It’s the most wonderful time of the year! As October comes to a close, Halloween is just next week, inevitably Thanksgiving is around the corner and before we know it we will be waking up on Christmas morning.
Or at least that’s how the holiday season always seems to go, doesn’t it?
My husband and I have a small photography business, and October and November are two months that can best be described as “drinking from a fire hose” in terms of how busy we stay taking photos.
Everyone wants to capture their family at a specific moment in time. Whether it’s for their annual Christmas card or to hang on the walls of their homes, our hopes are that the pictures that we take will be cherished for years and years to come.
I like to imagine each family, years down the line, at Christmas or another holiday gathering, remembering the exact day we took their pictures.
This is something I LOVE about taking pictures. Pictures capture a moment in time that we can look back on and laugh at the fashion choices that were made, moms and dads can look back and see how tiny their little ones once were, and extended family members can admire their loved ones they might not get to see regularly from afar.
Photographer Aaron Siskind once said, “Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”
You have to be incredibly intentional when taking photos, both as the photographer and the people being photographed.
Dates are circled on calendars, coordinating outfits are selected, and then there’s the “day of” scramble, where everyone hopes and prays nothing catastrophic happens before the hours or so mapped out to take pictures.
On the photography side of things, sometimes the best photos are the “in between frames” type of photos, where organic smiles and laughter ensue. Additionally, I try to be intentional by talking to the people, while taking their picture, about something they enjoy, whether that be their family, a hobby or something else. People’s eyes light up and smiles are genuine when they talk about things they love.
As for me, I take photos of the things I love. If you were to look on my phone camera roll right now, you would find hundreds and hundreds of photos of my son Silas, my husband Casey, my pets, our home and our families. I take these pictures, so I can go back later and reminisce.
Last weekend was the four-year anniversary of my brother Joel finding out he had a brain tumor.
Four years later, I can happily report that he is alive and well, and thriving nonetheless. During his hard times, a source of joy was looking back at old pictures of our family before the chaos of cancer struck. The pictures were glimmers of hope in what seemed like otherwise dark times.
I say all of this to encourage you friends to be present and be intentional with the time you have with the people you love. Take “too many” photos, capture those moments in time, and then be present and enjoy the holiday season with the people you love.
Take no day or holiday for granted!