I got an e-mail this week from David A Williams announcing more seminars (none in Ireland yet unfortunately) and also his new web site. It is well worth a look, lots of lovely images but also some thought provoking messages.
David is inspirational. Not only in terms of his photography but also the way he encourages photographers to look at the value of their work: ‘You do not make portraits of children for their parents, you make them for when the child is a parent’. He emphasises the work of a photographer as a creator of unique memories which will prove to be priceless.
The thing is, the true value of these memories only truly comes home to you sometime later when your family experiences a dramatic change and it is apparent that the moment captured by the photograph has gone forever.
Getting your family together for a photograph is an easy thing to put off or just never get around to doing.
It doesn’t matter who is missing or what shoes you have on, take the photograph, make the memory. You will never regret taking a photograph, you may regret not having a memento of your family at a unique point their history.
It took a lot for me to ask my mother to pose for a portrait for me way back when I was about 20. It probably took more for her to agree. But in the passing years those photographs have become more precious than I could have possibly realised at the time.
Unfortunately parents age. Inevitably children grow up. Sometimes family leave for foreign shores. Take pictures of your family whenever you can. Get them taken with you in them as well.
Whether you hire a professional photographer or not, make a memory, not an excuse.