One thing I love doing on a regular basis is evaluating and criticising my own work. It’s a constant attempt to get better at capturing moments, telling stories and creating beautiful keepsakes for my clients.
Every year, I look back at my work from the previous 12 month and pick my favourite 5 photos. To see what drew me in, what I saw and captured and whether images taken at different times, of different people, work in a series that share my vision.
If I’m honest, I worked with fewer families last year than I had hoped. And some that hired me, didn’t want their photos shared online. That means I don’t have a lot of work to choose from when I’m doing this exercise.
While I work with lots and lots of different type of clients, my heart is with documenting family life so this project really focuses solely on this kind of images.
So without further explanation, here are my top 5 faves from 2024.
Relish
This girl has a special place in my heart – I photographed her birth 3 years ago. Since then I was able to document her growing up. Last summer, I went fruit picking with her family and this image of Bella biting into a delicious, hand-picked strawberry is the essence of what relish looks like to me.
Bear hug
While I absolutely admire mums and their impact on their kids and families, I love a photo of a dad with his kids. Millennial dads are so much moire involved in childcare than I’m used to, growing up as a millennial. I guess that’s why I’m so drawn to moments like these.
Crafting with kids
Crafting with kids usually means the parents are building something and kids get distracted. That seems to get easier the older the children get but this family is still in that phase where most things land in someone’s mouth, mum and dad do the actual crafting and attention spans are short. The images I can create from these family moments though are going to be invaluable soon enough.
Sisters
This image reminds me of my sister and me growing up. Always in each other’s faces, constantly fighting and laughing about it 1 minute later. It’s a subtle photo that tells a lot of little stories from lived and observed experiences.
Sharing
Ah, twins. A special bond.
This set of boy-girl twins cracked me up. A didn’t have a dummy but R did – until it was snagged from his mouth and landed in hers. The comical scenes from a morning with these almost-toddlers were a joy to photograph and some of my favourites from the year because they are incredibly raw, messy and beautifully real.
My photographic word of the year
While maybe last year wasn’t my most successful one when it comes to family and even personal work, looking through my photos in prints makes them real and special to me. Looking at these images also reminds me that life doesn’t consist of constant milestones with big impacts – it’s more a compound effect of micro-actions and moments that shape us.
I tried to find a word that connects these images and for the first time, I can’t think of one. They all have elements of many things – connection, comfort, belonging and joy to name a few. So this year, there’s not one word – but there’s one feeling. I just don’t have a name for it 🙂
If you can find a common term to describe them, please let me know. Otherwise, I decided to be content in not labelling my work for a change.
