With a new baby at home and toddler to chase around everyday I don't have a lot of time for passion projects lately. However, this is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I partnered with my friend Hilary who started Wild & Tiny mom group to give away a mini session to one lucky mama. If you aren't already, make sure you start following Wild & Tiny on all of their awesome adventures around Vancouver led by Hilary. You'll likely recognize her from my blog and the many shoots I've done with her and her family.

I don't do many family photos anymore but something I notice is that no matter how relaxed and casual I keep things families show up frazzled and frustrated after fighting to get their little ones dressed and out the door and begging and bribing them to "smile at the camera". Don't get me wrong, everyone has fun and we get beautiful photos of everyone smiling at the camera to frame for Grandma and Grandpa but this time I wanted to do something different. As a mom I know how easy it is to get caught up in the rat race of diapers and naps and swimming lessons. Before you know it another stage has passed undocumented except for a few iPhone snaps, likely with mom behind the camera. I wanted to create a calm, loving environment for moms to hang out and interact with their babes and get in front of the lens.

All of the photos came out really beautiful and the sessions were calm and loving, exactly as I envisioned. I was so excited to share them with all of the sweet mamas. Unfortunately not all of the feedback was positive. I received a couple of comments like "Thank you so much for the photos but do you have any more of us looking at the camera and not at each other?" and "I love the ones of my baby but I look terrible." This broke my heart. It wasn't the negative feedback that made me sad but the fact that we are so hard on ourselves. Motherhood is not perfect, its messy, its exhausting. I'm lucky if I get to wash my hair twice in one week, my kids sometimes wear the same outfit two days in a row. We have this constant pressure from social media to live this flawless life and unfortunately thats just not reality. Nobody cares if your house is a disaster, your kids are in their pjs at noon and they're eating Cheerios instead of homemade, gluten free granola. Nobody. When your kids are 40 and looking through photos of the two of you together they are not going to notice that your skin looks bad or that your eyes look tired. So kiss their dirty faces, sit back and sip your cold coffee and savour every single moment. And get somebody to take a damn photo!