My love affair with photography truly started when I wanted to have beautiful photos of my children and my family. These days I usually leave my camera at home.
The logical reason behind it is because it is an expensive piece of equipment and I need it for my daily job. Yes I do have a back up camera but still... I also don't want to spend my time worrying about the camera the whole time I am out.
I did not take it on holiday with us. We grabbed some snaps on our phones and then we also used the resort photographer and purchased the lovely family photos that will go on the wall.
I went to my kids Christmas Performances today and I left my camera at home again. I only took a few snaps on my phone and a few short videos to show daddy who was not there. Then I put my phone away and sat there, enjoying the actual performance. Making eye contact with my kids, smiling at them, giving them thumbs up. And this is the main reason the camera stayed at home. I want my kids to see my face, not a lens or a phone pointed at them. I want them to see that I am welling up because they are so brilliant. I want to be there in the moment and enjoy it.
There is nothing more frustrating that parents who go to sit in the first row and then decide to record the whole show on their iPad and everyone behind them is pretty much forced to watch the show via an iPad screen.
There are times on our trips where I think to myself :I wish I had my camera right now! The light is amazing, the fog lifting of the ground would make for such an atmospheric image... But instead I point this out to my kids. Being a photographer has definitely fine tuned my attention to beauty all around us. It made me enjoy it more and I am hoping that it will help my children too. It might help them see all the beautiful things around us and hopefully learn to be in the moment and enjoy it.
I still get the amazing images of my children and family but they are usually planned sessions where I go somewhere on purpose, bring the camera, bribe the kids and get the photos to hang on the wall :) Or even better, get a fellow photographer to take photos of my family together so I am actually in the photos too :D