Documenting Everyday Moments
Our living room is swathed in a sheet of sunlight. My little ones are perched on bent knees beneath this wall of light building elaborate Legoscapes and Playmobil camp spreads. This ethereal scene occurs daily in our home unless the afternoon sun has gone hiding. I have grown to love the four o’clock hour, surreal light cocooning my boys, their words – sweet, dripping bubbles, rising up and out of them. I watch those delicate orbs carrying their honeyed sound until they simply vanish in thin air.
Sometimes they do not wish to play in the light. Instead, they curl up like cats on the couch and beg me to let them watch Speed Racers circa 1965. Or they nestle into bed with a pile of books and read to each other. Other times they wish me to stay far away so they can do sneaky things like jump off the bed frame onto the mattress or have a pillow fight.
These are some of my favorite times to photograph them, even when they do the sneaky things. My camera in hand, I watch from behind the lens quietly, respectfully. I want them to barely notice me so that I can capture these everyday moments exactly as they appear for this is our real life, the moments I want to remember most.
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Capturing milestones, birthdays, holidays, special events, is always fun, but documenting the small moments, the quiet moments which is how I spend the majority of my days with Theo and Sully is what I want to look back on years from now. Something in my mama-heart tells me that when their voices have lost that soft, dripping sweetness and the living room rug always scattered with toys has returned to clear and free of clutter, it will be these photographs I will treasure most.
Is there a time of day at your house when the sun kisses a spot favored by your little one? Have you captured him there? If not, I encourage you to get your camera out. That “cheese” photo taken next to the Easter bunny will be adorable, no doubt, but from one mama to another, I think capturing the way your child’s eyes sparkle while playing with a favorite toy, or capturing his little fingers tightly curled around his green blankie, or that one curl that falls just so will be the memories you will cherish most. I think about this a lot, knowing how quickly moments come and go. Someday, I will look back at these images thin and floating like fine cotton sheets hanging on a clothesline, and I will find that swath of sunlight, still.
Katie Neuman Photography *** Last year I took my love for photography and passion for clicking Theo and Sully’s everyday moments and began documenting these treasured bits for others. Needless to say, I fell in love. Currently I am following my passion and pursuing documentary photography as my main work.
