18 Months is Fun

This is an adaptation of my weekly newsletter, Adventures Big & Small. If you want to receive emails like these, click here to subscribe.

Our daughter is almost 18 months old. And aside from the feeling that time and toddlerhood are rapidly slipping through our fingers, I think a lot about how much fun we’re having. 

All of a sudden she makes like 100x more sounds than she did a couple of months ago. She has SO many more words. She can run and (sort of) jump and has a her own unique sense of humor. I’ve never heard belly laughing like I did a couple of nights ago. 

Being a photographer doesn’t change my anxieties over capturing this time with our daughter. I’d argue it makes it worse because the responsibility is 100% squarely in my department. Sure I have the tools and the skills but I will be the first to admit it is challenging. 

The first challenge is simply being too close. I have to work extra hard to see the kinds of nuances that I notice easily when working a family like yours. When you are too close they just blend in.

The second challenge is my daughter’s shift from a cute little blob to an individual who has a story. I feel the need to create intentional images with layers and nuance and feeling. Photographs that will someday spark memories and, with any luck, the recounting of a good story.

That first picture I shared is a great example. It probably doesn’t mean much to you but to me it says a lot of thing to me…

We were hiking the mountain behind our new home in Marin.

Our dogs were off leash and we were struggling to corral them. 

I can tell by Maggie’s expression that she’s about to yell “Emmaaaaaaa,” in search of our dog Emmy (which she can’t yet say). She yells it like a question, with her voice inflecting up at the end. We now all yell “Emmaaaaaaa” the way she does.

Sure, it is my job to create photos like these, but it is forever challenging. I love the fact that I’ll never be 100% satisfied with my work. I love that I will always feel driven to do better.

Here’s a little selection of photos made over the past months, entirely on film. Snapshots from our everyday and some adventures too. 

If the feeling you get from these photos resonates, you will like the direction The Enloe Creative is headed in 2025. More film, more documentary, more storytelling.