When I was newly pregnant with my first baby I lost my mom to breast cancer.  It was hard enough to lose her but even harder to embark on this new journey in life, parenthood, without having her their to help guide me.  As, most new mom’s will tell you, something changes in you the first time you hold your new baby.  Life gets both clearer and so much more complex at the same time.  You understand love on a whole new level.

This is a picture of my mom, holding me, the day I was born.  After my first was born I found myself staring at this picture.  Finally “getting” all the things this picture said.  It gave me the answer to so many of the questions I wanted to ask her.  Did she feel that rush of love?  Did becoming a mom change her?  What was it like to hold me?  What would she want me to know about those first few minutes of motherhood?  This picture answers all of those questions and so much more.  To this day it is one of my favorite pictures of my mom – it gave me the opportunity to relate to her in a way I needed so badly.

The second picture brings such a huge smile to my face.  If I ever wondered if I lit up my mom’s heart the way my kids light up mine, all I have to do is look at this picture.  It says it all.

I don’t buy into selling fear.  My story isn’t about taking the picture today because you don’t know if you’ll be here tomorrow.  But it is about capturing the now.  Telling today’s story because as the days and months and years pass, the details do start to fade and today’s story gives way to tomorrow’s reality.  It’s about knowing that some moments and emotions transcend words.  It’s about believing in magic – the magic that fills a house when new parents bring home their baby – the magic that exists in the laughter between a mom and their child.

I love photographing newborns.  I love everything about it!  But what I love the most is having the opportunity to be present and the  honor of capturing a little bit of that magic.  That magic is what I love about the picture of my mom holding me, what I hope to give to every one of the families I photograph and the reason I encourage all my parents get in the picture.

Twenty five years from now, your kids aren’t going to be looking back and thinking, gee, mom’s hair isn’t perfect.  Or, oh wow dad has bags under his eyes.  Or, I wish mom had lost a few pounds.  They are gong to look back on these pictures and realize how much their parents were exactly like them.  And there is a little bit of something magic about that!