This is an adaptation of my weekly newsletter, Adventures Big & Small. If you want to receive emails like these, click here to subscribe.
This session was several years ago now. I was fairly green as a photographer and a photo editor, and I think we’re all hesitant to share work from “back then.” But this session, this family…they still stand out.
Without any suggestion from me, dad and son showed up in wetsuits, surfboards under their arms. Mom had mentioned it might happen, but I took it lightly. I didn’t think they actually would.
They did.
What is important to me about this session is not so much that we documented an act – dad teaching his son to surf – but that it created honest, emotive moments that were shared by their whole family.
That look from dad that asks, “Was that last wipeout too much? Should we take a moment, or is it best to get back out there?”
That look from mom as she watches her little boy head towards the ocean, in motion towards the next phase of growing up. Or the way she holds him when he comes back in, proud, cold, and maybe just a little scared.
Pictures of moments like these, even decades from now, will surface really powerful memories. Memories of that day, of that season, of the people who were there.
I dream of photographing families camping, rock climbing, surfing, or whatever else you can think of that gets everyone outdoors and just a little outside of their comfort zone. Shared pursuits that push the boundaries just enough to bring everyone back together, a little closer each time.
So, please take me surfing. Or kayaking or slacklining or backpacking.
If you’re headed out on any kind of family adventure and like the idea of capturing what it means to you and your kids, bring me along.
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