Portraits of Mom & Why It's Important

Portraits of mom make a great Mother's Day gift!  I realize I’m a little early for Mother’s Day, but shouldn’t we appreciate and honor our moms more often?  As a mom, I know I would appreciate it!

Like so many women, my mom was almost always behind the camera capturing our childhood memories.  To make things worse, she often allowed her insecurities and perceived flaws to influence her willingness to be in photos.   Sound familiar?  

Photo From My Childhood

Therefore, when I look through the photos from my childhood, There are very few photos that include my mom and even fewer actual portraits.  Time doesn't stand still and as I'm getting older, I realize the limited time I have left to make sure I capture her in portraits or in an everyday photo!  Thankfully, it's easier to convince her to exist in photos when her grandchildren can join her.  Unfortunately, that also means there are very few photos of us together because now I’m usually the one taking the photos.  LOL  

So when I started thinking about Mother’s Day coming up, I realized that I was doing my family a disservice!  I've owned a professional portrait studio for over a year now and I hadn't invited my mom in for a portrait session.  Therefore, that had to change!  I mean let's be honest... without sounding morbid, tomorrow is never promised and none of us are getting any younger.   For that reason, I needed to capture proper portraits of my mom AND make sure to sneak myself into a few too!  The icing on the cake would’ve been to have my son join as well as my brother and his family join us, but that wasn’t practical with everyone’s schedules.  

Portrait of My Mom and Myself

Thankfully, she appeased me and joined me in the studio for a portrait session which included a pampering session with professional hair & makeup styling.  Honestly, I even offered her a Mimosa, but she declined.   I think she did great, but unfortunately, she still allows her inner critic to get the better of her.   I see the amazing, beautiful, loving and compassionate woman who raised me.  I know she sees her flaws, but I hope she can see how great she looks and can appreciate how grateful I am for her and how much I love her because words just cannot express it!  Isn't she beautiful?!  

Not only was the portrait session a gift for her, but it was also a gift for my family.  She received a day full of pampering that was all about her where we created beautiful memories, but my brother and I benefit as well!  She will create legacy portraits for our families to admire, cherish and pass down to our kids.  

My Beautiful Mother

I kinda of started down a rabbit hole with the portraits of my mom because it also made me realize that it has been quite a while since I had portraits taken with my son too.  So next, I want to get my son into the studio to take updated portraits together.  Like so many parents, I would take my son to have his portrait taken every 3 months for his first year.  After that, I scaled back to every 6 months.  Thankfully, it worked out well because it fell at Christmas time and mid-summer.  As he got older, the portraits became more infrequent but I actually showed up in portraits with him.  In fact, a lot of those portraits still hang on our walls!  Now that he’s older it’s harder to get portraits taken together, but I try to at least get selfies of us together at various holidays.  

Selfie With My Son

Like I said, this thought process took me down a rabbit hole.  Even though I might more photos with my father when I was young, I have very few photos with my father after the early years.  Unfortunately, it's a little harder to get photos with my dad since he lives about 6 hours away, but it will be done!  Thankfully, I have a few recent selfies, but keep an eye out this summer for an update because portraits with dad is coming!!  Here's the most recent photo we have together.

Photo with my Dad and Brother

Maybe it wasn’t “a thing” 20 years ago, but I wish I had taken portraits with my fur babies; my first kids.  I missed my chance with them, but when the day comes and I have another dog, I will make sure to take proper portraits with them!  Unfortunately, animals are not allowed where I live currently, so  BOOOO!

So please, don’t make the same mistake I made.  Don’t miss your chance at having portraits taken with your mom, child or fur babies!  I would love to help you capture beautiful portraits for you and your family! If you'd like to discuss your vision for portraits and get all of your questions answered, schedule a call for a brief chat here.