Happy Mother's Day!

I try to write my feelings about motherhood for a Mother's Day post every year, but I fail every time. The only thing that I'm sure about and that never changes - I love being a mother and I consider it a great priveledge. That is exactly that makes it so so hard. Not even the tiredness (though it might be an issue for those who has an interrupted sleep!). It's the worrying - worrying if I'm doing it right, worrying if I'm doing my best every day. If there is enough crafts opportunities, enough time outdoors, enough rinning around, enough fruit and vegetables, enough reading, enough learning opportunities, enough sleep, enough playdatess. Worrying if I'm letting them make their own choices enough and at the same time if I'm encouraging them to do the things that I myself know to be good enough. Trying to find that impossible balance, as it changes as they grow and their own understanding of the world expands. I have to remind myself every day that "There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one", a beautiful quote by Jill Churchill.

Another amazing quote that sums up a lot of my feelings about motherhood: “Motherhood is a choice you make everyday, to put someone else's happiness and well-being ahead of your own, to teach the hard lessons, to do the right thing even when you're not sure what the right thing is...and to forgive yourself, over and over again, for doing everything wrong.” -  Donna Ball, "At home on Ladybug Farm".

Look at some of the amazing mums I have photographed in the past year- they all radiate light and make the world better! Happy Mother's Day!

The best gift for any mum...

I have been doing my very unscientific marketing reseach for the last year or so. Which was basically me talking to different mums I know about family photography sessions - how often they do it, why don't they do it, how would they choose a photographer once they have decided. At first surprising and then a sad trend is that most mums are waiting for something to happen before they book a session. To loose weight, to look better, to have more sleep, to feel happier about themselves....

I'm not an exception. I surely don't look like I did "pre children". Photos of me make me cringe and I usually delete 9 out of 10. But my girls like to ask me where was I when a certain photograph was taken. And I always say that I was taking the photo, of course! Which is a good reason, but always being behind a camera is not going to help them to remember me in their childhood.

I have been trying to change it and over the last few months I made sure we take photos using a timer, or handed the camera to my friends to take the photo for us. They are mostly of us during our adventures in muddy wellies, not looking very glamorous, running to the "spot" and looking at the camera and waiting for the timer. Nothing interesting, all of them are just snapshots, but to me these are priceless.

I am also planning a session with a professional photographer, I want to have what I give to my lovely clients as well. It's what becomes even more valuable as the time goes by, as the children grow! It's what I want to remember but I know I can't trust my memory because every time I see photographs even from a few months away I'm shocked how much they have changed and that I haven't noticed!

And with the Mother's Day just around the corner on the 10th of March - why not to give to a lovely mum you know, the mum of your children, your own mum, your sister a gift of a photography session? I have a limited amount of vouchers available, contact me if you are interested and if you have any questions!

P.S. Took me a couple of days after I wrote this blog post to actually press the "publish" button, but hopefully this will help some other mums to feel inspired to actually get in front of the camera!

Snow in Bristol

Now that it's back to +10 and rain again, I have finally completed a blog post about snow.

I can't belive just a week ago I was taking the girls to school on a sledge and now it's more like spring! But I have a very special feelings for snow, so wanted to make a blog post about it...

Seeing snow makes me so happy, I can't even express it. I was squealing with exhitement together with my girls when we first saw snow from a window. And then at night I stopped everything I was doing and just stared out of the window for ten minutes, admiring how snow completely transfers everything, even the nighttime by making it brighter. I was rewarded for it too -  I saw a fox casually walking down the path. Speaking about the windows - checkin  if the snowman is still there in the morning :)

Snow brings back so many childhood memories. Like being pulled on a sledge to my kindergarten, walking behind my mum's back during a snowstorm, hiding from the wind blowing the snowflakes in my face, skying, having a lunch next to campfire after skying. As a child, I got to have snow from October untill it melted only in April-May, it came with the crazy temperatures that I can't comprehend right now, when I complain about it being cold at 0C...! When everything is covered in snow for at least 6 months each year, snow is quite a big part of my memories. Of course, nothing stopped because of the snow, we still had to go to school at -50C and I remember sitting my the radio listening to the weather forecast and hoping it's -51C :).

A lot easier to get a day off school here! I know the snow has caused a lot of chaos for some people, but there are some nice things about everything stopping because of snow. Extra day off! Extra day to spend time with your family. So many people were out, pulling their kids on the sledges, building snowman, having snowball fights, making snow angels, sledging. Everyone looked so happy. I loved seeing people smile as I passed by them pulling my girls on the sledge. I can only compare the amount of people having a great time with their children to what you can see at a seaside on a hot summer day.

 

Snow is very tiring, we needed an energy boost -food for the kids, food for the ducks:

 

Oh snow, we miss you :) Nothing left but the photographs now, even the snowman has melted away!

Snow...

I can't even begin to tell you how much I was excited about all the snow! No snow last winter was very disappointing. Of course I took a couple (hundreds) of photographs in the last few days, most of them of us covered in snow and mud and being cold... Those are to come later, but here are just a few from a little playdate when we enjoyed a bit of beautiful unforecasted snow:

Photosession with a cutest baby boy!

What I love most about my job as a photographer is meeting new people -  I feel very priveledged every time when a family trusts me to photograph them in that time of their life. I always feel a great responsibility, because I know they will look back at the images that I have captured for them and it will help them to remember. In this case, to remember how their cute little boy looked as a 5 months old!

So charming, isn't he? But even more beautiful is the love you can see from his parents. I loved spending time with this little family and seeing how much they care for each other. I hope you can see a part of it though my photography: