I am going to tell you a true story about my family. Parents, please take a minute to read. My mom was the worst person to have in pictures. She made faces (not nice ones), hid, raised her hand to the camera, etc… She avoided the camera like the plague. Many people use these tricks to hide from the camera and some of you are like this too. When I was in high school, we had a family portrait session scheduled for the six of us. I do not remember why, but my mom, refused to go, like threw a fit and refused. The rest of us went and we have one family portrait of us kids and my Dad from when we were young and cute 🙂
Fast forward 15 years, us children have grown, moved out, 3 of us have our own families. My mom is diagnosed with breast cancer, which in time metastasized to her lungs and brain. She did the chemo, radiation dance for 5 years. By this point my parents have 5 grandchildren. She was better about being in portraits with the grand kids and she did love being a grandma. For over 30 years we had a been a family with 2 parents and 4 children and we had no family portrait. My moms health was failing, my sister who lived out of state was visiting so we threw together a family portrait with everyone. You know the type of thrown together where you go shopping at 8pm the night before to make you have everything needed so there was a least some type of coordination. After completing the portrait session, we bring the portraits home and do you know what my mom says….”That does not look like me.”
Unfortunately, she saw what 5 years of cancer treatment looked like and she didn’t like it. Two weeks later, on November 30, 2008, my mom passed away due to her body being done with the fight and that thrown together family portrait became priceless. Finding pictures for her funeral that were usable was very hard. We reached out to family and asked that they send anything they had because there were truly very few images. The collage below was one used at her funeral. Scroll past for the rest of the story
Why am I sharing this very personal story? As busy people it is easy to push pictures aside because we feel like we do not have the time. Or you do not take portraits due to lack of confidence or how you feel about your weight. We have all been there, including myself. As a photographer, I might have heard every reason in the book. However, your children love having portraits with you in them. I have sat through 100’s of sales appointments with my awesome clients and not one time has a child ever pointed out the “flaw” their parents sees. Every single time, the child loves the portrait of their parents together, of them with their parents or their family. Family portraits are very important to you children. It shows them that you love and value you them and yourself to freeze that moment in time. Your children see your love not what us parents see as our “flaws”. True story, your kids see you without makeup and in your 10 year old sweats everyday.
I hope this personal story of our family strikes a cords within your family about of the power of a portrait. Feel free to leave comments below.