you’ve heard that line before – it comes from a song in the broadway show “rent”.  i’ve always loved that song and i was reminded of it the other day when i had two shoots in one day.  the first was of a one day old baby boy still in the hospital.  the second was of a one year old celebrating her first birthday.  what a privilege it was for me to be asked to come to these very important life events for these two families.  it got me thinking not only about this song, but also all the things that can happen in a year.  how much a baby will grow and change – unbelievably fast!!!!  and how many people will touch that baby’s life, and vice versa.  it was obvious at the one year old b-day party how many people love this little girl.  no doubt that the baby boy will be just as loved and cherished.

so how do you measure a year?  five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes.  i measure it in photographs.  for the first year of my kids’ lives i was pretty good about writing in their baby books too.  i wish i would’ve kept that up.  when i look back at photos i remember funny things they did.  when it’s happening and you’re living it, you think you’ll remember these things forever.  how could you possibly forget?  but, you do.  you forget.  i forget.  until i pick up their baby book to read it, or i look thru some photos. . . then it all comes rushing back.  sometimes it’s the photos on my walls that bring back a memory and sometimes it’s the photos i run across when i’m cleaning or organizing something.   but it’s usually a photo that’s been printed.  so, today, i encourage you to make prints of the photos you take!!!!!!  yes, use that fancy camera phone to take photos – but print them out!  it can be done! (maybe i should do a blog post on that!)  i get that we are living in a digital age and having the digital images is important to many.  but i’ll let you in on a little secret . . . kids love (and i mean LOVE!) to see photos of themselves.  they love to see photos of themselves with their parents.  and if you want to see the look of joy on their face when they realize that the person in the picture is THEM, then you have to give them access to those images and the best way to do that is to print them!!!

a big thank you to these two families that invited me to share such special moments with them – i do not take it lightly and i will remember it always. (because i have the photos!!!)