In my corner of the internet there is a rise of desire to only capture authenticity. Real, imperfect moments. I’ve discussed this before, but I don’t pose my children for pictures. What you see here are snapshots. Here and there I will guide them to better light, etc but 100% of the time I maneuver myself to capture the emotions, not create them. I was looking back on this week’s pictures and realized how easy it might be assume our days are stress free, staged or “perfect” because each snapshot is a mere second in time.

So back to this authenticity movement. I’m torn. Yes, we have bad days at our house. More than our fair share. And I imagine if I would pull out my camera during one of Liam’s hulk-out raging fits it would only piss him off more, and I might end up with a broken camera. In reality, during a raging fit I’m too busy trying to protect Liam in his surroundings and provide him comfort to worry about the snapshot. And when Emry is so upset that she can only cry her eyes out, how insensitive and horribly sensationalist of me would it be to ask her if I can take a picture when she’s seeking comfort?

And our house. I’ve been accused of only keeping my house clean for pictures. And that’s hilarious. I thrive in clean and tidy environments and have for many years before I wielded a camera. And apparently that makes me a fake person. Well how’s this for real? We have a housekeeper. I keep everything tidy and clean up imminent messes, while she does a weekly deep clean and it saves my sanity so there are no apologies here!

So if joining this authentic movement means that I have to stop being nurturing and start being a full-time photojournalist and to start creating a staged hot mess of a house just so my pictures look real then count me out. My real life is a far cry from perfect but I will continue to record the very authentic moments that are our reality. It’s not my concern whether our days are believable to others or not. We are just living this life and loving every second!