We have been photographing long enough to hear every reason why a mother won't get in a photo with her child.
Too fat
Too old
No make up
Messy hair
Not Ready
Another time
It's about the kids anyway
Yes, exactly. My kids have spent a great deal of time looking through photo albums. They love to see themselves as babies, they love to see what their mom and dad looked like before they were alive. They are intrigued by life before them. They love their pictures.
I love pictures (duh). I love pictures with my mom and my mom with her mom. It's a legacy I am being left. Yes, some of our pictures candid, some are not, regardless we exist pictures.
We are giving you an opportunity to be professionally capture with your mom in our studio.
I remember my mom in photographs. I don't remember her messy hair, but I remember her kissing me on the head and saying she loved me before we "cheesed" for the camera.
I don't remember her saying another time, but I do remember asking if we could squeeze one more person in the photo.
I don't remember her thinking she was too old, because with every year has come another marriage or grandchild.
I love the photographs I have of my mom. I will have them forever and as we all know we never know how long our own forever will be.
All this to say, we are giving you plenty of time to prep for our Celebrating Mom's Mini Sessions. How many true professional photos are there of you and your mom and her mom and all the moms i your life.
Leave your legacy in photographs. You are ready, it's time. I hope to see you there!
We cultivated our final images and posted them on our site www.amberjphoto.com but I am always a sucker for behind the scenes videos! This a quick 3 minute look into our Fantasy Red Wedding Shoot!
Thacher Park was supposed to be covered in snow, but no snow has come so this entire shoot took on new meaning. Despite a good breeze, the models Chelsea and Gina did wonderful. Our make up artists Rachel and Glory made everything come to life and the cake... well the cake was put to good use after the shoot.
Flowers by Ally provided the bridal bouquet and I have to say, this bridge we walk on between reality and imagination is somewhat fabulous.
:)
xo amber
Disclaimer: This blog post will not solve life problems, but it's a glimpse into why a few girls ( and many others) have showed me: it's how we sit the bench that matters.
Several years ago I cut a girl from the varsity soccer team I coach because she wasn't ready for varsity sports. A few years after that I told a young freshman if she ever wanted to set foot on the field for more than 5 minutes she needed to get fit and come back ready to play. I have had many female athletes who have spent more time on the sidelines than on the field. The amazing story comes in what happens on the bench.
The young girl I cut from the team returned a year later and she was ready. She started every game for three years. This girl eventually became a captain on her college and high school teams. The young freshman returned her sophomore year extremely fit. This young athlete became a captain, eventually an MVP and eventually a collegiate athlete.
I watched a girl compete over and over again despite a knee injury that kept re-occurring. She would sit on the bench in tears and tell her teammates to keep going.
These girls also spent quality time on the bench. They had a choice to make and they made it.
Failure can be our greatest success story.
As a coach, I have a tendency to watch players on the bench just as much as on the field/court. What they do when they sit on the bench or how they behave when the come off the court and the field says everything. Do they sit with their heads in their hands? Do they cheer on their teammates? Can they encourage others even when they don't feel like it? Do they sit slumped and mad or do they stay engaged for the sake of their teammates?
Can I do that?
Sometimes we all sit the bench. Guess what? There are millions of photographers better than I am, there coaches more talented and parents who never let their kids eat sugar before their first birthday.
I have failed. I have not always cheered on others. One girl changed that in me.
Our greatest success can be found on the bench:
One of my players year after year watches her teammates have success while she sees the sidelines more than the fields. Year after year she cheers, she encourages her teammates and she never ever makes an excuse. She's amazing. She never lets up on a run, she never misses a practice, her parents have never called me, she has never complained. This doesn't mean she didn't cry or get in the car and vent to her mom. I get how hard it is. Yet she will find success far above many others. She has taught me more than she will ever know. It's how she sits the bench that matters and it matters greatly.
I have decided to encourage others even in the face of my own failure. I will make every effort to teach my children that as well. {in progress!} I will make sure other artists know they are to be celebrated even when I might be facing a down time of my own. I will make sure that even if I don't see success in my first tries, I will never allow excuses to weigh me down. I will be ok with my own failures and successes. I will cheer on others even if it's my turn to sit the bench. I will not hang my head or resent others for that is not what makes players great or artists memorable. I will probably fail at this from time to time.
It's easy to be awesome in those successful moments, it's pretty darn amazing to be awesome in the shadows of the bench. It's how we sit the bench that really matters.
Cheer on.
And when things aren't going your way for the moment, volunteer with me, it's perspective in it's rawest of forms. Because for some, sitting the bench is the only option.
As more and more people come to see us and understand about our senior portrait business, they also find our Model Rep team to be slightly amazing. What is this model rep team? It's a group of juniors we sign on to work with us for a year in a variety of shoots and vendor promotions in our world of photography.
As I have talked to ( mainly) teen girls they say they would love to be a part of what we do, but they aren't models. That's perfectly fine by me and here's why.
I will let you in on a little secret. I work with some beautiful people, I know dozens and dozens of people who, by today's standards are beautiful and yet, they are the most self conscious people I know. It's almost exhausting, because I think... if I looked like them, it would be #selfienation in every instagram post! Everyone struggles with self image. Every. single. person.
So this year I am thinking of doing away with our "model" wording to describe it as something else that means so much more. I don't know what that is yet, but I do know this, the teens I work with through this team are shy, outgoing, tall, petite, strong, have braces, curly hair, short hair, long hair, insecurities, confidence, athletic, artistic and I could go on.
I want real. Be real with me.
So, THAT is what this year is going to be about. Don't get me wrong, we are going to be creative and awesome... with all our REAL girls (and guys!). Join the adventure.
