There's no better time to have a documentary lifestyle photo session, than now. While it's a great idea to hire a photographer to capture your family with the fall colors in the background to create a portrait for your Christmas cards....it's also a great idea to hire a photographer to document the moments that won't last. The moments that make you FEEL something.
This photo is a story, and one I'm thankful to have. We moved to a new home, with a big yard. The one thing my husband was excited about, was having space to play soccer, football or catch with our son. The two of them took it one step further, and one of the things that I often find them doing, is playing catch just like this. My husband works a lot, I work on the week-ends. I don't get to witness the two of them bonding, or doing much together at all - so when I see this, it really makes me happy.
This photo encompasses childhood, joy, and the magic of super-sized bubbles.
One thing that I really wanted to do with my kids, was wake up before the sun, drive down to Lake Michigan and watch the sun rise over the horizon. We are blessed to live where we do, and I really want to teach my kids to appreciate what we have, since there are so many in the world that don't have the access to such a magnificent body of water like we do. Unfortunately, we managed to pick the foggiest & cloudiest morning possible, without so much as a streak of sunlight to see. But that didn't matter. We still sat and enjoyed the peaceful calm. The kids ran up and down the rocky shoreline. We made a memory, and the story of this photo is worth telling.
I was raised with dogs in my family all my life. I love dogs. My husband, not so much. I was pretty heartbroken when he declared we'd never have a dog. That was until our son decided that he was the dog whisperer. From the moment he could communicate, he made his love for dogs very apparent. Anyone he met, he only associated them with their dog (whose name he'd remember rather than the person). My husband realized that we'd be doing our son a disservice if we didn't get a dog. And a few years after rescuing Sammy, my husband brought home a brand new puppy. This photo represents so much love, and means more to me than any perfectly posed family portrait with our two dogs.
We went to a baseball game in our home town. It was a fun family night, but it was one of those things we do, you know? Sit and watch the game, eat your food, wait until a few innings before going and playing the carnival games (since that's all the kids REALLY want to do anyway). Like a forced memory of fun. I'm not saying it was a bad experience - the kids love it. But when we got home that night? That's when the real fun began. My daughter said she wanted to jump in the puddles. I said go ahead. The two of them changed out their shoes, and just went to town. We were SUPPOSED to come home, relax, and go to bed at a decent time. We had the fun for the evening, right? But that's not me. I don't follow the rules. I encourage exploration, out of the box fun, and getting messy. The clothes can be washed, the shoes can be cleaned. But this fun? This memory? It's absolutely priceless.
I'm going to finish this post out with a photo that I didn't take. I'm not sure who took it. But when flipping through a photo album, this image jumped out and clenched my heart. I'm fairly certain that you can look at it and see why. You can probably even FEEL why. This photograph is so full of emotion it makes me want to explode. If I put this next to a family portrait of these three people (the little girl is looking at her parents) - I would choose this photo every.single.time. Because it tells a story that I can't even put to words - more so than any posed portrait could. This young girl has since lost her father, and is about to loose her mother. I'm tearing up just writing this - the fact that she has this photograph makes my heart sing.
It's so important to document the now. To truly capture what means the most to you, and bottle it up for a day when those things just don't exist anymore. I can only hope that my son never outgrows playing catch with his dad over the deck, but one day his dad will be gone. Our dogs will be gone. My kids might be too big for bubbles and splashing in puddles (but knowing me - they'll never be too big for that). But these are stories that have been frozen in photographs for them to look back on and remember the feeling of joy and excitement they had during this slice of their life.
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For the year of 2018, I want to gift these memories to 100 families. I want to photograph the importance of today for you. My desire is to take a small slice of your day, and turn it into a story that will evoke emotion, and remind you just how important the little moments are. If you're interested in taking part of my project, please complete this form, and I'll send you the details. There is no purchase necessary.
http://www.shannonzphotography.com/100-documentary-family-sessions
