Why Professional Photography Is Important: A Reminder

NOTE: I have only posted a few images as I decided to only show/give the sexier boudoir images to her husband…

I’ve been trying to write this post for you for a few months now, but it’s been difficult, as words seem too small to deliver the message. Bear with me, will you please?

Ms R brought this beautiful, hand knitted wedding coat.

Ms R came to me for a session last summer, she wanted to surprise her husband with beautiful and sexy professional photos. She was that kind of woman who had enough energy to power New York city for a month. A warmth that wrapped around me like a blanket and the enthusiasm and positive attitude that could sway even the most committed Eeyore.

Her shoot was a blast, listening to her stories made me laugh until my cheeks hurt. Her photos were, if I do say so myself, GORGEOUS. She said over and over that she didn’t have portraits of herself, just shots from friends’ phones and selfies. She was excited to have professional photos to give to her husband.  She gushed about him, about how they met, and how much she was in love with him and their life together. She said they didn’t need much to be happy, and it was evident that she was so deeply happy….

After her photo shoot, I tried many times to get hold of her to schedule a time for her to come in and see her photos. I didn’t hear back, and thought she might be out of town or busy. Then came a call from her friend, delivering the news that she had died in a car accident.

The news was like a punch in the gut: she had made such an impression on my heart and soul, as all my clients do. I couldn’t, and still can’t believe that she was taken from her family, her two small children.  It is so disheartening to me that she never saw her images. She never SAW how her husband saw her…how her loved ones saw her. She never saw what she was leaving for them…

I met with her husband a few months back to give him her prints. He said, “All that’s been going through my head is that she was the best person I’ve ever met.  She loved everyone, and everyone loved her even my ex-girlfriend.  She was always so strong and confident and sexy.  I always told her she was beautiful but she really felt it during the photo shoot.  i’ll never forget when she called me during it and told me she was beautiful.  I said I know and she replied ” but now I really feel beautiful”.

“She was perfect in every way and finally felt it.  I’ll never be as perfectly awesome as she was.  I miss her so much my heart actually hurts and it pisses me off that the boys will never know how truly bad ass, sexy, confident, smart, and loving there {sic} mother was…I still can’t express with words how perfect she actually was.  She made life worth living.”

Why do we wait like this? Why do we not allow ourselves to document who we are and what we look like NOW for our beloveds, for our kids…for ourselves?

I am like most women I know, and most women who come to me for photos: I feel like I should lose more weight, where the hell did THAT wrinkle come from. Holy crap, I have a sun spot on my nose…on and on and on. Meanwhile, I don’t have a photo of myself that wasn’t taken on a phone since 2011. Seriously.

So can you take a pledge with me? Have photos taken, get in front of the camera, and  for gods sake PRINT THEM (that’s a whole other rant for another day….) And of course, hug your family tight. Oh, so tight…