Don't let your Christmas card run your life
For portrait photographers, the fall season is busy season. Much like tax season for accountants (like my husband). Families want updated photos to send out with their Christmas cards. And the fall color outside is just magnificent.
But for documentary photographers like me, who photograph daily life, it doesn’t make sense to photograph most of my families in the fall. Yes, it’s beautiful outside, but I’m not looking for a pretty backdrop. I’m looking for connections, relationships, chaos, stillness, traditions, and real authentic life happening.
Life happens throughout the year. Every day, week and month, you are moving and grooving with your family.
Every new season brings change in your family dynamics and in your child’s face.
And not to be grim but you never know how long you have with your loved ones. You never know when something will change and never be the same again.
You CAN’T afford to wait until October.
We tend to notice firsts, the first step, the first hug, the first bike ride without training wheels, the first date.
But we don’t always realize when it’s the lasts. The last time they slept with their lovey, the last time they needed to get on their tippy toes to reach the counter, the last time they asked you to do their hair, the last time you pushed them on the swing.
Time slips away. But thankfully photography stops time. It makes that moment last. It lets you hold that photograph in your hands and examine every detail as the memories and stories come flooding back.
Christmas cards are great to have updated photos for. They are great to receive. Some people save all the cards they get during the holidays. Some throw them away as they pack up their decorations.
They don’t last. And they are not as meaningful to everyone else as they are to you.
They shouldn’t be the main reason you decide to hire someone to photograph your family this year.
