I often laugh with clients about how school portraits do nothing but evoke some giggles…the fake smiles and looks that scream “awkward” capture a moment in time – but that’s not what they are looking to freeze and keep forever on walls and albums…
What do clients REALLY want from me and my camera? What do I REALLY want in a picture of my own family or life?
LOVE. Isn’t that it?
Something that’s intangible – and the closest thing to making it tangible is a picture…
Over the years I’ve had clients at many different places in life reach out to me. Some of them with new babies in their arms or babies starting to take a few steps…some with babies in their bellies that wouldn’t live on this earth for long….some of them wanting to mark an anniversary, marriage, or graduation…and some of them facing doctor reports that say a family member won’t be here with them much longer and they want to “remember the time before they were so sick”….
No matter the place, they all want to “freeze” that LOVE for keeps….so they don’t forget…so they can relive it later….
So I get my camera and I shoot…I tell them to “just be you”….laugh, tickle and giggle…..sing silly songs, make funny faces, dance your booty off….they come with their moody “tweenagers,” toddlers that failed to take a nap, and slobbery dogs…and I shoot. I tell them to forget about me….to run….to look at the plane in the sky or the cow in my field…to fish some coins out of the fountain (and they might take that very seriously and start swimming in the fountain as you’ll see below lol)…..and I shoot…..
And the experience often tears me up…especially afterwards as I scroll through the pictures on my screen…whether they are of my own family or not… I can SEE it…people doing what we are on this earth to do…to love…to connect.
I was reading my favorite author ever – Ann Voskamp (over on her blog A Holy Experience) – last week and she said it so perfectly – “Relationship is the currency of all reality and our God is a love body..there are no real accomplishments apart from relationship”…..
So here’s the “wrapping up” of my shoots from 2015…I feel so accomplished as I finally share these 🙂
Hugs!
Ericka
ELM Fotographie is a Charlotte, NC photographer specializing in Newborn Photography, Baby Photography, and Family Photography. Also serving Concord, Matthews, Monroe, and Mint Hill.
newborn photographer nc, newborn photographer charlotte nc, north carolina newborn photographer, north carolina baby photographer, nc baby & child photographer, nc family photographer, charlotte baby photographer, charlotte newborn photographer, charlotte family photographer, charlotte family photographers, union county baby photographer, union county newborn photographer, union county family photographer, concord baby photographer, concord nc newborn photographer, concord nc family photographer, mint hill nc baby photographer, mint hill nc newborn photographer, mint hill nc family photographer, matthews nc baby photographer, matthews nc newborn photographer, matthews nc family photographer, matthews family photographers
Leave a Reply