Have you ever stopped to think about your story? When you’re 85 and your great grand children are looking through your photos what will they learn about your life? Will they see you happy, smiling, traveling, loving and living? If someone were to browse your photos folder on your computer right now, would they be able to quickly identify the most important people and places in your life? I think a lot of folks (myself included) are guilty of capturing the major milestones in our lives but overlooking the time in between. For example, I regularly get hired to shoot weddings and newborns, but what happens between those dates? You get married and then 3 years later you have a baby, but in your photo library it looks like they were 2 days apart. There’s so much life that happens in between milestones that it’s critical to capture every moment to tell your whole story.
Last year I became a little obsessed this this concept, and I forced my parents to let me do a photo session with them. They reluctantly agreed, and two months later my Mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. While she’s survived the treatments and gotten a clean report from the doctors, I’m so glad that we have those photos of them because she’ll never be the same woman she was in April of 2011. When we went on vacation last year I hired the fabulous Anna Kim to take our photos because traveling (and Maui in particular) holds a very special place in our hearts and I didn’t want to miss out on capturing those moments forever.
I don’t want to minimize the importance of capturing big moments, but I’ll be totally honest with you, my favorite photos are of us in Maui or at home with the dogs, not from our wedding day. And it’s not because our wedding day wasn’t fantastic! I wouldn’t change a single minute of it! It’s just because the moments in-between are so much more real and paint a better picture of our story. I challenge you to think about this as you celebrate your anniversary, birthday or a week at the beach this year. Hold on to those moments just like you do your wedding day. I promise they’ll be just as important to your great-grand children. And speaking specifically to couples – take photos of yourselves every chance you get – on your 3rd anniversary or your 18th. Every year together is special, and even after the kids are born it’s still important to capture your relationship because that’s where it all began.
Here are a few of my favorite in-between moments from 2011. I’m so happy to have these memories, it just reminds me once again that 2011 was an amazing year!
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Photo credit Anna Kim Photography.jpg)
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