I’ve always struggled with my image as a mother, I feel like I’m always running, always forgetting, not doing enough, not saying enough, not being there enough. I’m always cooking and cleaning and trying to run a business and during those important times I always find myself taking pictures and trying to capture it all, I feel like since I’ve become a mother I’ve started aging so fast and I’m desperately trying to capture everything so I never forget. I started looking through pictures the other day, the parties, the holidays, the lazy morning breakfasts and my heart sank and it occurred to me, if time were to end today my spirit, my love for her, how I make her smile like no one else can, the way she nuzzles my neck when she is tired will be forgotten forever…I’m not in the pictures…

I’m not happy with my body, I can’t remember the last time my eyebrows were done or I had a manicure or pedicure, my clothes are too tight, my clothes have mommy stains, I don’t feel myself, I don’t feel sexy, I don’t feel beautiful, I don’t want to ruin the picture. These are the thoughts that go through my head when someone takes out the camera and I slowly move away out of the frame and the memory is captured without me…

If you were to make an album of my daughters life you would see beautiful portraits created by someone that loves her and views her in a way no one else does…you would see her dancing and laughing and clapping and the silly faces she makes. You would see sloppy spaghetti stained cheeks, running through the sprinkler and finger painting a piece of art. You would see her with her grandparents and her cousin and aunts and uncles and so many images of her with daddy but something is missing, a large piece of the puzzle is not there…there are very few pictures of her mother, the one person in the entire universe that makes her world turn and she would say, “where are YOU?”

So today, I am challenging YOU! Today I am giving mothers a gift. Do not let another moment go by without documenting the love you have for your children, don’t allow the opportunity for the question to be asked, “where are YOU?” During so many of my sessions I make mothers stand in front of my camera to be captured and they all say the same thing, “no, I don’t want to be in the pictures,” and I say, “Yes, just a few!” These images, to me, and I think to most of them, turn out to be some of the most incredibly powerful and beautiful images I have ever captured… And why is that you ask? Because when you put a mother together with her child, the one living creature that contains a piece of her heart, carries her soul and spirit in their laughter, something happens…her eyes open up and sparkle, her face and body relaxes, and when she brings that sweet child into an embrace and I ask her to breathe in deeply and close her eyes and she smells her sweet child mixed in with the scent of fresh air, sun, clouds and sky she becomes more grounded and her heart opens and for a split second you can see her soul and I’m lucky enough to capture that.

So, my gift to the mothers out there is a special session that I would like to call “Mother’s Embrace.”

But I want it to be more than just a photographic session. Pick a day and take it off from work, pull your children out of school, pack a picnic lunch and come visit me in a very special spot in Shelton CT. Come and play with me for a while and take off your shoes and dance in the field with your little ones, lay under the sky and find castles and dragons in the clouds, visit the creek with the large Bull Frog that croaks songs about lazy summers, bring a kite and fly it on the large field and make up stories of where it is going and where it has been. Drink strawberry lemonade and eat sugar cookies and giggle with your children. Hold them in your arms and close your eyes and dance to the sound of the honey bees buzzing and the wildflowers swaying in the breeze, breathe in the scent of love, life and beauty and realize that the greatest gift you can give your children is to be present, be there, be captured… I want this to be YOU creating a memory for you and your child that you will never forget and let me capture that…

Be present, Be here, Be forever……..

Click here for information and dates

So, I thought about this one for a long time, and really, there are very few times when my house is silent especially with a toddler, two dogs and two cats. Its also very rare to catch my daughter sleeping because for some reason the minute you open the door to her room she wakes up. She was recently sick and sleeping in out bed and my husband came in one night to get into bed and opened the door and I loved how the light of the hallway gave just enough light to light her up. So, I had him grab my camera and I actually shot these laying in bed with her… this is what I see at night when she’s all curled up next to me, little flaring nostrils and all but its a memory I’m so glad I have….

Thank you for viewing my Life Stories post, and please visit Stephanie Sacolo Photography to see their take on this month’s song!

It signifies the beginning of one day and the ending for the next.  It brings us hope, joy and new life.

It’s incredible how I never noticed light until I became a photographer, like really noticed how it envelops curves, how it creates drama, how it can bring magic and life to an image.

I love light. I seek it. I spend countless hours watching as it changes, finding magic pockets, learning how to manipulate it and just stare in sheer awe of the beauty it creates…….