Capturing Moments and Meaningful Memories

Last Sunday I had my first photoshoot of the summer with an incredible family at their home in Lincoln. I remember when I first started learning how to use a camera, I thought it would be so difficult to take family photos - to make sure everyone looks good and is looking at the camera at the same time. I remember thinking I should probably just stick with live-action, news-type photos or maybe some landscapes. Now that I have a little more experience and I am focused more on capturing lifestyle images, family photos are my favorite!

Having fun with families - even with social-distancing - is so very rewarding. The family I photographed on Sunday was especially fun, with silly faces on the porch, walks around hay bales and pandemic masks. It was a great reminder that you can find - or make - happy moments and memories together, even when times are hard. It turned out to be exactly what I would need that day.

As I returned home after the early-morning photoshoot, just in time for virtual church, I had a text from my mom saying "Mornin'," and I immediately knew something was wrong. I called her, and she told me my grandmother – my Dad’s mother – had passed away.

She was at an assisted living facility in Oregon, where COVID-19 is very high, so my family won't be able to travel to the graveside service later this month. My heart hurt for the normal reasons they do when you lose a family member, but also because I never really had the opportunity to know her. In fact, I realized I didn’t have even a single photograph of her.

Fortunately, my little sister not only got to spend some time with Grandma a couple years ago, but she even got to introduce my niece to her and she took a handful of photos. I’m very grateful to have these photos now, happy memories of my Grandma’s beautiful face, smiling. I’ll cherish them always.

After I heard the news about my grandmother, I had a big hug from my husband, and I watched virtual church with him. St. Paul’s United Methodist Church held their service outside that day, and one of the performances was by a young girl singing Lauren Daigle’s “Everything.” The bridge goes like this:

“When I can't see, You lead me When I can't hear, You show me When I can't stand, You carry me When I'm lost, You will find me When I'm weak, You are mighty You are everything I need.”

It was a beautiful song, sung by a young, beautiful girl in a pretty pink dress and dark lipstick. The music, the lyrics, the voice – mixed with the moment – all moved me to tears, and yet I was smiling. I spent the rest of the day – while sad – with a smile on my face, as I edited the photos of other smiling faces. It was therapeutic, for sure, but more importantly it helped me realize something about why I enjoy being a photographer.

Capturing moments of life in photographs is something I feel I meant to do. I wish so much that I had a photo of myself with my Grandma, and while I don’t I am glad I at least have the few photos my sister took. My passion for being a photographer is to capture those moments – memories – people – for others so they can always remember their loved ones. I get so much joy out of sharing photographs with family members.

So often people might judge and criticize images of themselves – even professional ones – because they don’t like the way they look. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to convince parents to be in photos with their kids or to take photos together without their kids. While they don’t think they “look good” in the photos, I know how much those images with mean to their kids and other family members.

While I don’t have photos of my Grandmother, I know now I will do my best to take a ton of photos of the living relatives I have left. And I will always recommend others do the same: take all the photos you can while you can. You never know when they might be the last one.

R.I.P. Grandma Crawford

July 12, 2020