parenthood, and small moments.
I’m not entirely sure what that means, but I’m also trying to get better at passing the camera to others to make sure that I’m not invisible. And these pictures that my mom took of us at her house aren’t wonderful; in fact, we look like a mess, but I’m glad we have them. This was a start of Fake Camping 2013. But the pictures that I got from that weekend – the ones that I took when people were just living life, are by far my favorite.
I want my children to have pictures of all of us together, and I think it’s time I come to terms with the fact that we’re a hodge-podgey type of family. I would have it no other way….this is what we look like.
So, here’s to taking more family photos to document the fact that we’re together, rather than the fact that we’re matching. Because if we waited for that day….we’d have hardly a single picture. It isn’t about what we’re wearing, what the light is doing, or even if I’ve showered. It’s about documenting life, the smallest of moments, the perfectly imperfect.
