I posted this picture yesterday on facebook and was overwhelmed with the “likes” in the first 24 hours of posting. So here’s more of the story:

Weeks ago I asked my parents if they would do a session with me around the farm … maybe we could do one for every season. They liked that idea. Making it happen was another challenge. We are hardly ever in the same place at the same time when the light is perfect.
And then this weekend happened. I had purposefully kept Sunday fairly empty because we’ve been so busy lately. My parents were also home! So I told them today was the day.
And then it rained. But we decided to go out anyway!

What an honor to take my beloved parents out and about!

As we walked along my mom said: “This is so fun! (I didn’t expect this, so my feet may have lifted off the ground a little.) How often do you-”
“Sarah!” I heard Josh call to me. “The phone is for you!”
“I’ll be right back! Just meet me in the driveway,” I said – something I would never do during a session with clients.
After being brief on the barn phone my mom finished her thought: “I was just thinking that it’s so nice to feel so taken care of and that you are cared for and the other person has not another care in the world … and then the phone rang.”
It was nice to get that feedback – that during typical sessions, clients feel they are the center of my world. And they are. All to-do lists vanish and I have all the time in the world to spend with clients-quickly-turning-to-friends.
Another reason I love our job!

So many grown ups (not me, not yet!) feel like they’ll do pictures when they lose 5 more lbs, if only they didn’t have those wrinkles, after they get a haircut … whatever. And then 10 years have gone by and you look back and realize you looked great back when you were saying you weren’t ready for a professional photo shoot.

My mom doesn’t have a lot of pictures of her mother, because her mother didn’t like having her picture taken. And now she’s gone. She’s been gone for almost as long as my parents have been married. My mom knows the feeling of not having enough images of her mother (and maybe there is never enough), so while she’d prefer not to have her picture taken, she wants us to all have images of her life to enjoy now and for generations to come.

If you’ve been married 5 years (or 33!) or more – when is the last time you had a professional portrait session?