Say Cheese!

The story of a photographer

I want to capture the fleeting moments of motherhood. These are the things we mothers remember. The moments giggling under the covers while reading bedtime stories, kissing fat little sticky toes before a bath, how our babies hold a crayon with their chubby little fingers squeezing so tight...these are the things that happen so fast and are gone so quickly.

As a mother of three teenage daughters, I can attest to the fact that it goes by so incredibly fast. Believe everyone who has said those words because they are so heartbreakingly true! I am so grateful that I lived with a camera in my hand while my girls were young. Their youth has been perfectly imperfectly documented in all its wild and chaotic glory.

Motherhood photography is the thing that enlivens me and pulls at my heart strings. I watched the movie "The Family Stone" years and years ago and the final scenes of the movie just grabbed my soul and reverberated around inside my body. The short version is (spoiler alert) a beautiful photograph of the mother of the family was gifted to everyone at Christmas, not knowing that this was her last holiday. The image was timeless, just the mom sitting in a chair holding her growing pregnant belly. The movie closes with that image hanging on the wall and the reflection of her family dancing in the glass. It guts me every time I see it. That's what I want to capture; the timeless, cherished love of a woman who has created a life that will be honored and remembered by those who have loved her even after she is gone.

The following image was a self portrait that I took of myself and my youngest daughter when she was still little enough to want to be held. This is the first thing that you see when you enter my home. When my children are grown, I hope that they will remember seeing this photo every time they came home and remember the love and laughter that filled our home for all the years that I was lucky enough to have them live in it.