The Importance of Documenting Your Moments | Tampa Wedding Photographer Kristen Marie Photography

The Importance of Documenting Your Moments

Typically, we won’t discuss our personal lives however, it reiterates the importance of capturing your memories. Why am I posting this now? I am currently working on the launch of our family photography site and it really hit home going through all of these lives I have captured the past few years and even now looking at the shots I can laugh about things that took place at the session I remembered through the images I was viewing. Life happens quick there are details that you may forget over time or that you didn’t remember in the heat of the moment that a photo captures that helps the memory live on. Cliche? Maybe. Most that see images of my family see an image with me, my husband, and our two children. Last year I became an affiliate photographer for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, although I have yet to photograph for the organization I became a part of it for more personal reasons.

November 7, 2009, we delivered a 22 week old little girl, she was actually our second child. We had gone in for the routine ultrasound at around 19 weeks and it was at that time the doctor let us know there were some organs that couldn’t be seen and that we would have to go to a level II ultrasound so he could get the measurements he needed. He had said there was nothing to be concerned about at that time. It was two weeks later at the Level II that we were given the news that our daughter was terminal and had no kidneys, Bladder, or Amniotic Fluid (Potters Syndrome). If we choose to wait till I was full term she would not survive either way. My previous pregnancy with my son (now almost 6) had many complications and he was delivered early- with that said we didn’t want the baby to suffer and we didn’t want to risk a complication that could potentially hurt me as well. We made the decision the next day with my actual OB to deliver.  We really had no time to think things through and hadn’t contacted any organization for  photography. Thankfully the nurses at Brandon Regional Hospital have their own program and provided us with 120 or so images of our daughter.

Why discuss this with strangers? Well, I hear from time to time photographs aren’t important to us, why spend the money on images that are going to just sit in a drawer and collect dust (or your hardrive!)? The only thing some people have to remember a moment are the images. We were so overwhelmed with everything going on- the emotions of losing a child that there were details we didn’t pay attention to things we may have wanted to remember but were so emotionally drained that we forgot. Alongside her ashes sits an album filled with images of a baby we remember through photographs. Those images although not shared with anyone but family holds an important place for us because it is all we have to remember our child. Think about the family that comes from afar for your wedding day, yes, you have the memories but 10 years from now they  may not be here and those photographs you could have could bring up a conversation about that individual bringing laughter, tears, and more stories.

There is always a debate about photography and photography prices- why do you need to have someone capture those memories? Memories fade in time you don’t remember details that the photographs capture. How many times do you walk by a photographs in your home and smile because it brings back a memory.

It’s just food for thought when you feel like you are spending to much to have your childs events captured or even your own events like your wedding. I don’t mention the above lightly I have debated this post for a while, but I think it’s important to consider how photography really truly does capture moments that your own memory may lose over time or because of the emotion of the moment.  I had met with a past bride the other day and she had mentioned that she relived her wedding through her images, that there were things captured that she had not even remembered till she saw the shots. That confirmed I did my job but the truth that your own mind doesn’t always hold all of your memories that your photographs can/do.