6, 5, and 8 months (x2).  Can you imagine it?  The exhaustion, the noise, the selflessness required, the joy, the privilege.  To parent is to grow in patience, discipline, and graciousness, with not only your children but perhaps more importantly yourself.  This beautiful mama came to me after seeing a friends photography session and loved the peacefulness that was captured in the images of this family of three, covered in a lush green of the forest as the sun set on a field of white daisies.  She wanted to capture that same peacefulness, which I remained very intentional to in our time together.  Although there were just a few differences I needed to keep in mind.  A middle of the day, full sun shoot.  A different location.  Four children instead of one.  And a family that expressed themselves with words such as loud, spunky, and joyful.  Oh and a self-professed perfectionist.  Certainly I had my work cut out for me!  Although I truly felt that to only deliver serene, peaceful photographs would have been to miss a real relationship dynamic of this Puerto Rican-Filipino family.  

The beauty and simultaneous challenge of family photography is not to give everyone the same curated images, no matter how much you might like your children to sit still with you in a field of wildflowers.  

Instead, my heart is to embrace who you are, right now, wether still and serene or loud and lively. Herein lies where I pour all of my efforts as a photographer.  To capture not who you want to be, but who you are.