If you’ve ever been on my social media’s you may have noticed that we don’t post the faces of our girls. Why not? Why would a photographer not post her own children’s faces? Well the simple answer is, safety and privacy. The long answer is having a reason for both. But also just becoming more educated on web safety for our children. I used to share EVERYTHING. The bad, good, ugly truths of our life. I thought i ‘had’ to, for my previous ‘job’. After a time, it no longer resonated, I started questioning it, I apologized to my family for it, (mainly my husband as our oldest was still young.) and I started learning more about respectfully sharing our lives. In 10 years, would my daughter be okay knowing I shared that about her? Would I be okay, if someone shared MY bad days? No! Gosh I’d be embarrassed and angry that they did!! So maybe I didn’t need to post it in order to build an ‘authentic’ reputation. Maybe I could just let us be us, with some privacy….

Around this time I also saw many people I follow who had people not just make fake accounts of them, but take the photos of their CHILDREN, Toddlers, babies, older kids and use them for these fake accounts! We have had issues in the past of people screen-shotting and sharing against our will and permission. So we really asked ourself, are we okay with anyone in the world having access to our kids? To know what they look like? Where they go to school? Where exactly we live?

Out of this came a desire to, yes share our children, because we love them! But to do so safely. This is why I post side shots, top of the head, back of the head, fingers, toes, playing in their natural habitat. It’s taught me to look more at the memories of the photo, than the ‘shot’. I am able to take this into my work and respectfully and with FULL UNDERSTANDING, capture beautiful photos and memories for clients who choose to also not publicly share faces.

This is important for my clients with Foster babies, moms building their small business brand and wanting to showcase their children, because they are the reason! but to do so in a safer way. Each of these clients also know, that they will still get plenty of beautiful face shots of their babies for their walls and families to enjoy!

Sometimes I get bummed I can’t share some of my favorite photos of clients children, or my own! But ultimately, respecting their wishes and privacy during family photos, is the most important thing to me. There will always be plenty of other photos to share!