From the day she was born she hasn’t been able to sit still. Would drive me crazy that every photo of her was blurry cause she wouldn’t stop moving. So I bought a nicer, “faster” camera. When she turned 2 she no longer needed me… so she thought. Super independent and god forbid I help her with anything. She could do it. So I took a back seat and let her. But honestly I became a bored stay-at-home mom. So I picked up the camera and started learning how to use it. And photographing her. It made me feel included in her little life but didn’t burst her little independent bubble. That’s where it started. I was a “Momtographer.” Was? Is? That title has so much negative connotation in our industry and I get where it applies. But I am. I’m a momtographer. I found a new passion. And I’ve ran with it. Giving her and I better and more fulfilling lives. Most would say I’m not a momtographer as I run a successful photography business full time and do nothing else for work, so I’m a photographer. But I’m a mom, a single mom at that, first and foremost, and then I’m a photographer. So really I am a momtographer.

Some of you may not have even known I’m a mom. Because I keep her out of my business and social media, for the most part. For a few reasons. Social media I use alot, but mostly for business. And my target market of crazy outgoing couples living life out loud aren’t necessarily drawn to children… just yet. So any platform I use for business I don’t include much of her in it. Two, when we have our time together I usually just enjoy the time we have together and don’t feel the need to share it with the world anyway. It’s the time I get with her I want every second with her. You might notice that my instagram slows down when I’m home with her. Cause it’s our time. But mostly I’m not that interested in blasting her all over the internet anyway. There will come a day when I sigh and pray to sweet baby jesus that she’d stop sharing her life on the internet… yet secretly hoping she shares every bit so I can track her. Just kidding!… sorta. Until then I share little for the family members far away. But keep the rest just for me and her. That doesn’t mean I don’t have embarrassing material to use later in her life. Oh I do. But timing is everything 😉

But every once and a while I share her a little in my business. She is the biggest part of my life anyway. Bigger than this business by far. And it’s the time of year when photo shoots start to pick up and we photographers try to get back into the “groove.” At least for me, I spend this time figuring out what the heck my groove was. Everything feels off. That I need inspiration. I know I’m not alone in this. But it just recently occurred to me… we go searching for inspiration in far off places. As if it lives there in the distance, slightly out of reach. Searching the internet for posing and lighting ideas. Traveling. The list can really go on. But really it’s right here. Where we started. The things or ones who inspire us most are closest to us. Our roots.

She is my greatest inspiration. A reason for life. A purpose. The way she smiles and her ridiculous laugh when she thinks she’s funny. It’s really quite ridiculous. But I laugh anyway. Her bold confidence. Challenging at times yet mesmerizing at other times. How she commands your attention without words or gestures, just being. The adventure she always seeks. Simply the way she views life. That’s where it is for me.

I can only hope this is mutual. That I will inspire her to live life by her own terms. To forget what society says she’s supposed to do. And dare her to follow her heart and nothing else, as Lynyrd Skynyrd once said. Although she has added her own line to that lyric of to follow your heart and nothing else, except directions. I’m gonna let that lyric live for a little while, since she’s 7 😉

So as I go through this weird yearly phase of finding my groove or just figuring out what it was, remembering I am good enough, and reminding myself where my inspiration really comes from, I thought I’d share her with you. Since you rarely see her. Beware… I might be biased but I don’t think so, she is too cute for words. And unfortunately she’s aware of that. Dammit.

 

 

 

 

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