Some of my favourite pictures taken over the past few months have been very much unposed, unplanned, in the moment, raw and real. Serious or silly, whether the house is in some form of chaos or the kids are digging up the yard covered in dirt. Whether I pulled clothes out for the day or the kids picked their own, the theme throughout all of these pictures I love would be authentic. Real. No fake smiles, no “look at the camera!” but rather a more candid or documentary feel.

My personal taste in photography has shifted…or rather….I am finally moving in the direction I have known was my taste for years. I “get it” now.

I am done with funless evenings, dragging my half willing kids out to some field, to snuggle in close and pretend to be having a good time. In years past, there were too many nights like that. Nights that would yield pretty pictures of my children, all with good intentions, yet what I couldn’t see at the time, but do now very clearly, is that those pretty pictures are not real and happy memories. I look at them and remember the struggle, the frustration and the unpleasantness of it all. For me, and in large part, for my poor children.

Now, for the most part, I wait and catch them in real moments. Sure I will still take them out but the plan has changed, in that there is none. I hope for nothing and am happy with anything. We have good times, we laugh and play and talk. Nothing is forced, little direction is given if any. Real laughs, smiles, connections and down right fun is captured.

I am sad that it took me so many years to open my eyes to this but I am thankful I have come to my senses while the kids are still young.

The house need not be tidy in the background, why should it? that’s not our reality. The kids do not have to co-ordinate, why would they? they are individuals with their own style and taste. Faces do not always need to be clean, smiles do not always need to be on their faces. I want to capture our real life, our truest memories. When I look back at my (pretty huge) collection of images one day, I won’t be looking at staged unhappy photographs of my children on a blanket in a field. No. I will be looking at a real moment in time with real feeling that will transport me right back to that day. The chaos and noise, the adventure and the day to day.

I want to do this for other people too, I believe in it very deeply. Capture the real. Document your days. Let the kids be themselves.