A Letter to the Mama Who Almost Did Not Book the Session

Jul 17

El Dorado Hills & Folsom Newborn, Maternity & Family Photographer

Dear sweet Mama, I see you….

I know you have been going back and forth about it. Talking yourself into it and then back out of it again. Wondering if now is really the right time, if you will feel ready, if it is worth the investment, if everyone will cooperate, if you will look the way you want to look.

I know, because almost every mama I have ever worked with has sat exactly where you are sitting right now.

And I want to write this for you.

Not to sell you something. Just because I have been doing this long enough to know what you cannot see yet from where you are standing.

You may Not Feel Ready. Book It Anyway.

There is never a perfect time. The house will not be perfectly clean. You will not feel like you have fully bounced back yet. The kids will be in a phase. Life will feel too full or too tired or too much.

I have heard every version of this, and I say this with so much gentleness. That feeling does not go away on its own. You will feel it next month too, and the month after that. And one day you will look back at this season and realize that what you were waiting for was never coming. That this, right here, was actually the moment worth holding onto.

The messy, full, tender, exhausting, beautiful moment that you are living right now.

If you have been thinking about a session this is your sign

What I Have Watched Families Realize

I have had mamas sit in my studio holding their brand new baby, still a little overwhelmed and not quite feeling like themselves, and by the end of the session something shifts. They relax into it. They look down at their baby the way only a mama can. And I capture something in that moment that I know they will never be able to recreate.

I have watched older siblings meet a new baby for the very first time, that wide eyed wonder and tentative little touch, and I have thought to myself, they will never be this age again. This is the last day of their life as an only child. And we got it.

I have photographed families who almost cancelled because one of the kids was being difficult that morning, and those sessions have produced some of the most real and beautiful images I have ever made. Because real is what photographs best.

I have also heard from mamas who did not book. Who waited for a better time. Who look back now and wish more than almost anything that they had a photograph of that bump, that newborn, that family exactly as it was before everything changed.

Those conversations stay with me.

What I Want You to Remember About This Season

This season you are in right now is going to pass. I do not say that to make you sad. I say it because I think somewhere inside you already know it, and that is actually why you are here reading this.

The bump that feels like it will last forever is going to be your baby in your arms before you know it. The newborn who fits so perfectly in the crook of your neck is going to be sitting up, then crawling, then running away from you at the park. The family you are right now, at these ages, in this chapter, with this particular mix of chaos and tenderness and love, will never be exactly this again.

And that is not a sad thing. It is just true. And it is worth documenting.

Not because photographs stop time. But because they let you go back. They let you sit with your grown children someday and show them who they were, and who you were, and how much you loved each other right in the middle of it all.

That is what I am really here to give you.

The Photos You Will Be Glad You Took

You will be glad you have a photograph of your bump. Of the way your partner looked at you during that season. Of the last ordinary afternoon before your baby arrived and changed everything in the most beautiful way.

You will be glad you have the image of your older child meeting the baby for the first time. Of your newborn curled against your chest in those early tender days when the whole world felt soft and new and a little overwhelming.

You will be glad you stepped in front of the camera even though you were not feeling your best. Because your children are not going to look at those photographs and see what you saw in the mirror that morning. They are going to see their mama. And she is going to be exactly what they remember loving most.

So Here Is My Gentle Nudge

If something brought you to this post today, I do not think that was an accident. I think part of you already knows that you want this. That you do not want to be the mama who waited too long.

You do not have to feel ready. You just have to show up. I will take care of everything else from there.

I would be so honored to document this season for you.

Let's start planning your Session