As a mother, I feel incredibly passionate about taking photos of other mothers. I believe that capturing the relationship a mother has with her children and also with herself is necessary to document.

Why?

The moments are fleeting.

I know, I know. Every mom that’s reading this only hears “blah blah blah!” Ha! I’m right there with you. Whenever anyone says something like ‘you’ll blink and then they’re moving to college,’ I’m the one secretly wishing both of my kids WERE actually moving out. For me, this concept isn’t very realistic when I’m thinking long-term with my family. It’s more present with me an hour after my son and daughter are in bed and I’m thinking about all of the mistakes I made throughout the day and hoping they know how much I love them.

THAT’s the moment I find myself glancing at photos with them.

Every season comes with its changes, its ups and downs. I know the anticipation of waiting to meet my babies for the first time, the joy I feel in the relationships I have with my children, the frustrations of difficult days, the exhaustion after constantly repeating myself to my four year old, the tired eyes in the morning after waking up with a sick baby. It’s all there, the good and the bad, wrapped into this reality of motherhood. And I want to capture it all for you!

So here is a little look at how I move through my motherhood photo sessions and capture images that portray the present time for mothers as individuals and in relationship to their families.

One: A photo of herself as a mother

To me, this is a particularly important photo to have. As a photographer and now also a mother, capturing the raw beauty of oneself in the present time is necessary for any mother to have.
My identity shifted when I became a mom and even though my brain told me that I was still the same person, my heart realized that there was a shift from the person I was before having my first baby to the woman I am now as a wife, mother of two, artist, and dreamer.
This photo can be as simple as a solitary portrait on purpose or it could be of a mom in the middle of chaos with her eyes locked in on me. The idea is to capture HER, the woman in the middle of it all.

Two: The importance of touch

One of the things I truly didn’t realize when becoming a mother was how much I was going to be touched. I’m not a huge “touch person” anyway and I can quickly feel smothered when my kids are hanging on me all of the time. But, even in all of this, touch is a beautiful thing to me. I find myself always moving my body close or touching my kids in some way any time I am near them. To me, it is an innate desire to reach out and hold or touch my children any time they pass me or sit close to me.

Snuggling, skin on skin, cheek to cheek, hugging, sitting on your lap, touching your face - It is a symbol of connection. And the reminder of connection is what we frequently need to have throughout the days and weeks with our children; however difficult, beautiful, chaotic, exhausting, or joyful the moments are.

Three: Natural and candid

Natural and candid - these are the moments of real life. I want to document the looks between mothers and their kids, the laughs and giggles, the sometimes tears, the seemingly simple interactions that tell so much about the way a mother feels for her children and the love that children have for her.