I am posting this series of images because I truly think they are some of my very, very favorites ever.

Recently I have strayed from posting personal images and posts on my business blog because I was given advice to keep them separate…after all, when I’m taking shots of my family, I’m likely not taking the types of shots that a client will want…and I’m probably not adhering to the “rules” of photography: don’t chop any limbs, don’t have crooked lines, keep the subject out of the middle of the frame…and so forth.

I am currently auditing an online workshop that is helping me to focus on how to tell stories through my photography – specifically with my own little girl.  That’s what we all want, right?  To be able to look at a photo or a series of photos 20 years from now and remember the scene as if it were happening right then?  The sounds, the smells, the emotion.

While I’m trying not to adhere to the rules, I’m also trying to find who I am as a photographer…what are my passions and what type of story to I want to tell?  I already know that I want my clients to truly feel that their investment is worth it…and that the value of their pictures only increases with time.

Last week, I embarked on my first “assignment” to tell a story through a series of images.  If you know my child, you know that she rarely sits still and she’s not interested in the same thing or activity for more than a fraction of a second.  My first thought was that she needed to be confined to a small space…and when she dumped a bag of flour all over me and the kitchen, I took bathtime as the perfect opportunity to give it a go.  I grabbed my camera and watched her go through the motions of bath time as if it were any other day, clicking away at my shutter as we went, focusing on all the details that make me go “awwww.”  The way she tries to climb in with her clothes on and turns the handle of the faucet on and off, on and off.  The smell of the Johnson’s baby shampoo and the sweet shape of a duck tail that her hair forms when all lathered up.  Her chubby thighs, plump bottom, and bandaid-covered arms from her 15-month shots she got that morning.  The way she plays and splashes and squeals until she finally says “Ahhhduhn” and tries to climb over the side to get out.  That night as I loaded the photos onto my computer and started picking my favorites I fell in love with this assignment and had a very decisive change of heart.  I was not going to keep my personal photos separate from my business anymore…this is exactly the type of photographer  I want to be and the type of “sessions” I want to do.  TRUE lifestyle photography.  While I’m a sucker for a perfectly posed, beautifully backlit family portrait (umm, I want one of my own family!), THIS…this is the kind of thing I know I could easily forget the details of and want to preserve for my family (and even yours!)

 This is what I am passionate about.