The pages just keep turning...

It was a hot summer afternoon, and when I close my eyes and hear his words, it really doesn't seem like that long ago. My 16th birthday was just a few weeks away, and my dad and I perched on a hot driveway tinkering around with the old, rattled car that would soon be mine. It was a bucket of bolts that barely ran; I think the only thing that held it together was dirt and some prayers.... and maybe a few of my tears sprinkled about on it. But man, I loved it. It represented everything that I longed for at the time... freedom, independence, exploration. I was so anxious to get out into the world, to shake off the bonds of childhood and get my "real" life started. I'm not really altogether sure why I was in such a rush to grow up; adulthood isn't really all it's cracked up to be. :)  With our amateur repair completed for now, I, in my youth, slid out from under the car easily and sprang to my feet. My dad followed behind, but much slower and coupled with some grunts and groans that made me giggle and tease a little. His words that followed are etched into my memory...

"Kid, one day you'll understand exactly how fast time passes."

He was right. 

The pages are turning faster than ever. A new chapter opens, you blink, and then it's over.

How do we push the pause button? Through photographs. 

One of my favorite things about being a child and family photographer in Raleigh is helping people authentically capture their life, their family, their children as they are right now - the perfect and the imperfect. Because every moment, even the one that seems mundane in the present, is a moment that will one day be looked back on and longed for. The thing about time is that it passes quietly and quickly, but it is a thief. Working with my clients over the last twenty years, I have learned that truly the only photographs we regret are the ones we didn't take. I don't have a family portrait from my childhood. There was talk when my sisters and I were still little children of having one created, but it never came to be. My heart longs for it more and more the older I get... I will mourn a portrait that never existed for the rest of my life. Let me help you capture all the chaos and beauty of your life as it is right now. The relationships, the connection and the joy of being together with your family and children. One day, many years from now, you'll hold this photograph and will remember this precious season in your life. 

I don't have a photograph of my dad and me on the day we sat in the driveway with a beat up old car, when he whispered a few words that I would take to heart even though I wouldn't understand them until many years later.

If I had that photograph, it would be framed and on the wall today. 

~Dana