MY MUM & ME – CAPTURING A MOMENT IN MOTHERHOOD

As a mum of 3 I am passionate capturing motherhood and all its elements. This was my inspiration behind my newest project. Be the one in the photos not behind the camera!

Are you in the picture?

I am definitely not the one loving my photos taken. I enjoy being behind the camera; I love documenting what I see.

I knew I had to change my attitude when I realized I hardly had any photo of my first-born and me. I was gutted to say the least that I didn’t make the effort. There are hundreds of pictures of him, with my husband and other family members but very few of me. I remember at times how uncomfortable I felt having photos taken, I didn’t think I looked good enough in the photos, feeling tired or didn’t have makeup on, selfies are not my strongest point either and I had many more excuses why to delay having photos done. The fact that my husband doesn’t point and click in right moment may be another factor and whilst I can ask, the moment is usually gone and doesn’t feel as natural as I would hope so.

So now I try to set the camera up as often as we fancy (tripod or not depending where we are) and make the effort to capture a portrait of me with my children (and all of us together) and I know in years to come the photos I took will be treasured by my children, my husband and me. Don’t get me wrong it’s not easy especially with 3 children under 5 and my ideal “looking natural image” in my head and it doesn’t always go to plan, but we have fun with it which is the most important.

My latest desire to catch a momentum in my life was breastfeeding my youngest baby. He is now over 9 months and I am very much aware that our journey together will at some point come to an end. I have few random photos taken whilst feeding my older 2 children but I just didn’t feel the urgency in capturing it “properly” until now when this would be the last time I feed a baby (decided for now anyway). I don’t know when we stop but I just don’t want to miss it I guess.

I called this project ‘My Mum & Me – capturing a moment of Motherhood’ and of course it’s not only for breastfeeding, or just for babies, it’s about us mums and our children, the day-to-day things we do with them, the joys they bring us (let’s forget about the hard bits for a moment) and the fun we have with the kids, the favorite places we go to and the “one more time” we do, the favourite games we play, the cuddles, the kisses, baby wearing, the lovely bond we share… and the list goes on. I am on the mission to capture those memories with my children and I will try to include myself as much as I can because these are the memories I never want to forget, memories that tell stories. These might not be evident to a viewer, but it is a significant memory for my family and me. And of course I will carry on taking those precious moments of my children with my husband, grandparents and other family members but this time I will want to include myself as much as I can and don’t care for the world what I look like because it will be their mummy they know and love ? xoxo

If you are inspired and would like to have my “My Mum & Me” session please get in touch. These 1 hours sessions would be done in comfort of your home or place you love with your children. There is no age limit for the children. Bare in mind this is not a family photo shoot, these are lifestyle photographs of you and your children, and capturing the beautiful bond you have through activities you love. These sessions are personalized and tailored around you. Let me capture one of the many magical fleeting moments of motherhood. You can message me through my contact page or email hey@photographybypetra.co.uk

Pictures below are the set from my breastfeeding session I set up in our bedroom where I feed most of the time. Because of the nature of the photos (trying to feed naturally curious toddler) I set the camera and asked my 5 year old to be my human tripod and bless him he did a fantastic job clicking away! These will be definitely photos I will look back and remind myself what precious moments we shared, not only with Quinn, but Max and Ivy too! We did few photos of all of us together too but that’s for another blog ?

I love to hear what you think, so please comment below, on the post or send me a message xx