Its been a while, but I absolutely loved THIS ARTICLE by Jessica. I keep it bookmarked and read it ever so often because I love the points that she makes. Its a great reminder to make the effort to be in our pictures.
Where are you most of the time? Behind the camera or in front? I’m fairly certain that for every 1000 personal pictures I take there is one of me. I’m trying to change that. Even though I have the common insecurities about myself, I don’t want my children to not have any evidence that I was a part of their lives. I want them to be able to “see” that I loved them through the images we take together. In the end, it doesn’t matter if I felt like I still needed to loose that extra 15 lbs before I jump in front of any camera. What matters is our relationships with one another. And the truth of the matter, is that no one cares what I look like as much as I do. All my kids or family will see is “mom”. Just they way she was, and just the way they knew and loved her.
I follow her tip of handing the camera to someone else. My dear sweet patient husband is awesome. I’ve given him the “2 minutes to manual shooting” lesson, and usually hand him the camera with a tall list of compositional instructions. He usually does a great job and I’m grateful for his patience. Now, our current problem is getting all three of us in a picture. That one is going to take a bit more effort…(like Jessica’s last tip of hiring a professional 🙂
Here’s a little Red White and Blue “4th of July” fun we had. Holidays, traditions, celebrations, recreation… all great reasons to make sure you get in some of the pictures. Be certain to not just document everyone else, but find ways to be a part of the memories yourself.
Brooke Snow is a Lifestyle photographer in Cache Valley, Utah. She recently learned how to yodel so she could perform upbeat polka songs in the kitchen for the baby boy she is smitten with. Her delightful husband sings bass and does a great oom pah line to accompany the yodel chorus. She wrote an opera once, and dabbles in cowboy poetry.
Brooke teaches private photography lessons as well as monthly photography classes in Logan, Utah.
What a cute shot! You are right, the photographer -who is many times the Mom- needs to be in the pictures a lot more than they usually are. I look at pictures of those I love, like my father, or grandfather, and have fond memories of the person. But, when that same picture has me in it and our relationship is shown it takes my feelings of fondness to a whole new level. I mention my father and grandfather because they were the photographers in my childhood, my father with his instamatic that he used slide film in so we could have all our family memories on a little square that was less expensive to develop but that would need special equipment to view, and my grandfather who stood under the cloth cover of his big camera mounted on a tripod. Because both were the photographers I have only a few pictures of my whole childhood that includes either of them.
I never ever get in the photos. I think mostly because when I see them its always a very unflattering one…and I mean like mid conversation mouth full kind of ones on a bad angle with terrible lighting. We haven’t had a family photo since Isaiah was four weeks old. I need to do this way more but I don’t know how to get into photos AND like them even just a little bit too.
I’ve had to lower my standards just a bit to like the pictures 🙂 We’re always most critical of ourselves…other people don’t see what we see. In fact, usually people see something much better than what we see! I’ve liked my pictures more ever since I started telling Ben exactly what I wanted to see in the picture, and having him compose it that way. (Which usually means he crops out my large bottom half! ha ha! ) That way I still feel better about myself and I get in the picture… though I’ll probably regret all the missing full bodies shots someday! 🙂 Like say, when I lose that 20 lbs and would love a “before” picture! 😉
I have a tripod you can borrow. Just let me know.