It seems like this past season we were reminded every week of the tough struggles our clients are going through in their private lives…many facing unbelievable obstacles like  struggling with cancer.

 

 They are survivors celebrating milestones or have booked us for that special portrait while they look healthy before the big treatments start or often more tragically, for the final portrait of their lives. 

 

All of these are very emotional cases for us. Even in the short period of time we are together, our clients touch our lives and our hearts very deeply and we are blessed to be able to offer these families the documents and validation they are seeking with portraits of their loved ones that will be cherished for years to come. 

 

This summer Ray and I lost a very special friend to her battle with cancer and at her memorial I found myself thinking of the photos the family had to display on the large screen in the front of the room, and yet none of them were from professional photographers, they were all snapshots from family and friends.

 

I wanted to have her pose for us once her struggle began, but her treatments and travel got in the way and we never got around to it and then she was too weak. I felt awkward asking her if she wanted portraits in her wig, so I put it off…then it was too late. I regret not capturing her smile for all of those she shared it with. Sure we all love our group and family portraits but, what about the one of just her? The one her husband can hold on to later? 

 

My message to you is this…don’t wait. Schedule that professional photo of the ones you love now. Go to a professional photographer in your town and make the effort to get a great family portrait but let them also capture your individual portrait.

 

I bet I hear it several times a week, when we ask the Mom or Dad for a portrait of themselves…and grandparents… they are even worse. “Ohhh, I am not posing by myself …this is about the grandkids.” Well, I laugh and try and get them to do it anyway, because I know the real gift to the grandkids will be the portrait of grandmother as spunky and grand as she is today. 

 

It is a becoming a rare thing in this digital age, real portraits that is. We are becoming a society of documenting everything yet in mere glimpses and with rapid pace. We are guilty of it ourselves….Ray has some great images of me when we were younger, but now….not that many …and I do not have many of just him either. 

 

So, do it now…this year! Schedule that Professional Portrait Session and make sure you get that great portrait that will be cherished for generations of yourself and loved ones.