Since I started this journey through finding my voice in photography, I have found myself wanting more and more out of my work. More connection, more relationship building, more telling of stories. Photography on a deeper more personal level. I started where most photographers start. Loving to take portraits. people's faces. Tack sharp eyes, smiling faces looking at the camera. And for me, it has morphed into something totally different. In journeying and grinding through this form of art, I have found that it's connection and storytelling that fuels my fire in this art form. I no longer desire faces, but motion and stepped-back shots of an entire scene. I really don't love portraits anymore...ok, ok, the occasional perfect soulful stare directly into my lens does make me a bit giddy...but the anticipated and the planned is not my heartbeat. It's life, frozen in a photograph, that taps into that place in my soul that sings.
When anyone contacts me and asks me to come into their HOME and do, not only photography, but take video and create a heirloom film, I literally cannot sleep. I think about it until the day of the shoot and show up bursting with anticipation. I don't expect anything from these clients. No plans, no wardrobe, no house cleaning. NADA. Just open the door and let me in. I will hang in the shadows and just watch for a few hours. It's the biggest rush to just SEE their life and snag the beauty from it and freeze it for them to see. I know they think I am crazy. Why...no HOW...do you expect to give us anything worth looking at from just taking photos of us in our pajamas pilled on the couch with two-days-out-from-being-washed-bed-head. And I am thinking.....please wake up with rats-nest hair. lol I love to dissect the little moments in peoples lives and pull out a slice of beauty in the chaos and present it as a gift. It's my heart and soul in this art form.
The Owen family did exactly that. They opened the door and let me in. We didn't so much as say hello, and I was up the stairs to catch some of the kiddos still snoozing and others just barely awake, bed head and all. It was magical for me. There are 6 kiddos living in this house and two young adults that they are allowing to stay with them. That, plus an amazing mama and daddy, and you have 10 people sharing a modest home but sharing so much more than that. They know about love and giving of ones-self. Two of the 6 kids are adopted. This family understands SACRIFICE and GIVING like I have never ever seen. I am emotional now, typing this as I think of what a blessing it is to know them.
I asked J'Lynne to share some of their story with me to include here in this space. I encourage you to read and more importantly, I encourage you to pray for this beautiful family...
Our family has had some major changes over the past few years. Even though our third and fourth children were born when our oldest was not even four yet, we knew we weren’t done growing our family. When the twins were just a few months old, we began the process of adopting a little boy from China. The process was long and challenging, but when we saw our little boy’s face and were officially matched, all the frustrations instantly became worth it. A year after bringing him home, I happened to come across the file of a little girl who needed a family and just felt like she was the missing piece to our family. So for the second time in two years, we traveled to China to bring home a child to join our family. Adding any child to your family takes some time to adjust to but when you throw in special needs and a background that includes trauma, there are many challenges to overcome. Only a few months after returning from China, David was accepted into the FBI National Academy. This was such a great honor for him but it meant he had to leave home and live in Virginia for three months! It was a difficult time with him being away but we eventually found our groove and made it work. By the time David returned home in December, the kids were all thriving and the newest one had really settled in. David and I had a conversation that this rollercoaster of life has been great but we really just wanted to get through the next few years with no more big changes. Unfortunately, life doesn’t usually go as planned. David had been suffering for a few months from what doctors had thought was just allergies, but it turned out to be a much bigger problem. In late April, doctors found a large mass in one of his lungs. Weeks of indescribable worry and stress while waiting for results ended in the worst possible news. David had cancer. It had already spread to his bones and lymph nodes. Stage four. Terminal. His timeline was measured in months. All our plans for a quiet, simple year came to a screeching halt. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to find a silver lining in this devastation. Knowing that David is going to miss so many special events in our kids’ lives has really forced us step back and appreciate all the small things that bring us joy on a daily basis. I reached out to Tori when I realized how few family pictures we had with David in them and asked her if she could just document one day in our life before David became too sick. Tori captured that perfectly with our video and pictures… messy morning hair, “daddy pancakes”, simple backyard fun, ponytails and shoelaces and just the chaos of everyday life with six kids. There is no escaping the difficult times ahead for our family, but thanks to Tori we will always have this one perfect morning to look back on and remember the good times
{Friends, don't forget to scroll down and view their photos after watching their family film!}
