My husband came home from visiting a friend over Memorial Day weekend and shared with me a comment that his friend's wife made to him about inexpensive pictures she had taken of their 3 month old son.  According to my husband, he feigned disgust at the notion of commercial studio prints, with what he described as a gag and a scold.  Always a comedian… Her response, however, was more serious in nature, 'What?  They are only pictures and I needed something quickly.  Why does it matter?" 
As a photographer I must admit that even though I know it wasn't meant to hurt my feelings, her comment did sting (a bit more than a bit).  But it also pushed me to start thinking more in depth about why I do what I do; to see if I can put into words what I carry in my heart; to see if I can actually answer her question...Why does it matter?

I get it.  There are a lot of great cameras out there, there are a lot of photographers, there are a lot of opinions and there are a lot of options.  So why spend your hard earned money to have your children photographed professionally?  Why create an album filled with photographs of you while you are still hanging onto that extra 10 pounds of baby weight?  Why do you need more images of what your kids look like right now…well, right now? 
Why?

Because it does matter.

I have a 15 year old, who grew up way faster than I thought she would.  And three “almost four” year olds who suddenly became preschoolers overnight.  You don't invest in professional photographs for the here and now, you do so because of what they become to you in future years.  The memories, the moments, the reminders of the time that flies by so incredibly fast. 

Life isn't something that is lived only in the biggest and grandest of moments, it is found in the cracks between.  The day to day, the mundane, the ordinary…that is what you are going to miss the most when your children grow up.  The drool constantly drenching his shirt.  The shoes she insists on wearing that don't match anything in her closet.  The snuggles for story time while they are still small enough to fit on your lap together.  The way he reaches over to tenderly rub her back when she falls down and skins her knee.

Those little things are the very things you are going to so easily forget (even if you don't believe me yet).  One day, a day not as far from now as you'd think, you will wake up and realize that there is so much you wish you could revisit.  And my job?  It isn't just to take pretty pictures.  My job is to help you remember.  To capture the parts of your life that are found in those cracks: the personality and the details, the relationships and the love, the laughter and the tears.  To suspend in time your children exactly as they are right now, to document who you are to them today, to photograph who you are as a family…all of you imperfectly beautiful.
 
Why does it matter?  Because it matters to you.  Maybe not now.  Maybe not tomorrow.  But someday.  Someday it will matter more than you can imagine.

And when someday comes, you will be so grateful that you spent a little more to capture them…and you.

Rachael Shirano is the ever talented woman behind the camera for Rachael Marie Photography.  Rachael Marie Photography specializes in custom lifestyle portraiture.  See more of her work on her blog by clicking HERE.  You can find Rachael Marie Photography on Facebook too.

*Photos are property of Rachael Marie Photography and should not be copied or reproduced in any way.