Marie Masse has equal passion for documentary photography and for helping others grow their businesses. That’s a whole lotta passion. Her photos are dramatic, black and white and creamy. Her use of light is nothing short of brilliant and she has a knack for capturing details that some people wouldn’t even see. Thank you, Marie, for your contribution to the documentary photography world. We all appreciate your wisdom and willingness to share it!
It’s Saturday.
The kids come into the bedroom, “It’s time to get up mom & dad!” The coffee is poured. Dad makes breakfast and the smell of bacon in the morning is an iconic scent of a day to be spent with family … and the rest of the day is your playground together. I want you to picture it right now: what would you likely do together on a day like this? Some chores and then maybe some TV and togetherness? Get out and go exploring? Attend one of the kids’ sporting events? Take a drive to Grandma & Grandpa’s? Whatever your answer is, there is no right or wrong, however make no mistake: your answer is important.
Monday comes. You get back to work and a colleague asked, “What did you do this weekend?”
It’s easy for us to shift into “Oh nothing much, just hung out with the family. How about you?” If this sounds familiar, with that simple response, you just unintentionally devalued the time with your family. You see, we put a lot of merit into the big things—such as birthday parties, when our kids begin school, going on vacations, and graduation. And yes, the big events and changes in life are meant to be celebrated. They are the easy way to recognize a big change and new beginnings. I think this happens, because we are spending so much of our lives working towards something. We forget that our lives, very important pieces of our lives, are happening right now each and every day.
Now I want you to think back to your “just one mores” in life. If you could pick any experiences from your life to experience just one more time, what would that be? Would you want “just one more” birthday party? Start of the school year? Vacation to Sea World? Graduation? You may be thinking, “Well sure, Marie, that was all fun! I’d love to do it again!”
Given the choice, my “just one mores” would look different and I’ll bet you can relate.
I remember begging mom and dad for one more hour to swim at the lake—a regular thing we did in the summer. Just one more day at the family cabin. Just one more game of Skip-Bo or Hands & Feet with mom. Just one more drive with Dad out to Uncle Steve’s house. Just one more waking up at home and knowing mom’s egg & cheese on an English muffin was waiting for me.
Fast forward to today, and I’d be the happiest mom to have “just one more” snuggle with my newborn baby on my chest or the silly way she used to suckle my chin. I’d love “just one more” evening with just my husband, the way we used to share our quiet evenings together before kids. I’d love “just one more” day with my grandparents, which all have all passed away.
The truth is, when I look back at birthday parties, vacations, beginning a new school year and graduation … they were outside of the norm. All were certainly positive experiences, but they were new and full of change. When I look back at my life, the experiences that have really stuck with me, vividly for now, are the small bits of time shared with my family. It is in the slow, almost invisible changes we see with a case of the Monday, “We didn’t do much this weekend” that in reality filters our memory with the “just one mores.”
At the end of day, any possible reservation of welcoming a photographer into your world to help you hold your memories-in-the-making both in your heart and then in your hand as a photograph shall not be dwelled upon. You can wait until forever to come up with more money to pay for this, lose 15 pounds, renovate your home, wait til your husband comes around to the idea, but the truth is that life won’t wait. And here is the thing many of my own potential clients forget: this isn’t just for you. This is handing your children a gift of the “just one mores” as close as it can possibly come to the real thing. They won’t look at the images and see how you could improve your body, they will see their most prized stories of their childhood … including the parents they treasure and see as nothing less than beautiful.
Because the slow change in our everyday is nearly invisible, sometimes we don’t realize what we’ll miss until we are deep inside of missing it. Do not neglect placing value to ensure you can nearly re-live the stories that make your family and your life what it is. A photo session with a documentary photographer is like insurance for your memories.
Marie Masse is a Documentary Photographer & because she is obsessed with documenting our favorite stories, she opened Fearless and Framed for photographers to learn how to shoot these sessions + run them as a business.
OH my gosh… so well said! You have a real talent for expressing the exact thoughts rolling around inside my head!
Yes! Marie is a rockstar, :).
Thank you again for letting me guest blog – it’s been awhile since I’ve written from my heart about this thing I love so much (documentary photography), so it was such a pleasure! I hope you’re audience is climbing over that fence onto the side of saying yes to meaningful photo sessions! xo