Get Yourself in Photographs, for Your Children

You know I am the photographer of the family, funnily enough, but like a lot of other mums, we are the ones taking the pictures most of the time. And if you are anything like me, you will have hundreds and thousands of pictures of the kids, and I’ll bet that like me you are only in a handful. For years when someone has tried to wrestle the camera out of my hands, I’ve fought it because I really don’t like being in front of the camera. I much prefer to be behind it.

Only now when I look back on family photos do I realise, with regret, how few I am in.

And ironically, as a professional photographer, I know and understand the importance of being in photographs with your kids.

Let me tell you a little story about one of the main reasons why I love photography so much, and why family portraiture is so important to me….

I found a love for photography from very early on was because of something that happened to me as a 7 year old girl. Our family home was burned to the ground. We lost everything in the fire. My Mum was a keen photographer and had thousands of photographs documenting our childhood and family life. She was devastated by the loss of all of those precious moments.

We were able to salvage some of them that were in albums as the air couldn’t get in to the heavily stacked books to fully destroy them. The photographs were all damaged by the fire, but we found that we could cut off the burnt edges and save smaller parts of the precious images. The images that are left are all that we have to remember those early years of our childhood, and that album is (besides her family) the most valuable thing in the world to my mother.

But for me, it’s the few photos of my mother as a beautiful young woman, surrounded by us kids that I enjoy and love most. It’s seeing her happy and literally basking in love …. she glows!! It’s seeing my dad with the straightest posture you’ve ever seen, he’s that proud! These are images that are totally irreplaceable to me.

If you have ever lost any of your photographs you can understand just how precious and important those memories really are for you. (Back-up your photos!)

It is the images of you with your child are the ones that your children will cherish the most in years to come. They are the reminders of the good times you shared together, and visual reminders of how much they were loved.

And more, your children seeing you celebrating you in beautiful portraits sends them a powerful message about your confidence in your own skin and self-love.

So Mum’s, please don’t wait!!

Get yourself in your pictures with your kids, and lots of them!!!