I am a MOMtographer • The Pinning Mama

I don’t claim to be a professional. I am not formally trained or educated in photography. I am sometimes good at photography and sometimes not. Sometimes I know what I am doing. Sometimes it’s just trial and error. I found a passion, not in photography, but in making my kids stay little forever. Capturing their innocence and the beauty in every fleeting stage of their precious lives. Although I could take a picture of a pretty landscape if I happened upon one, it is not what excites me. Simply put, I like to take pictures of my kids.

When I was little my Mom proudly dressed me up in the style of the times, put a bow in my hair and paraded me to the Sears Portrait Studio to capture my smile on the command of cheese at every milestone though life. She always bought the school pictures even though the neon pink and blue lasers on the cheesy backdrop didn’t really match my awkward preteen outfit. And through the years, no matter what my age I LOVED going through our albums of pictures and seeing myself grow and change. To this day I treasure having a visual chronicle of my life. I want that for my kids too. Selfishly for me to always remember their chubby cheeks and big baby eyes, but also for them to be able to see themselves grow and change as I so enjoyed doing through the years.

When I was pregnant with my first I had beautiful maternity pictures done. I anxiously scheduled newborn, three month, and six month sessions. I got beautiful pictures from all of them that I will treasure forever but I quickly figured out that I was going to have a hard time affording the amount of memories I wanted to create. So I did what I always seem to do… say “I can do that. I’ll figure it out!” And my journey into photography began.

Beginning a journey into photography will do one thing for sure, make you appreciate every cent you spent with a photographer. Great photography takes a lot of time. In learning how to do it and in doing it with every image you want to create. I was horrible at first, but the beauty of it was, I didn’t know it! I thought my pictures were great. Still I wanted to learn more. The more I learned and better I got, the more I appreciate the rates that are charged for great photography. What I am saying is that you have to LOVE doing it to really be worth your time. If you don’t love it, find a great photographer and pay them every cent they are worth.

I spent countless hours, day and night pouring myself into figuring this thing out. I wanted my photos to look like a professional, not a wanna-be. Through the process I have acquired a DSLR camera, become a manual shooter (i.e. not automatic), learned a great deal about composition, posing, lighting and focus, and have become very proficient with Photoshop. I think my pictures are at the point where they look pretty professional but I know there is still a limitless amount of knowledge that I can learn, try, and better my photography with. I hope you will stay tuned to the blog as I share what I am learning and what I have learned along the way in pursuit of taking professional pictures of my children, myself!