Ha!  I had to get that Game of Thrones reference in there!  Sorry guys, but this is going to be a love fest of my kids, because they were the easiest examples and I’m not skerd to show you what a wreck my house can be (two under 3, small business owner, wife, dog care taker = can there please be 50 hours in a day?!  I know you guys feel me).

As I was saying, Winter is coming.  As a Michigan photographer, I get this question from November until May: “Do you have a studio?”  And the answer is always “no”.  And there’s a reason for that and it’s not that I don’t have the stuff (I do) or that I wouldn’t love to have my own little space of solitude to work (I would).  It’s because a studio just doesn’t fit what I do.  There is nothing wrong with it – believe me, I am a fan of many a studio photographer, but my business mission statement is to capture your moments and memories.  I want to go to your parks, your cities, your backyard, your messy living room.  I want to capture this time in your life just as it is.  These moments you can’t take back.  You snap your fingers and they’re gone.  When I tell my families that I don’t shoot in a studio, I get a barrage of rebuttals – “my house is in the middle of a remodel”, “my house is messy”, “I’m staying in a rental and I don’t like the way it’s decorated”.  Guys.  Your house is awesome because it’s yours.  In 30 years from now, you aren’t going to care that your home was cluttered or your couch is old.  You are going to love looking at your photos.  You will be thankful 30 years from now that you got over the fact that you hated your blinds or that just before the session, your son dumped his toys everywhere.  I swear!  In fact, to show you how little your possibly messy house matters, here are a few examples.  As I’m sure you noticed, in the above photo, there is a baby powder bottle next to Stella’s head.  I’m totally ok with that because just before that photo, she was pretending to change her Where the Wild Things are stuffed animal’s diaper.  Ok, so the above photo.  I was trying to get Norah to crawl and Stella was coaching her through it (“Yay Nor-nah”).  See, nice clean background, intimate photo of the two of them.  I would frame it.  Ok, so minutes later, Stella was over it and this is what the room really looked like.

Yeah.  That’s the real deal.  Target diaper box in the background, still with the baby powder and clothes everywhere courtesy of my toddler pulling them out of a bin in the closet.  Guys.  I can shoot around it.  If there’s good light in a room, I can do anything ;)  No, but seriously, please remember it’s all about the story.  These are your moments.  Your memories.  Your living rooms and your lives.  It’s so so so important to document.  30 years from now these girls are going to be moved out and possibly married with kids and I am going to be so happy that I documented these times.  Now that I showed you my messy house, will you show me yours? :)