Being a mum and a photographer is pretty cool = you get to take awesome photographs of your children for your walls. Sounds ideal, doesn’t it? Except that for this professional photographer (and she’s not alone), reality looks more like this:
- Uses the phone 90% of the time for family photos while the good camera is packed for the next client.
- Spend a lot of time on the computer to edit weddings and just can’t add personal photos to the list.
- The only printed photos around the house have been gifted by family & friends.
- She is rarely (if ever) in the photographs with her girls.
Three years ago, I photographed this family when P. was only a few months old. This is what this mother told me about the experience (it’s long but worth the read): ⤵⤵
“As a photographer, while I do take a lot of pictures of my girls, I very rarely get my big camera out. The last thing I want after a day working on my clients’ photographs is sitting at the computer to go through personal photos. Which means I have quasi none printed.
The biggest thing, though, was being absent from my photographs, apart from a few selfies.
Hiring a photographer seemed a little strange, when I could do it all myself and when you suggested to come into our home and photograph us on a normal day, I was a little scared. Was our daily life interesting enough for the camera? Was our house tidy enough? I was also 4-months postpartum and didn’t feel at my best.
What I loved most about the session was how relaxed it was. After a little while, you just forget about the camera. Discovering the images for the first time was also a big surprise. I didn’t think I would feel this way about the images. Seeing myself in the photos wasn’t as hard as I thought, and I loved seeing our family unit from your perspective.
Two years later, we often flick through our album together with the girls. They particularly love the photographs where the 4 of us are together.
It’s time we do it again, and this time, I won’t be worried about picking a time of the day when they go mental
It’s not about capturing a polished version of ourselves, or only the happy times… I want to capture the feeling of what our life feels like at that moment in time.”
💕💕
Have a look at the slideshow to see what we did during that second session. PJs, breakfast, playing with mud in the backyard. Every day ordinary moments that make for priceless family memories to capture.
Enjoy and let me know what you think!
Summer Family Morning at Home | Family Photoshoot in Glasnevin, Dublin
And if you’d rather scroll, here you go: