One of the questions I'm trying to answer is, why do people bother to have their picture taken? I ask this question of my clients, and here are some of their answers.

"To celebrate the grace that comes with age" - "...I always feel overlooked in my family.  It would be nice to find a reason to celebrate me for once." - "I'd love someone to capture me now as I am." - "Something just for me." - "I would love to get an updated authentic head shot." - "Help myself embrace my beauty beyond 40." - "I want my kids to see that circumstances don't define you and age is merely a number." - " I feel more myself than I ever have and I love me, all of me."
 

Portraiture is a luxury service - something we might want, but don't generally need. It's funny that so many times the skills of photography are undervalued (which really is the subject of another conversation entirely...) but when do people really want to get photographed?

There are some obvious examples - once-in-a-lifetime events that can never be recreated the same way, such as proposals, weddings, and graduations. Those are easy to justify, and easy to understand why someone would want to invest in capturing that memory. But are there other good reasons to get photos of yourself? Is there ever a justification of "just because"?

Colleen, one of the contributors to my Forty over 40 on Film project began her phone call with me saying "I didn't think I was vain enough to get pictures done..." She had the idea in her head that to get photos for the sake of photos was somehow excessive and prideful, and she felt anything but that. Now in her mid-fifties and struggling with serious health issues she felt that her best days were behind her, and she had actively avoided being photographed for years. Her family brought her up short with a shocking realizing - with her health so precarious, they might be left with no photos of her to properly remember her by.

At that point the narrative switched completely - EVERY day to her was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and no day was promised. Every day that passed without helping her family remember her was a day lost to time. In a sudden departure from being the woman who had avoided being photographed for years, she arranged a hair and makeup stylist to come to her house, dressed up for the occasion, and we spent over an hour working carefully to capture her in a best a manner as we could. I got photos of her, and several of her with her husband, and her parents. It was a sobering thought to realize that the photos I was taking of her could very well be the last she would ever have taken in her life. At the end of it her mother was in tears, and I have never felt more relieved to see the fully developed negatives come off of the roll!

Colleen's favorite from her session with me.

It needn't get to the point where you are thinking it's "too late" to get portraits done. It's never too late, and it's never too soon. Maybe some of the answers at the top of this page resonate with you, or maybe you can think of your own reason to get a portrait done. Had a great year? Celebrate with a photoshoot! Had a bad year? Feel better by getting a photoshoot! Drop me a line and let's get your picture taken.