Are you waiting?
“I love my family, but…” You know you’ve said it. I’ve said it.
That was just the crazy-busy talking.
We are families who want these things we think we’re not allowed to have
unless we’re on vacation, or at someone’s wedding.
We want getaways and relaxing adventures—without actually leaving town.
We want to feel close and all loved up.
We want to collect more inside jokes—stories we can tell forever about that one time.
So we wait. We wait for someday. We wait for less complicated. We wait and we wait.
And we wait.
All these things we’ve been waiting for? We can have them now.
How does Thursday sound?
My clients tend to put things off forever and
then make sudden, dramatic, sweeping declarations.
The decision to work with me is often one of them.
I recognize this because it’s how I make important decisions, too.
And it’s how I transitioned from exclusively photographing weddings to exclusively photographing families.
It all started on the first day of school in 2006.
Summer was over and I’d missed it. Weddings had me booked solid all summer long.
I realized I’d spent four years celebrating the beginnings of families, while a nanny watched my own family. I was lucky to have had this choice, but I also knew it wasn’t how I wanted to spend the next four years.
In 2008, I made a sudden, sweeping, dramatic declaration. I’m shutting this down and taking a sabbatical!
I’d never done anything like this before. I imagined I’d come out of it with some major coolness. Insights about life, the universe, myself.
The last time I was at a crossroads, I had to choose between family therapy or photography. I’m so glad I chose photography, but a part of me always wondered whether someday I might reconsider.
As it turned out, the life-changing insight wasn’t what I expected. I didn’t need a different career, a different life.
Everything I ever wanted was right here. It always had been.
I realized my own path was not uncommon. You get married, and real life carries you away. You’re so busy you don’t always see how much beauty is all around you.
I decided I wanted to celebrate families, in real life. In the middle of it all.
I left Utah a wedding photographer, and reemerged 18 months later as a family photographer in North Carolina. [And adventures elsewhere by request.]
And now…
I believe real life is the most special occasion there is.
Hair rumpled, messy smiles, luminous true, the way you are right now is gorgeous.
I believe in making up holidays for ordinary things.
Because the most seemingly ordinary day is a special occasion.
I believe when you put aside the occasional arm punch, your kids really do love each other.
Sometimes it helps if they can see it, too.
I believe familyness really should get more press.
On the walls, in storybooks, all over your house.
Let’s see how much love we can fit into real life.
wish you could ask someone what their session was like? answers are here.
