Yes, You Have To Take The Pictures

“I don’t want to be in the pictures. Just my kids. Is that ok?”

Ahhhh ~ how I hate this question. As a photographer, I hear this one all the time. I know that the answer they want to hear is “Sure momma, whatever you want!” but that’s not the one I give.

I mean, I get it.

You just had a baby. You’re not feeling your best weight wise.

You get no sleep, and your face shows it.

Your eyebrows aren’t arching right. They’re definitely sisters this week not twins.

Heck ~ they’re actually more like second cousins.

Coupled with endless loads of laundry and dishes, a child that constantly needs to touch you and a to do list three miles long … you’re tired. You probably, like me, have a wardrobe that is either too big or too small, and you have no motivation to fix it. I don’t even know what my style is post baby. I mean I can nail her,s but my closet isn’t as cool and I have no time to shop. 

Y’all, I get it so much.

It’s SO hard. I won’t lie. Even the thought of color coordinating everyone is stressful, but y’all the internet is a wonderful thing. Pinterest and Old Navy can make your life easier and they ship. You don’t even have to leave your bed.

But take the pictures … PLEASE

I have a sweet friend that lost her momma at 15. She has FIVE total pictures of her mother. Only ONE of her mother and her. The rest are just her mother.

ONE y’all. 

Take the selfies with your kids and don’t delete them because you hate how you look. Take family pictures with them. Take pictures with your mom. Memories like this don’t get a do over. You lose them. 

Before it’s too late …

Earlier this year, something happened that reinforced this thought of mine. I scheduled a trip to Dallas to visit my friend who has five pictures of her mom. We had planned to do a full photo shoot of her and her kids. She has several friends in the Dallas area and several of them asked to schedule a shoot also. The more the merrier is always my motto. So we set a date.

A week before I was supposed to be there, I got a call. One of the families I was supposed to photograph had been in a horrible accident. The mother and her daughter didn’t make it. Devastated doesn’t even describe how I felt. I’m so thankful that this woman, although she didn’t get to take pictures with me, knew the importance of it. Her son and husband have memories forever.

 

So if you ever think about asking your photographer to just do the kids …

DO NOT DO IT. 

Take the pictures with them. All of them.

No matter how you feel. No excuses.

They’ll remember all the good things about you. I promise.

Carlie
Carlie is a divorced mom of five. She moved to Lafayette 22 years ago from a small town in-between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. She has four young adult children from her first marriage that ended after 19 years, Christopher, Cara, Clay and Cade. She has a one year old daughter, Poppy Mae with her significant other, Joey. She is a work-at-home mother who is a freelance writer and photographer/owner of Carlie Anne Collective. Organized chaos and tons of lists are her style. Carlie loves to workout, travel, visit with her friends, bike with Poppy Mae in their neighborhood, attend outdoor concerts, eat out at local restaurants, walk aimlessly through stores looking for good deals and swing in her hammock while chatting about her BST addiction with her online friends. She keeps an active Instagram account as a photo journal of her days.

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