So you know those time hops on facebook, where you see something a year ago? I’m going to blog today in a similar vein. This photo was a year ago today:

Do you ever feel so frazzled from parenting or chronic sleep deprivation that you really can’t see the beautiful moment in front of you?

A year ago I was honestly in a little bit of a photography slump. When I first started taking photos of my family, ten years ago, I carried my camera (yes, my huge ol’ Canon Rebel DSLR) EVERYWHERE – took photos of Every. Single. Moment. Was so in love with both my family and a new found artistic passion, that I really almost never left home without my camera. Fast forward ten years, and here is the morning my oldest was 11 and graduating from 5th grade.

Any mom, but especially moms of four or more kids, will tell you that mornings are hectic.  End of the year hectic can be even worse.  Everyone is tired of the routines and ready to be done with them.  Draggy kids who complain about toast being over toasted?  Missing shoes.  Spilled cereal.  Bed head that won’t comb straight?  So it was one of those mornings only it was also fifth grade graduation which meant prepping the house for grandparents coming over, getting teacher gifts ready, and dealing with a kid who was bugging me about the outfit he had dragged me through twenty shops in the mall to get.  He was pacing now, wanting to get ready, and I was trying to find matching socks for my daughter.  “Only dad can help you tie your tie,”  I told him, relieved that I could pass on a task I couldn’t help with.

“Em, I think you should take a photo of this,” my husband called from the bathroom.

Insert major eyeroll and a sigh as I looked ten places for my camera.   Found it.  Then walked into the bathroom to this moment that is now etched forever, both in my heart memory and also in digital preservation. A photograph.

My husband was right.

This was a moment, that I will never forget, and I am so so so happy to have recorded. A special day – graduation – his carefully selected outfit (omg my 5th grader likes mall shopping and actually *wants* to wear a tie – I remember thinking as he dragged me and his siblings through the mall). Dad showing him how to tie a tie. To the right of the bathroom mirror, a painting he had made in a first grade art class.

I totally melt every time I look at this photo and think of this moment. My baby, now graduating from 5th grade and at the brink of adolescence and all that comes with that.

Why do I take photos? Why lifestyle documentary, and not posed? I take them because I know that every moment is a moment to freeze frame. To hold and remember. Whether it is an everyday photo or a special day photo – I promise to look for these moments, and I will genuinely thrill when I can give them to you.  So whether you are interested in preserving your everyday life, or if you have a moment you suspect will be super special – please give me a call!

Some more recent Everyday Beautiful shots of Dad and my oldest this year.

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