I'm normally a little timid about celebrating Mother's Day. To be honest, I'm a little timid about celebrating most commercialized holidays. But...if ever there were a time I felt the need to celebrate mothers, it is now. In 2020. In the midst of this pandemic.
When Crystal met me at the door for this session, she was like, “yeah, so a lot has happened since I talked to you last.” I looked around and much of their house was in boxes. The walls were bare, and they were preparing for a possible, sudden move. I knew from that moment that I could not love this family more.
The fact that they were in this place of transition, when almost everyone else would say that they couldn’t do photos of their family at this time, the Stampleys said yes. When nothing is certain, you lean on what you know is certain, the people in your life who are your family.
To be honest, I fell in love with this family even before that moment. It really started when I talked to Crystal on the phone for the first time. The conversation would pause when her daughter had a question about the drawing she was making, and I’d get to listen in on an adorable conversation about it. I turned to my own son on my side of the conversation who had just pooped his pants and thought maybe I should change it…nah, he wasn’t bothered by it. It could wait. Plus, I’m certain our potty mouth conversation would not be nearly as adorable.
The day I met up with them was filled with breakfast and games and an outing and pizza and a birthday celebration all mixed in with sibling squabbles and plenty of snuggles. A day worth remembering…not because of anything in particular, or in spite of a packed away house, but because they are family, and the experience of being together matters. Now they have these photographs to celebrate that.
Life is always changing and evolving around us, and the time to photograph it is now, in the midst of it all.
