My Photography Philosophy

When I was 12 , for Christmas, my Grandmother gave me a framed newspaper clipping. It seems a funny gift to give a 12 year old, but you see my Grandmother knew me.
. The picture; a soldier, tough and bold, his army fatigues fierce against his young daughter’s delicate sundress. The pained look on his face as his knelt to embrace her.
My Grandma knew that I would look at that picture and feel the emotion of those I had never met. That I would look at that photograph and really see and appreciate it for its meaning, for its history, for the love that a simple picture could show between father and daughter.. I still have that framed clipping prominently displayed in my home.
I Love photographs. I have always been able to look at a photograph and see what it held. The story, the memories, the emotion, the beauty. Capturing that moment in time.
Pictures to me are a historical journal of events, and feelings. I have never been a good writer, so for me, my photographs have been my journal, my memoir book, my past. Documenting moments in my life visually has been very important to me.
I spent years when my first two children were tiny going to one of those big chain store places. The pictures albeit adorable, were just staged generic smiles that seemed to be identical to the rest of the large photographs displayed on their walls. I was often disappointed with the limited selection of poses and high priced packages. I still think they’re sweet, but I am drawn more often to the snapshots that I’ve taken that really captured their true personality. The Real moments in their lives.
There are times in people’s lives that tell the story. Times that we want to hold on to forever. To look back and really feel that time, that emotion, that love. That is why I do it. I want to give people that visual journal. That real moment in time captured forever. And not by breaking their bank either.