How do you balance documenting your family, your kids, and your everyday life while still being present in the moment?
Being a parent has been one of the most challenging things I've taken on. Adding that layer of trying to document my life and my growing family can easily double, triple, or even quadruple that difficulty. The very act of raising the camera to my eye created a barrier. I was looking at the lighting. I was looking at composition. I was thinking about the perfect expression to document for the photo. And at that point, I was no longer there – I wasn't present. If you can relate to this, there is a way to find balance if you're struggling with finding a balance. But I found that it didn't look like how I envisioned it in my head.
I adhere to two creative rules when photographing and documenting my family. The first is I always have a camera with me. It's either worn around my neck, slung around my shoulder, or in a fanny sling. I wish I could always have it in my hand, but when it comes to my family, that's just not the dynamic that's realistic. Sometimes one of my kids needs me to carry them, I need to grab them a snack. I just always need the ability to have my hands free. And connected to this is you need a camera that you're always comfortable carrying. I have my Ricoh GR III, GR IIIx, Fujifilm X100V (but check out the latest X100VI that's in stock!), or the Fujifilm X70.