If you’ve ever spent some time amongst the literature of being an entrepreneur you’ll soon discover that much of it revolves around your why. I’m not going to go into it too deeply but basically it’s that people don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it. Confused? You can watch this famous YouTube clip of Simon Sinek explaining it much better than me.
But I thought I’d let you know my why. I think I knew it all along but it took a lot of self reflection before I could really verbalize it. It came to me as I was lying in bed and I had to interrupt my husband and tell him. Needless to say he was quite a bit less enthusiastic than I was and he responded ‘but you’re not going to write about this right? It seems a bit cheesy.’ Of course not I said, knowing full well I’d spill the beans.
So this is my why.
Life with young children is hard. Sometimes impossibly so. You have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. You cry in the bathroom and then you hold them close and can’t believe they are yours. And it’s all a blur.
What helps me to get through is to reflect on the full range of moments through photography. It’s amazing how daily temper tantrums reduced me to tears but seeing a photo of my child screaming his heart out because I put jam on his bread instead of peanut butter when I’m not in the moment makes me realize that I just need to take a deep breath. And now, years down the line it’s kind of funny – even he thinks it’s funny.
And it’s about capturing those little moments too. Rocking your crying baby for hours reduced me to tears, and sometimes breastfeeding was so lonely, but the closeness and love I felt was real and I look back at those times and realize how special it was. Really. I know that parents going through it now want to punch me in the neck but I promise those tough times don’t last forever. This photographic process is almost therapeutic for me. It helps me look at the chaos in a different way and see the beauty.
Now, I capture different things. Playing lego, family ski trips, snuggling in bed reading Star Wars with Papa. But it’s all still beautiful and fleeting.
Even though I took a lot of pictures I wish I had more. I barely register in any of the photos as I am always taking the picture. I have few of my children when they were young, and only a couple when they were newborn. I have very few maternity photos – none where I look good. I always thought maternity photos would be a waste of time – all the ones I saw were just not my style and I felt awful. I hated being pregnant. But now I realize how freaking amazing it was. I GREW children in my own body.
And I want to capture all of it for my family and for yours. I want you to look at your photos and not just remember what you looked like, but what it FELT like. I used to have a question on my questionnaire that I send to all my families that asked what they wanted to remember from their photos. I stopped asking it because everyone had the EXACT same response. They all wanted to show the love they had in their families and they all wanted their children to see how very loved they were in their childhood.
OK, I know this is pretty powerful stuff but I take it seriously. I am creating a family history both for myself and the families I document and I am absolutely grateful every time someone trust me with this amazing task. So thank-you to all those who have trusted me on my journey so far and I hope that many more of you join with me along the way.
So, that’s my why!
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