A Maternity Session | Vacaville, CA

I will be honest with you... just a few days before this shoot, I considered quitting photography. I thought, just get through the ones booked and then I'll hang up my camera strap and stick to my "day job". Then I shot this family's photos.

I have been feeling so low and insecure about my work and felt like I just couldn't commit enough of my time to this business. I really said to my husband "I think I'm done". As I drove to this shoot I remembered how a few years ago I had enough business that I was turning down jobs because I was overbooked. As I drove down the gravel road to the shoot location, I recalled my first paid shoot that took me down a similar road to an old barn house, to a family new to the area. I pulled up to meet my client and it clicked. The shoot was a breeze and this family was so amazing to work with. They were full of laughter, life, and didn't pose, but they held each other like family's do. Their love for each other and the new baby on the way was so evident.

I drove away from this shoot smiling and came home to my husband with "Heck no, I'm not quitting." As I edited this photos I recalled all of the reasons I do photography. Not for money, not for recognition, but because I genuinely love to capture moments like these. Stolen moments in time not of hand holding and smiles, but of family's just as they are in that moment. A family of three, soon to be four, wanting to remember the sweet anticipation of a new baby. A bride and groom's first kiss before happily ever after. A mother and son wanting to capture the overwhelming joy of a military homecoming.

Photography for me, is not taking snapshots of people and faces, it is about stealing these small, fleeting moments in our lives that we don't ever want to forget. To look back on an image and relive that day's joy, fear, excitement... capturing an image that makes you feel... is what photography is all about. I forgot that a few weeks ago. This shoot reminded me.