I can photograph your child actually walking for many years to come. But they only learn to walk once.
The years pass more quickly as I get older. The days and the weeks (heck, the decades) start to feel more similar. I am changing less, and the way I experience the world is changing less, so it all blends together a little more. It’s ok, that’s what happens as you grow into yourself.
But for our children, the transformations come quickly. They make physical and cognitive strides constantly. The way they connect with you evolves and grows by the minute. I swear our daughter Maggie looks different every. single. day.
Speaking of Maggie, she’s not great at sleeping. On Tuesday, Maggie didn’t sleep more than two hours in a stretch. Her favorite, actually, was the 45 minute “night nap.”
On Wednesday she refused to sleep anywhere that wasn’t on top of a human. Oh, and that human had to be rocking or walking. There are no night owls in this household and she did that until one in the morning so it wasn’t ideal.
But after six months of rollercoaster sleep experiences, I know two things to be true – these phases are temporary, and I don’t actually want to speed them up, even if I am tired.
Time will someday accelerate for Maggie, just as it has for her parents. But for now, the transitions are so quick and so frequent that it is easy to miss them. I don’t want to miss them!
Even as a photographer, I know that you can’t capture all of it on camera. TBH I wouldn’t want to. Pictures are great and all but we also want to be present and not distracted by the act of photographing every little thing.
My best advice is to choose a few phases or seasons that will make you most nostalgic, that are most powerful for capturing your baby’s journey and your experience as a growing family. I believe those seasons should be seasons of change, and they often look like this – maternity, newborn, six months, one year.
It might seem like I chose these round numbers just for convenience, but I didn’t. I think these are the best times because they mark transitions.
Maternity and newborn are obvious transition points. Six months is when babies are becoming active, even mobile. They might be trying solid foods. They are learning to make all the sounds and they smile and laugh too. At a year they are learning to walk and talk…enough said.
Why transitions? To put it simply, I can photograph your child actually walking for many years to come. But the learning process only happens once!
So I created the Four Seasons Package, which includes all four of these periods. It is way, way more affordable ($1375 cheaper) than purchasing them each individually. And by treating this as an all-inclusive journey, I can really dedicate myself to telling the story of this yearlong journey for your family.
Thanks for being here. I’m David Enloe, a San Francisco family photographer. I make soul-stirring pictures for families that find adventure around every corner. Want to learn more about the person behind the camera?
