Remember to capture that peace and love you have with your pet
If you are like me this is for you.
I am a mom to a beautiful, lively little 16-month-old. She is my world, my pride and joy, and my favorite little person. I’m a mom, what better job can there be?!
An let me start off by saying that I LOVE being a mom – in the hard times, and the fun times.
It’s so rewarding and never a dull moment in the least.
In 2022 just before my daughter was born, I was lost, to say the least. I was approaching motherhood quickly, working a job I didn’t feel I belonged to, and had no idea what the future would bring because the only thing I knew at that time was that I was going to have a baby any day.
Then I found a new purpose in motherhood. It really changed everything in my life my camera roll went from full of dog photos to being mixed with newborn and toddler photos and videos. Slowly as the year passed, I realized how little I really had in my camera of new up to date dog photos and how my now toddler has consumed the life I was living.
Looking back at my camera roll and old images of my pets I feel myself living vicariously through that person I used to be. Guilty for missing the moments that I took for granted at the time. Feeling mom-guilt because I would miss parts of a life in which my little one was not yet a part of.
It’s okay to feel that way.
It is harder now in many ways. Trying to juggle a rambunctious toddler, who is trying to stick everything in her mouth, 3 bigger dogs, a camera, it just doesn’t happen. For a lot of us it is hard to get everyone wrangled. There are still parts of me that will probably always feel guilty for not being able to always take my dogs out like I used to be able to. I’m trying my hardest.
I’ve been doing a lot of searching recently and trying to figure out exactly what I brought to photography, what my photos tell people, and how I wanted them to feel. No longer listening to everyone’s opinions on every little detail.
It has not been an easy year and there have been a lot of learning curves, ups and downs, and trying to pinpoint what it is that I love so much about photography.
I’ve been asked a lot “why photograph dogs and horses?” and originally, I would say that I just love everything about animals so much. How do you pinpoint one specific thing?
Though the one thing I have always felt, through all my hard times, joy, sadness, stress. Whatever is going on in my life, there is one consistent feeling in all the changes, and that is that my dogs are my peace.
When you are having a bad day, when you just need 1 minute to collect yourself and breathe, when the house is a mess and the kids are all over the place.
You look over, and there they are. Waiting patiently and always wagging their tails or nuzzling your hand because they’re right there for you.
Or that trip to the barn that even just cleaning a stall is oddly therapeutic because for that time it’s just you and the quite barn with your horse.
That is what I want my photos to portray to you is the feeling of peace you get when you are with your pets.
Your pets are your peaceful place.
