I love being a family photographer

I am a lifestyle family photographer based in Kaysville, Utah. I’m having a midlife crisis at 47 and running a photography business as a mom with 4 kids. Yes, I have been told I am too honest, but that is how I am. I like to keep it real. 

I have always loved taking photos and remember having a Kodak Disk camera as a kid. When the sun was setting I could climb our backyard tree and take photos looking over the fence. 

I took my camera on field trips and photographed my new kittens and took photos of my family. It seems I love to document the world around me!

In high school I took photography classes and loved shooting black and white rolls of film. We developed our negatives, made proof sheets, and saw the magic of photos appearing on the paper. It was my favorite class.

The summer after high school I worked at a portrait studio taking lots of photos of kids and families. It was quite busy at times and stressful. I loved seeing genuine smiles and seeing a family interact with love.

This is why I love family photography. It’s the emotions and connections of the family members I want to capture in a photo. Family photos matter because it freezes who we are at that moment of time. Everyone changes and a photo can bring back a memory of the past. I love going back to see photos of my grandparents and parents when they were younger. Don’t you? I’ve been digitizing slides from 50+ years ago. It’s really fun. 

I think I didn’t study photography in college because of fear. I thought I would need a “real career” so I studied accounting at BYU. While I was at BYU I went to Israel (again taking lots of photos. I got in trouble leaving the herd of students to get photos I wanted.) 

I also lived in Switzerland for 16 months and spoke German (not really the Swiss German, but the high German everyone learns). Super beautiful!

I did finish my BS in accounting, never to work in accounting. I married an accountant instead! He’s a CPA in tax (tax is something I will never understand, by the way) I’m glad I didn’t join the corporate world.

I went back to college and studied piano performance and taught piano for more than 20 years off and on. I play the organ and a bit of guitar. Mostly I accompany for my family and anyone needing a pianist.

So anyway, I have been busy with my kids and doing the usual mom things of errands and soccer and tumbling and dance. My girls were ice skating every morning at 6 a.m. and competing so that was busy. Three of my kids liked robotics and we spent Saturdays traveling to robotics competitions.

For me I came back to photography as a way to focus on the good. I’ve had to deal with chronic pain and chronic illness, which has been really hard for me. I used to run every day and ran marathons. I loved running. Now that is over so I have had to slow down and find something for me. I’ve tried lots of hobbies from crocheting, knitting, learning Russian, learning Italian, Ayurvedic cooking, Qi Gong, Yoga…. Photography is challenging because anyone can take a snapshot. I want to find meaning in my photographs. I’m looking for something emotional in my work. I hope my photos bring others joy. That is my “why.”