As our time going through the “Capture the Little Moments” series draws to a close (sadly), I wanted to leave you with some inspiration.
Most of the moms in our generation feel the pressure and perhaps the natural pull to want to capture the life of our kids in ways that our parents never did. You know what I mean; for instance, I have a baby book, but there’s nothing written in it except my name, and pictures of me as a baby are scarce (the second child always gets forgotten – and yes, that’s second child angst speaking). But our generation of moms is one of fancy photobooks, Facebook photo sharing, and camera and video smartphones that not only capture moments, but GPS coordinates if you so choose.
I think more women than ever before own a DSLR camera, whether they know how to use it in manual mode or not. The reason I purchased my first DSLR camera was so that I could get decent photos of my firstborn, and I’ll bet I’m not the only one who made the leap for their children. Since then, my love of photography has flourished and my kids have become my favorite subject.
When I ran across an article on photographer Sarah Cornish in Click Magazine, I was instantly taken by her beautiful shots of her family. Her photos tell a story; I have such a sense of who her children are by just looking at her photography. Not to mention, I felt a bit of a kinship with her after reading that she packed up everything and relocated to Colorado a few years ago, away from friends and family (if you’ve followed along here, you know we did the very same thing just 6 months ago). Sarah is obviously talented, and an email exchange with her revealed she is also incredibly sweet and humble.
Looking through images of her children on her blog, www.myfourhensphotography.com, immediately motivated me to foliow my own kids around with a camera (something I’m sure they’ll love) and to simply practice, so that one day my kids will have these immortal memories of their childhood captured in a beautiful, artistic way.
Just take a look at some of Sarah’s images from her blog, taken from series she calls “Letters to my daughters” and “Letter to my sons,” in which she not only shares her love of her children through photos, but through beautiful words too (be careful, you’ll probably sob over your keyboard as you read through them if you are anything like me – meaning 6 months pregnant and crazy hormonal).
Do you notice the details and the spirit of each individual child that she is able to capture? It makes me wonder if I, too, might be able to capture the essence of my children so perfectly via photograph if only I were to shoot them more often. Sarah has certainly motivated me to try.
You can follow more of Sarah’s work on her blog www.myfourhensphotography.com, her Facebook page or her instagram account.
Have you noticed a change since photographing your children more frequently this month? Is it something you hope to continue?
