A Miracle Worker Took my Picture Yesterday

Starting this month I am going to be a contributing writer on Oklahoma City Moms Blog. It’s a collaborative mom blogging site that I’ve been following on social media. It’s apart of City Moms Blog Network. So even if you aren’t from or living in my neck of the woods there’s a good chance there is a Moms Blog near your city. I am excited, and maybe a tad nervous, to be a part of it.

I needed to provide a bio pic for their site. The profile picture I have been using on my blog and social media sites is a grainy selfie taken in a bathroom at least a year ago on a cell phone that was outdated even at the time. The only reason I had that picture is because my job made it mandatory to have our pictures on our email accounts.

I have been following Kristina James at Shine a Light Photography on social media. She takes pictures for my sister’s family, and I always think they look magazine ready. She’s makes capturing perfect images, even of rascally kids, look effortless. I mean, come on. Look at these.

So I sent Kristina a message asking if she could help me get a picture, and get it quick. She was on board. Now here is where it got tricky. She asked about my style and ideas and what I was thinking. Let me tell you, I was zero help to this woman. All I gave her to go on was that I didn’t want it to be too posed. I wanted it to be a fun picture, and I wanted to feel pretty. I think I may have sent 1 single example of something that I may have liked. That was it.

Then, when we taking the pictures I was a stick in the mud. I didn’t bring a lot to the table. I was promising her I was fun while not being fun at all even though she is super fun. It would have been nicer of me if I had asked her to read my mind. Instead I was tasking her with capturing a perfect picture of me to convey to a bunch of people I don’t know that this is what I look like . This is what my personality is like, and everyone should read my stuff. Mind you she doesn’t know me. She knows my sister. It was a tall and unfair order.

After we were finished I got to thinking about what my hang up with this picture was. I realized I was uncomfortable with it being about me. It wasn’t a family picture or a picture of my kids. It was me. To be perfectly honest I think I’ve been avoiding pictures of myself because while I think and feel like my 26 year old self, when I see a picture I am reminded that I look like my tired 30 something self that has struggled to take off the baby weight. Oh yeah and my “baby” is turning 2 this month.

I didn’t have too much time to think about it though because Kristina got these back to me the same evening we took them, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s interesting how my favorite ones turned out to be the “not fun” ones. Maybe because I wasn’t trying? I want to thank Kristina for giving me what I asked for but also several I didn’t even know I wanted. For everyone else, I encourage you to check out her work and follow her on social media  at Shine a Light Photography . You won’t be sorry.