Discovering what really matters...

 This last week was wonderful during my Birthday Bash Special...I love all of people that were new to my camera and some of the ones that weren't so new to it, too...but this was a week of many challenges for me and one of the greatest was not getting to see much of my family while I buzzed along.  It really made me realize just how lucky I am to have the opportunity to have my sons at work with me every day.

With that being said, just imagine just how happy I was when I got to spend an entire day with my oldest son...just him and me.  It was magical!  Some of you may or may not know that both of my sons are on the autism spectrum, and those of you that know me really well know just long the journey has been...the kids have always been easy.  It has been dealing with all of the other things that have come along the way that have been difficult, but photography has allowed me the ability to be where I was needed when my boys needed me most... 

 Photography has given me a lot and with the studio coming in it has given my kids an idea of what it is that I do.  With that new understanding, my son Seamus has decided that he wants his picture taken all of the time now and so we had a little mini-session when it was just him and I...It was while I was taking pictures of his smiling face that I was reminded me of why I started doing portrait photography in the first place...I take pictures, because I love my kids.  

My son showing me just how much he has grown since those days so long ago...

Long before I realized that I could make something of a career out of taking pictures, I knew that the two amazing special boys that I had were not 'traditional studio' friendly.  They were not 'the sit down and take pictures sort of kids' (even now my eleven year struggles with sitting more than a few moments at a time).  Just like every proud mom, I knew that I wanted nice pictures of their special faces to hang on my walls.  I knew that those other 'sit-down' places weren't going to give me the pictures that I wanted of my sons, because those people didn't see what I saw when I look at them...so I just started taking their pictures myself.

I was thinking about this tonight while I waited for my other sweet little red-head to fall asleep...I am so glad that I took that first picture of them so long ago with that tiny little film camera.  I might have been a fair photojournalist back in the early stages of my career...but my sons are who made me a great portrait photographer in this stage of it.  I am feeling especially sentimental tonight as I get ready to post this blog with a sample from my oldest son's mini-shoot from earlier today (Saturday, February 23, 2013)....