The Day I Started Shooting with Purpose
Over the course of motherhood, the Lord has had me set things aside that held importance to me. It wasn’t something ripped away, just something that slowly took a step back as the raising and training and teaching of babies took center stage. At the right time He shows us how it isn’t something forgotten but can be enjoyed with new purpose.
I took Photography and Yearbook in high school, back when film and darkrooms were the only way to create your own photos. I worked to make payments on a used Minolta camera with a 35mm lens and loved capturing photos all the time. When that camera was stolen we moved into the digital world of point and shoots until the smart phone cameras took over. When I started a little sewing studio the need of a better camera came up but the new ones terrified me, they seemed so different. I learned that a good photo is still taken and that the fundamentals were still the same, I just had to learn to set them on a new system. As I relearned my homeschooled kids watched and asked questions and they wanted to try the camera too. AJ was the kid that spent hours looking through photos in our albums and my phone. He had made endless Lego stop motion films, would make parody movies with his siblings and edit them. It just stood out that it came naturally to him.
“Can I get a job at In-n-Out?”
The question from my 15 year old broke through my million thoughts as we drove to jiu-jitsu one afternoon for our second training time of the day which included said 15 year old coaching for 2 hours and then training 2.5 hours. I laughed without thinking at the idea of having time for him to work somewhere while also homeschooling and an intense training schedule. AJ didn’t understand why it was funny.
When the topic of working came up again, I asked how he would have time to do that while also training. He saw how that would be difficult; he also wanted to be able to compete more and be able to fund it. I had been throwing out to AJ the idea of starting a business, he could do video and I could do photo, we could start in BJJ and build something together. I think he thought that was kind of crazy and impossible. I presented this again much more seriously. He wanted a job and I wanted something for him that fit what came naturally, that could start at the place he already loved and something that could grow as he grew. That evening as we talked he said, “OK, let’s try it.”
I started teaching him more about the technical parts of photography and the camera. We rented a 70-200mm lens for a competition and we took photos the whole day of our team. Being able to zoom in on the expressions and the action, the grips and sweat, the heart of the competitors and their coaches and families. We felt excited, it was so different, trying to capture what we had only felt for ourselves in the moment and it was so awesome to see AJ notice that too.
Up until this point, I had only experienced competition as a spectator and parent, AJ only as a competitor and teammate. Photography gave us eyes to see outside of our own experience in the sport. The most exciting thing to me was to get to do something with AJ, something with such purpose.
Learning to work together has taken humbling myself a lot and the adjustment of Mom “working” has its bumps but we also see how it was a good and needed time for it. It is time to build something. What started with me and AJ is growing. Most of the time I don’t think I know what I’m doing but I do know who I do it for, who I’m building with and why.
***Photos of us shooting captured by Craven-Baileys Photography @craven.baileysphotography on IG
