The number one, most frequent and wistful question I get from happy clients is this: “Do you just take a million fabulous photos of your own kids, all. the. time?” To which I must answer a sad, shameful, “No, not really.” We’ve all heard the saying “The cobbler’s children have no shoes.” Well, unfortunately, oftentimes, “The photographer’s children have no photos.” 
Now, of course, I DO take photos of my kids. Just not very much. I don’t drag out my camera more than once or twice a month and I rarely, if ever, capture my family just “doing their thing”. I intend to change that.
Last week my kids were showing their summer baby-sitter some old photo albums from Isaiah & Alayna’s babyhoods. Ah, the days of film, when all I had to do was send in the rolls of film and Viola!, the photos were done and ready to enjoy and, ah, the days before I did this for a living; before I went pro. I have all these crappy-wonderful snap-shots of my kids dancing in the living room, snuggled up together in a box, eating birthday cake. The lighting is not always great. The backgrounds are not always complimentary. But the photos are a delicious window to our memories of life with the kids, so little and sweet and growing and changing so fast. I don’t take any of those anymore.
Now, because I know better, I always want to wait for the perfect lighting, the perfect backdrop, the “perfect photo”. In my wait for that perfect moment, the one in which my kids don’t look like they dressed themselves, three days ago, and the house doesn’t look lived-in, er, trashed, and the light shines in their eyes “just right”, I’ve missed so very much. I want to have snap-shots again. I want to have memories captured of just regular old not-so-sexy life in my not-so-amazing house with my wonderfully-real-not-always-turned-to-the-light-at-the-right-angle kids. So, here goes. My rules/criteria:
1. I shoot with my “old” camera body, the 5D, no flash, no frills.
2. I use the 16-35L , a lens I purchased several years ago, only to leave it on a shelf, unused, in favor of my 24-70L and fisheye. (NOT a cheap lens, it needs my love!)
3. I don’t spend time working out the perfect angles, the best light, the perfect exposure (no custom white balance or manual exposure, baby!)
4. I reach for it at least once a day, to capture something delightfully “everyday”.
5. I come here and share them with you, as often as I can.
6. At the end of the year, I take those plain old photos and PUT THEM IN A BOOK, so we can look back and remember the year in pictures.
So, here’s my first share. Lydia, enjoying her yogurt in our crazy-strange kitchen:
And Mr. Z, being 10, almost 11. Sigh . . . ten is the end of the little kid years. I’m bracing myself . . .
Awesome post, Anna – and I love that your goal is to create a book at the end of the year! I could have written that first part myself since my kids are also quite neglected – I need to start pulling my camera out more often. Thanks for the reminder!
Awesome, Anna! What a great plan!
So true that as photographers we neglect our own families and special events with our cameras. I think we either need a break or are anticipating the perfect moment/angles/lighting. I like your rules…not every frame captured of our family and personal moments has to be perfect…it just has to be that simple moment. Thanks for the great reminder!
I love this post… You are most definitely my favorite photographer. I love the way you use color and i hope to learn more about my camera to create some equally amazing pictures one day. I can relate to this post very much and have made it a point to take “normal” everyday shots of my girls too and not just the ones with good lighting! Love it.
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This is so, so true. And a revelation, I kind of thought it was just me! Posting this to my pro Facebook page.
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