Family photo season is upon us. Fall is a great time to get your family photos done – colors are changing, the light can be amazing, and if you get them done now you’ve got lots of time to get your Christmas cards printed.
One of the main questions I get asked is “What should we wear?”Deciding what to wear for your photos can be challenging so let’s dive in a bit.
I have a much greater appreciation for this truth - It’s only to the degree that we face our fears and are vulnerable, when we embrace our cracks that “the light gets in … that the love gets out”. This is at the heart of what I want to imbue in the images I create. While I won’t normally go down the path of wildly photoshopping a face to make a point, I do want who you really are to come shining through, because you are pretty amazing just as you are and the world is a better place when we get to see you.
-A few years ago, my family and I travelled to the beautiful island of Lombok in Indonesia. One day, stopping at a random, postcard-perfect beach (Lombok is littered with them) I found myself in conversation with a middle-aged man resting on a bamboo platform under the shade of some coconut palms. As a younger man, he had gone to Jakarta to make his fortune, but returned to Lombok a short time later, recognizing that the pursuit of wealth wasn’t the promised road to happiness he had imagined. Instead he returned home to spend his mornings fishing, catching enough to eat, plus a little extra that could be traded with his neighbours for the other required staples, or sold for some fun money. His afternoons were spent resting on his platform, enjoying the sea breeze, with evenings set aside for family and friends. He was quite possibly the most content person I have ever met.
I’ve been conducting an experiment lately, asking people what their favourite feature is. Almost universally the response goes something like this – “Well, it’s definitely not my nose, and I don’t like my eyebrows and my (fill in body part) is too (big, small, round, flat, uneven…).” It is a rare person that answers the question in the affirmative. While this might just be self-deprecating Canadian modesty, I think it goes much deeper.
A few years ago now, our family was preparing to move overseas. Our house was sold, bags were being packed, and whatever we hadn’t sold or given away was going into storage. My wife was sitting in the rocking chair I had bought her when our son was born. Our son, now 12, came up to her, sat down in her lap, said “Maybe just one more time, mom” and they shared a hug.
The Greeks, though, had another word for time: Kairos. Kairos time is different. Kairos is time as opportunity, time as gift. Kairos times are the moments that transcend the ordinary and mundane. These are times we are truly present, times we are creating memories, times that remind us of what really matters.
