The Photographer's Daughter

I love getting THE shot. You know - that exact moment where there's a nice warm glow, a bright blue sky, great colors and everyone is sincerely smiling. 

That's my picture perfect dream.

Unfortunately, not every photo is perfect. Maybe the lighting isn't great, somebody blinked, the exposure is off, or one of a million other things that could go wrong. As a photographer, I do everything I can to avoid all of these potential problems by being aware of every detail that comes through my viewfinder. This means it can be quite easy to disconnect from everything else and focus on getting THE shot.

As my daughter's second birthday was quickly approaching, the obvious choice was to do a special birthday photo shoot. I went through a few ideas before I settled on a paint splash, gathered supplies, and requested a little assistance. (Thanks hubs!) Sadie was absolutely enamored by her new ability to color on herself but boy did she like the red!

If only we could all spend all day rolling around in edible paint!

A couple of days later was her birthday party and all of our friends and family came to our home to celebrate. Everybody had a blast but several people were amazed to find that I had opted not to have my camera out. I laughed it off with most of them but didn't realize how obvious it was until my husband even asked me about it.

Well - I just wanted to be present. I wanted to have time to stress that the skies opened up and poured buckets starting when the first guests arrived and only ending after the party let out - but because guests were getting soaked, not because that meant I would have to figure out where to get more lighting to make the photos look better. I enjoyed being a hostess, friend, family member, but most importantly, a mom to a beautiful little darling who was marking a milestone in her life.

Big thanks to baby bro-in-law for snapping this with my phone just so we could have a recent family pic!

The fact is that I adore photography and believe it is the only way to make a single moment physically last. But let's be honest. Do I really need to have a photo of her opening every individual gift bag or eating every bite of cake? No. What I do need is to make sure that I'm involved IN the memories of my little girl really enjoying her birthday....and NOT from behind the viewfinder.