** For warning I wrote this a few days after my dad passed away, so these are raw & real feelings**

My job is to preserve memories and it’s not just weddings and family portraits that need to be preserved it’s the everyday moments and the family get togethers. As photographers we do our absolute best to capture every moment from candid to posed, but we are human and at times we may miss a shot & those moments haunt us at night, we will stew over that for days & in reality you won’t notice that we missed a certain shot, but I promise we do.

Over the last couple of years it has become incrediby important to capture images on our family farm. I want to capture every detail from the old milkhouse to the old farmhouse, chickens, cows, the rolling hills, the views and of course the people, my family.

It’s become important to me to bring my camera when my mom & dad feed hay, or when Sadie Mae & my mom are riding on the 4-wheeler, cause those are the everyday moments, that’s my family doing what they love. And I have the unique ability to take that photo and turn it into a special memory.

With the passing of my dad I’m incredibly grateful for the photos I have snapped over the last several years. The photos of him & my mom working together on the farm, those are special. I’m thankful for Fall 2019 when I wrangled our family into taking family photos. I set up my tri-pod and of course the guys never wanna get dressed up and they want to go hunting, but those photos are something we cherish dearly now.

My hope was to take some updated family shots this past Fall and get our niece’s & nephew’s there as well, but that didn’t happen and that hurts alot, it haunts me. It haunts me that I never took professional photos of my niece Carlee (2 years old) & her papaw. The photos we do have & the memories are all we have left and she at least has those to hang on to.

I’ve said it before, we used to take so many photos with our film cameras, disposables and there’s a photo for every family event. One problem is that families don’t have big gatherings or reunions anymore, and the ironic part is that we all have cameras on our smartphones literally at our fingertips and yet somehow it’s an inconvenience for us to take photos of our loved ones.

As we sorted through family photos one night after my dad passed, I felt joy & happiness even in a time of complete heartbreak & sorrow.

I relived my dad’s life through those photos & we told stories & it helped ease our pain. I saw my dad’s life from a baby to a fresh faced 19 year old. There are a few photos of my dad & I that I hold so near & dear to my heart, like I can remember the moment they were taken, the time he was mowing hay and mom & I drove the truck up to the hayfield & I leaned over & gave him a hug, to the time we had a beautiful red & white calf & we posed with it proudly.

It’s neat to look back at photos of my parents, to see them when they were just kids young & in love, to see their passions, and their adventures efore kids & with. These photos along with our memories are all we have, the cool thing is we can look back at them & pinpoint those moments small & large in someone’s life.

So all of this to say that I hope you take the photo, I don’t care if it’s with your cell phone, or a professional shoot. Take the candid of your dad working, your mom baking cookies with your niece, because one day you’ll be so grateful you did.

It’s one of the only things in life you won’t regret the thing you will regret ..is not taking the photo.

And after you take that photo make sure to print it & share it with family. Tomorrow is not promised that photo may be the last ever taken of a loved one, life is so unexpected.

P.S. I miss you dad!