My husband says that when I first started taking pictures I would get super frustrated when the boys wouldn't do what I wanted them to do. Well, really, "boy" wouldn't do what I wanted since it was only Garrett in front of my camera.
Over the years I've learned that the best photographs are made when I follow their lead. Once I came to terms with the truth that most of the time its not about me (read the perfect picture I have in my head) I found my voice as a storyteller. The best images are made when I go in with zero expectations, when I allow life to unfold around me.
Last night when my sweet friend asked if I wanted to go fly kites with her boys in a field of wildflowers, at sunset I thought sounds fabulous, right?? And it was in little bitty pockets like this.
I could leave it at that. I could let you think that we had this picture perfect evening.
But let's just say that a 3 and 5 year old need a lot of help flying kites for the first time and my ratio of photographer / mom time was about 1 to 9.
Ten minutes in I knew it was not happening and decided to just embrace the moment. So, when Travis saw a path and wanted to go on an adventure we packed it up and followed his lead and found magic. We walked right into an opening of fireflies.
While the boys screamed and chased them I soaked in the magical evening. There weren't too many photographs made but the memories are abundant and I will only need one or two photographs to open the flood gates.
I mentioned recently that I am not a character in story. Well, neither are my boys and the more I stop trying to write their narrative the better it becomes.
Here is a video I made of the littles discovering the fireflies.