Family Photography: “I love you mummy”… the moments that remind you that you are more than enough…

So I am going to start by apologising because this week’s blog is dedicated to all mums out there, rather than dads. Ironically, I know of many dads who are actually the main carers at home and so I may, without wishing to of course, put some noses out of joint (is that the expression?) (pardon if it isn’t, my Belgianisms can come back in force once in a while)… I guess you guys will have to forgive me on this occasion.

So yes, I am dedicating this week’s blog to all mums out there who every so often hear these words and perhaps for a few second forget all the frustrations felt so far in the day (or maybe not!).

One of the main reasons why I love photographing people so much is because I am a deeply empathetic person. Sometimes too empathic. Maybe we have become a generation of empaths and perhaps are starting to lack a little resilience. Maybe my heart does go mush a bit too quickly. But you know what? I don’t care. Emotions, raw emotions and communicating those seems to be my calling. And so when I come to your home and observe family life, its many ups and its many downs, it is very rare for me not to get moved by what I see. And every single time, what I do see is incredible endurance. Stamina. I could call it love. It goes without saying but what I get the most humbled by is exactly that - parenting stamina.

And yes of course there are millions of dads out there that show equal stamina and that are just as involved. Please do not take offence. After all, all my sessions also have shown me the times are rightfully changing and roles are now so much more balanced than they used to be. Again, there is never any right and wrong, it’s what works for you as a family, and how we juggle teamwork, whatever work it is.

But yes, I do want to get back to mums this time around. I want to go back to that wonderful purity. I want to share with you the utter selflessness. I want to show you adoration. Patience. Frustration. Sadness. Elation. Confusion. Beauty. Courage. And indeed a phenomenal amount of love.

If your walls are feeling a little bare and you’d like some strong portraits of you and your family, take a look at my family portfolio. Whilst I do love to take images of the “warts and all”, I also have an equal passion in constructing strong and beautiful portraits you’d want to hang on your walls.

And if you’d like to find out a little more about how my sessions work, why not head over to my “What to expect” page.

I’d love to show you what a special bond you have with your children, and I’d love to produce images that you can hang on your walls and that will remind you of this everyday. My September and November are now fully booked and have a limited number of slots left in October and some availability in December. So do have a look at my packages if you are interested and get in touch! My whole day sessions include prints which can make wonderful gifts for relatives.

I know my images are not always very obvious. But whilst they are not obvious to you, they are totally obvious to those specific clients these images belong to. Because you see, we can all have pictures on our walls that could all tell a similar story, but we are all so different and we all live our stories differently and thus it only makes sense that your images feel like they totally belong to you. I think we can push aside the days when we’d look at a picture in a catalogue of a smiling mum pushing a happy child on a swing and think “Wow, they look happy. I wish our family was happy like this all the time too”. Gone are the days when we need to pretend. Because what we capture can both tell our truth AND it can tell our beauty too.

Because ultimately, what we capture from a session is this: an unequivocal reminder that you do show incredible stamina, that you do show incredible patience, love and commitment, and that ultimately, is absolutely enough - whoever you are, whatever you do and however you do it.