Another photographer, another area, someone we don't know.
It made me cry.
Felt the need to share it with our clients.....our friends.
Normally, my friends become my clients, but my clients are my clients (people I've never met before)
However, last year I met a couple for the first time to do their maternity portraits. We had a blast and really hit it off. The wife and I were excited that our husbands hit it off too. They came back for newborn portraits and this past spring they came back for Family Portraits.
Over the year I began to consider them friends. We weren't super close or hanging out all of the time, but they were more than just clients to us (which is not normal for us.)
Due to weather we had to postpone their session twice. The third time we were going to postpone again because it just looked like it was going to pour on us. If we had to, I wouldn't have been able to do their session until the end of July/first of August. They decided to just suck it up and make the best of it. It waited until we were done to rain. It was an awesome session and one of my favorites.
Last week the husband was killed in a car accident. It has been pretty tough on everyone, but all I kept hearing was "I'm so glad you were able to get their family pictures so they have something recent of him." I was kind of thinking these statements were so insensitive. A man lost his life. A wife lost her husband. A baby lost her father. Who the hell cares about pictures during this time??
Yesterday while at his funeral, the person giving tribute to his life shared the following story:
Paraphrased since I don't remember it word from word. (names have been changed)
""Mary" is always wanting to get pictures done and she is always making "John" go with her. Well, she wanted family pictures done again and "John" was complaining about having to go get them done, but he lived for making his wife happy so they went.
A few weeks ago he called me up excited about a project he was working on. He was just finishing it up when I pulled into the driveway. He came out and said, 'Wait here. I've got something to show you.' He went in the house and brought out this large framed picture and in it was the photograph you see out in the hall of his wife, daughter, and him. He puffed out his chest and beamed and said, 'Ain't that the coolest thing ever.' Before he could show me what he had been working on, he wanted to show off his beautiful wife and daughter."
A little background on that image. Their little baby is just starting to walk. At the time of their session all she could do was stand with mom and dads help. She did not want to sit for any of the images, she wanted to stand. I had a vision of an image of mom and dad at eye level with her standing so I had them kneel by her. I wanted them to look at the camera, but as I was setting up I looked through the lens and saw both of them just looking at their baby and they had so much love in their eyes and smiles and their baby was looking right at me smiling, I decided to take the shot. I took a few extras in case it didn't turn out, but of course it did. It ended up being dad's favorite and he choose that image. I think mom wanted a more formal one, but this couple seriously lived to make each other happy, so they got what dad wanted.
It was touching to hear that story yesterday and it made me realize how important those family portraits really were to him and his wife and how even more important they are now.
I learned a couple things with this past week and yesterday.
1. Don't postpone. There would be no recent family portraits of their new family if we had waited til now.
2. You never know how much an image means to a person, especially to someone you thought was only humoring his wife.
I don't consider myself a great photographer yet and these images will never win an award, but they are some of my favorites and now hold an everlasting place in my heart, as I am sure it does for my client's/friend's heart as well.
This story and these words are so true. We may be in the "business" of photography, we may have packages and prices, specials and contests etc but we like to think that what we are really doing is capturing a moment. Taking the opportunity to MAKE A MEMORY.
This is not an advertisement, I didn't post this so you will call us up and make an appt with us.
This is simply food for thought. Thought of the day: go home and hug your children, kiss your husband/wife, call your mom/dad, shoot a quick email to your sister/brother, send a letter to grandma/grandpa, text your friend a smiley face.
Don't take the day for granted.
Cherish everyday. Let the ones that you love know you love them.
We feel very fortunate to be photographers, we are the ones who can make a moment last forever.
Thank you to all our loyal clients and friends. we love you.
Smooches.
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