My favorite photos aren’t the ones that I take.  I love my kids and I confess that I photograph them WAY more than they would like.  It is part of the hazards of being a photographers kid.  While I love the photos I take of my kids and seeing them melts my heart and makes me get a little misty eyed, I know there is something missing.  I know that one day, I will pass these images on to them and after looking at thousands of photos of themselves, they will probably feel the same way. That something is missing.

It wasn’t that the picture was bad or blurry but who was absent from them.  The photos I love most are the ones that show us as a family,  where I can put down the camera and instead be in the photos with my children.  Those are the photos I value more than anything.  These are the photos that tell the story of our tiny moments.  The time we had two weeks full of snow days and made snow cream and built snowmen or blew bubbles on a hot summer afternoon.  One day my kids will talk about our summer Thursday adventures across Virginia and they won’t have to wonder if mommy was there because I took the time to exist in photos with my kids.  I took time to put down my camera and ask a sweet friend to capture us just as we are, unposed, real, and messy.  

To my sweet friend Monica, thank you!  This photo is pure gold to me!  Your gift of a photograph brought joy to my heart and is something I will always treasure.