When we start taking photos and we are parents, it is often to take pictures of our children. We take a lot of them on their own, with siblings, and then we expand with the other parent, with grandparents, with friends, etc. And after a while, we realize that someone important is missing in our images: ourselves.
3 simple steps to be in the photos with your kids
Yes we could say that we are there the way we photograph them, that this is how we see them... and even if this is true, this is not what our children really want to see in our pictures. They want to see that parent, the one who is always behind the camera, interacting with them in ways other than taking pictures.
So self-portraits are coming up in our photographic journey, it's often a step that most of us dread. After all, we are comfortable behind the camera, but not so much in front of it.
In 2019, I had my 3rd child, our long awaited rainbow baby. And because I know it's our last one and we've waited so long for it and didn't think we'd get it at all, I also wanted to document her first year as much as possible.
Also, even though I've been photographing since elementary school and took photography classes in college, I really got interested in photography when my 2 older kids were tweens, so I wanted to document all the first times and details with her that I didn't document for the older kids as well.
So in addition to doing a Project 365*, I also took self-portraits with her every month for her first year of life. Always on the same chair. Then the next year came along and I wanted to continue and I wanted to take more with my older kids too and with my spouse... but I got confused by something a little distracting, remember, March 2020? Yes, so I stopped and when I wanted to start again, it didn't make sense to resume the monthly self-portraits because I had skipped many months. But I still wanted my kids to see me in the pictures I took and more than anything, see me interacting and relating to them. So I pushed myself as hard as I could to get some, but I didn't get as much as I wanted.
However, in the fall, I joined an amazing Instagram loop** lead by Kirsty Larmour that I've been following for a little while, thanks to my friend Judith, and I now have the motivation to take at least one every two weeks. I took a few that I would never have had without this loop because I want to participate with these amazing women.
You can see all the photos shared over the years in this loop using these hashtag #bothsidesofthelens #bothsidesofthelens21 #bothsidesofthelens22.
So, I'm sharing with you some of the self-portraits I shared in this loop as well as a few others I took throughout the years, since our loop is still going strong to this day, you can follow it every two weeks on #bothsidesofthelens22.
And since then, being in the image with my kids has become second nature. I can do it very easily and I don't even have to think about it anymore and I am in a lot of our everyday images now. So my kids know that I AM THERE TOO, being there for them and taking care of them.
I've put tips, suggestions and inspiration to help you get in front of the lens together in a document for easy reference, so if you want to get started and do get in the photos with your kids, or need some inspiration, you can check it out:
3 simple steps to be in the photos with your kids
You can also see photos of Brooke Hamilton and KirstyLarmour, two other participants in the Instagram loop, and read about their vision and experience with self-portraits.
*Project 365: take at least one photo per day every day of the year
** What is an Instagram loop? A loop is when a few (or many) photographers get together and share an image with a common theme or technique, then identify the person after them in the list and thus create a circle so that people can move from one to another and back to where they started. It's a fantastic way to discover new accounts (gain subscribers sometimes), but more importantly, for me, it's a great way to stay creative and motivated.
