So I took last week off from blogging…I figured since it was my birthday on Friday and Mother’s Day on Sunday, that it would be okay if I skipped out on work and had a drink in a hammock instead, so that’s exactly what I did.

I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day. I hope your precious kids served you breakfast in bed and then left you alone to eat it. I hope you got to drink your coffee while it was still warm and I hope you even got to go to the bathroom without small hands reaching underneath the door. (It’s the small things, right?) 

If you’ve been following along with my blog this year, you’ll notice a theme. I love to photograph my family and I want you to love it too. I want to encourage you and edge you toward your camera whenever I can. 

My love of photos started on my grandma’s lap, thumbing through old photo albums and listening to the stories of people I never knew. I used to run to check the shelf by her fireplace to see if there were any new envelopes of photos to look through.

My grandma always had a camera on her, after all….at birthday parties, family reunions, and walks at the lake. Those 35 mm point and shoots, so well used, were wrapped in strips of black electrical tape to hold them together, but she never hesitated to let me use them. I can’t imagine how much film I wasted.

When I was older, I’d sit at the kitchen bar and help her scribble the names of people in each photo on the back. She understood the importance of documenting your life, of collecting the small moments along with the big, and tucking them away for future generations. 

If you’ve been putting off learning how to use your camera, I say it’s time. You’re the one there, after all. You’re the one witnessing those tiny in between moments that can’t be replicated…those bubble baths and belly laughs and even tears. You’re the one there on the big days too… birthdays and the new cars and the graduations. 

Yes, you will hire a photographer to take those yearly family photos. You’ll frame them and hang them above the sofa. But 10, 20 years from now, the pictures you love the most, the ones that make you wish for time to slow down, will probably be the ones you took yourself, ones that were taken on regular, not-so-special days when you grabbed your camera and framed up your family. 

So if you find yourself stuck at home right now, day in and day out with the same people, grab your camera and see what moments you can find. Which ones will make you chuckle a few years from now? Which ones will you find yourself returning to over and over again? 

If you own a DSLR (digital) camera, I say get it out and start to learn it.  Who knows? Maybe you’ll be balancing a grandchild on your own knee one day, telling them the story of these days, the ones you froze in time the moment you snapped the picture. 

If you want some help getting to know that camera of yours, click here for a FREE Starter Kit that I’ve put together for you. 

Until Next Time,