However, personal artistic goals and client work don't always mix so I have held back for months in offering this type of photography to clients. Would they want what I want? Then out of the blue, in a completely unexpected setting, I had an epiphany during storytime. In the dim, rosy, bedtime light, I read a children's book to my girls by Karen Kingsbury called Let Me Hold You Longer and I'll never get it out of my head. It reminded me that as parents, we share this space. All of us care about these moments. How could my clients NOT want what I want? What kind of photographer am I to not offer my clients, families whom I adore, the best of my work? Here are a few of my favorite verses:
Long ago you came to me,
a miracle of firsts,
First smiles and teeth and baby steps,
a sunbeam on the burst.
But one day you will move away
and leave to me your past
And I will be left thinking of
a lifetime of your lasts…
The last night when you woke up crying,
needing to be walked,
When last you crawled up with your blanket,
wanting to be rocked.
The last time when you ran to me,
still small enough to hold.
The last time that you said you'd marry
me when you grew old.
Your last few hours of kindergarten,
those last few days of first grade,
Your last at bat in Little League,
last colored picture made.
Silly, scattered images
will represent your past.
I keep on taking pictures,
never quite sure of your lasts…
Of course I take pictures of them, usually with my phone - blurry and without me in them. That's not what I will want to see in 30 years. It's surely not what they will want to see when I'm gone. So this year (and every year to follow), I'm going to hire someone to photograph my family looking pretty like I always do but I will not miss the opportunity to have someone come photograph us in our not so perfect home or on a real outing in a location special to us. I need to tell our story each year before the kids are grown and it's too late. I will offer the same to my clients and I'm THRILLED about it!!