I Handed My 12 Year Old The Camera And Here Are The Results

I have a confession to make.

I HATE being in front of the camera. It's bad. I'm embarrassed, nervous, self-conscious, and awkward. How can I have the ability to take portraits of women all year long, encourage them to be themselves, and help them to see themselves as the gorgeous beings they are, and I can't even stomach the thought of a picture of myself?!

I am determined to change this. My children need to see me in pictures. They need to see me love myself. This is the year I am forcing myself to be just as comfortable in front of the camera as I am behind the camera.

I found the dress I wanted to wear for the closing session to my series of breastfeeding portraits with our son. We took a day trip to my studio since we can't physically go inside anywhere at this time. I knew the exact setup I wanted for these portraits and even grabbed every plant I had in my home! **I've been dreaming of this set for years, and cannot wait to get more mommas on it as soon as I can open the studio up** My husband was coming with me to help wrangle the toddler, and our 12 year old daughter had already finished her school work for the day, so she eagerly jumped at the opportunity.

In the past, I have setup the settings on my camera and had my husband shoot for me. I decided to include our daughter this time and show her how it all works. I showed her where to stand to get the correct angles. I showed her how the light would look differently (aka more flattering!) if I stood one way vs if I stood the other way. I told her my goals for the portraits. I set the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture for her, helped her up onto the stool, and handed my 12 year old my camera.


Here are the results.

As soon as she finished my breastfeeding portraits, my husband took our son to the car. I handed her the camera once again and told her to shoot some of just me as quickly as possible.

I am unbelievably impressed with these. I knew I would be completely in love with them either way, but the fact that my daughter captured the end of my breastfeeding journey so beautifully is incredibly heartwarming. Not only am I over the moon proud of her, but I'm proud of myself. I listened to all the advice I give every single woman who stands in front of my camera and I was able to relax and enjoy the photoshoot.

This Pandemic is exhausting in so many ways. I miss our normal lives. However, had we not had this moment of down time to just go and play around, I never would have thought to hand her my camera. I don't think I would have taken the time to teach her and help her learn about my largest passion in life. We live lives of constant moving and doing and going and being. It's refreshing to see what happens when we take pause.

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If you and/or your child is interested in learning more about the art of photography during this time, please shoot me an email. I would love to invite you to my online course so that you can learn to take solid pictures at home!

Her smile :)

Love + Light, Friends.

XX

Megan