Family is everything. Whether you were born into your family or you chose your family (or they chose you), having family is where it’s at.
When I was a kid, we had one family portrait taken. ONE. It was at a department store and we look pale and sad (it was most likely winter time time, too). You know what I wish we had more of? Photos of us together. Sure, I have a ton of snapshots of various people, of me and my brothers, but I don’t have any decent photographs. And you know what? When I was 19, my youngest brother was killed in an accident. He was 11. All I have are terrible snapshots and some “selfies” with a film camera (and some of you know how those turned out) and that one terrible department store portrait that was taken when he was a baby.
I had taken on the role of documentarian for both my family and my friends at a young age. If I hadn’t there wouldn’t be much to show for.
In the age where everyone is a photographer and cameras are everywhere (including on our phones), my goal is to create images that you will want to print, hang on your walls, and flip through pages of an album to remember. So many of us are guilty of snapping that photo with our phones and then it goes to die a slow and/or sudden death on the phone when we drop it for 36516378th time or the hard drive finally fails.
You want to be able to hold your memories of the day you got married and of all the special people that celebrated with you. You want to hold on to your memories of your children when they were little, when they snuggled with you, played with their grandparents, before they go off on their own, when you hugged your moms and your dads and laughed with your brothers and sisters. I want to give you those tangible memories from a moment in time that you will love to hold for the rest of your life.