I have a friend who is also a photographer. She and her husband own Irina & Chris Wedding Photography (www.irinaundchris.de) in Germany. Their work is beautiful. And I always love when she posts images of her own family. They look like a scene straight out of a Jane Austen movie. And I would love to photograph my family this way. But in reality, my family is more of a My Big Fat Greek Wedding type of movie, except we aren't Greek.
The last time we mostly all got together, it was my goal to try to achieve these idyllic Jane Austen scenes. And guess what? Food got in the way. Being in a big, latin family, food takes precedence. At the specified time, most of the family was in the middle of prepping food and no one was dressed for the portraits. So the park setting was scratched and we resorted to the backyard porch. In between all the jokes, I did get portraits of my family. It wasn't quite what I had envisioned but getting them was an accomplishment in itself.
Looking back, I realize that my family will never create that Jane Austen scene. And that's ok. We are a family of mostly girls, but we aren't girly girls. We grew up with the mountains of New Mexico as our playground where we played cowboys and Indians, and fished with our dads and grandpa. We were taught to be resourceful and inventive. We've been through some rough times, sicknesses and death. But despite it all, our love for our family is strong. And we still have way too much fun together. The photos from that day captured our own special family dynamic.
That is our story. What is yours?
