Why Choose Me to be Your Family Photographer? 

This is a great question.  You have so many options all of the time. Especially with the creation of the internet and social media, the service industry is just a few clicks away with any number of creators at our doorstep available at any given point.  

And you can change it up as you go along.  One summer you can choose one photographer for one type of session and in the fall you can find someone else for another or different kind of session.  And photographers come and go, one year they are here and the next they decide to move on to their next adventure.  

As a creator, an artist, a photographer - I have to work HARD to find and keep the people that want me as their memory keeper. I have to prove to you that I'm not just another person showing up, clicking the button, and sending you a few shots.  I want to be your legacy photographer, year after year, session after session - just as much I want you to be my legacy client.  

I have to work hard to prove to you that I want to be here for you, that I am meant to be here for you.  That I want to seek and find and capture the moments that you feel, the ones you never want to forget. 

But just as much as I want to be your photographer, and I will continue to show you that is true, I want you to choose me every time too.  It is a relationship, one that needs to be nurtured, one that needs to be valued and trusted.  And I am HERE for it!  I will always put in the work.

You may think its so silly that I would work this hard for each and every client.  That I am this passionate about investing time and energy into my clients.  That they will come and go and I'll find new ones if I need to etc.  But my clients are not just transactional to me.  They are families, real living breathing, complicated, messy, and intricate humans that are constantly growing and changing.  

My client-families are just like my own at home.  We are all the same in so many ways.  My fears are my clients fears.  I share the same type of sadness with the mother's that I capture with their children.  My kid is very similar to the kids I connect with on location at a session.  

I invest time and energy and emotion every time I connect with a new client.  I want to see them succeed, see them happy, see them thrive.  I want them to have pieces of their past captured in photographs so years down the road when they need reminders of who they once were or even who they are, who their children were, who their partners were - they have it.  And how lucky am I that I get to be apart of that history in such a way?

Because I share the same fear.  The same fear of forgetting.  Losing my memories.  Of my mind becoming foggy and faded.  I know that time will come, and when it does, I am going to be so damn grateful I videoed every moment I could and had photos to look back on - to recreate, recapture, re-invigorate those flashbulb memories.  

Fear comes from love.  This fear of forgetting or missing out on the moments in between comes from loving our families so very much - that it hurts to breathe sometimes.  I share that fear with my fellow mommas.  I know they feel like life is passing them by.  I know they juggle it all, I know they manage and stress and create and fill cups all while emptying their own. But I also know they need to be told, "I've got this one" every once in a while.  Well, mommas - I've got this one, I can take care of this for you, let me take care of this one for you.

I know I can be part of the solution.  I get to help ease the fear by capturing these moments for their families?  Be still my beating heart.  I love this job so much.  

Not every session is a breeze.  Would it be life if it were always so easy?  There are challenges that I meet regularly.  But I try to remind myself that the challenge is because there is always an existing pressure to create the most perfect session for every family.  

But what I remind myself constantly is that I'm not creating perfect images for a session, but instead I'm capturing my families in their current moments.  

Just as an example, there are many children who are not fans of the camera.  And those children tend to not "perform" well during the session.  If you think of a mom, so amped for the session, she's prepped, planned, scheduled, adjusted, adapted, etc to make this session happen and then her youngest just won't cooperate.  That in the moment may feel defeating.  Another moment where mom just wants something for herself and no one will let it happen.  

Lets flip that around - that boy, that little boy, that is unsure about what is going on - maybe regularly - is clinging to his mom for dear life because that is his safe space.  That is flesh that he breathes in when he needs to regulate... and this is a moment I want to capture. I want to hold on to that moment for that momma.  Because, yes, one day, many days, it may be so frustrating - but one day years down the road its going to be a moment she would give anything to have back.  And those photos of him clinging to her will be her saving grace... she will get to remember what it feels like to have him attached to her even when she just needed space, a little room, a moment to herself.  She was his everything, his world, and he was her baby and always will be.  She was his tree, and he was her little koala bear - and what an honor it is to get to live that.

I love the little nuances, the messy, the not-neat parts of other peoples lives.  It gives their life breath, it gives it life, it gives them something to laugh at, it gives them something to feel.  These are the things we need to remember, and in some cases we will have no choice but to remember.  But the messy is the pretty parts of life.  The parts worth living.  I'm here to capture the parts that aren't so simple the most - if you'll let me.

I just read a book of a mom that lost her child really young, too young, unfairly young.  All she had left was a photograph of him she looked at every single day, many times a day.  For a moment in the book the photograph went missing from the one and only place she kept it.  She lost her mind, she turned everything upside down and inside out looking for it.  She never would have stopped until she found it, she never would have forgiven herself had she lost it. 

In these few moments of the book, my heart was racing for her, my cortisol shot through the roof with hers, I worried that she would lose the one thing that helps her remember, just like I was sitting next to her.  I wanted to be there to help her look for it.

Eventually she found the photo, and I sighed a breath of relief with her.  But my heart still ached and I couldn't help to think how important that photo was.  How absolutely irreplaceable, in expendable, absolutely earth changing the existence of that one photograph was to that heart broken momma.  I just wished she had more.  

Her fear of losing that photo came from the deepest well in the universe called love.  She didn't want to forget, she didn't want to be forced to let go because she couldn't remember.  The photograph saved her from a fear that we all share as mothers.  We all deserve that piece of mind even just one photo can give us.  The practice of photography may be silly to some, but it is vital, this job is important.  And I don't take it for granted for one millisecond.  We are apart of history, of humans' stories, the genealogy of people's family lines.  Right along side the written and spoken words.

I won't give anymore spoilers but the book is Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall and WOW was it beautiful.  I listened to it over Audible and the narration was amazing as well.  

This isn't all of it, I'm sure I could continue discussing this for ages and ages.  But I can't.  All I know is you deserve to remember these moments with your family, your best friend, your partner, and yes - even yourself.  You deserve to be seen from all sides, all angles, and in all lights with all emotions expressed.  

Its okay if I'm not your perfect fit, you and me, I'll understand.  But if you do choose me - I promise, I'm going to actually see you.  I'm going to do my very best to show you what you look like when you are loving your babies, holding your partner, laughing with you friend, and being yourself.  Truly yourself.  

Tell me in the comments, what do you look for from your family photographer?  What do you want to see, feel, and remember when you look at your images?  If you could paint the perfect day - what would it look like?  Because I want to paint it for you.  

The Schinsky Family Session by Heather Nash Photography in Michigan, USA