Helping Mom's Show Up
TARA's MANIFESTO
MAKES ME sound like the unibomber, but I pinky swear i'm not!
When you contact me for a portrait session I whip out my fanciest Merrell hiking shoes so we can take the perfect portraits on the perfect mountains of your perfect children!
Cue Julie Andrews singing “The Hills Are Alive…”
STOP!!!! Let’s get real here…
That first part is true, I do grab my Merrels, but only because they are so comfortable, not because I am going on some insane hike where flats would just be plain stupid (or I might fall to my death when I slide off that mountain YIKES!)
WHAT I DO
My story began in Kerrville, Texas, as a kid thinking I’d be a really cool adult who would design perfect houses for perfect families…And while I did get my architecture degree, the plan went sideways from there, as life often does. Straight out of college, I went to work for my husband’s family business because it gave me all the freedom to be with my two kids when they were little. I had to work hard to balance kids and mostly working from home (I feel for all you new COVID WFH moms!), but I never had to miss any of their events or milestones. And that was a really big deal to me.
I loved all the sappy, happy family photos and being the multi-passionate creative (read: new project every week) that I am, I taught myself how to use my camera, and use it right. But that was my problem- I TOOK the photos, I was never IN the photos. Legit…Never. In. The. Photos.
I was always worried I hadn’t lost all of the baby weight, or that I didn’t have my makeup or hair fixed at that moment. Oh, is that just me? Well how embarrassing….But I am going to go out on a limb and guess you have felt like that too.
Long story short, I never hired a photographer myself. My husband would ask about Christmas photos and I would make an excuse. Why would I spend money when I looked so bad?
Ladies…If I could slap you silly right now, I would. Its actually not about you, Mom. It wasn’t about me when my kids were little either. Looking back, I would give anything to have photos of all of us playing, laughing, hugging one during that time.
And was it always sunshine and roses? No, of course not. Did I constantly find myself saying things like:
“Don’t put that lizard in your sister’s hair”
“Don’t cut off Barbie’s hair so she can join the GI Joe’s army”
“Stop licking your brother’s arm!”
Oh my bad, is that only my kids?
But I know for all moms out there, in between the chaos of the daily life in a family, are those magic little moments of tenderness, laughter and love that you do want to remember forever.
I have worked really hard to design a process to prep you for a session where you look your best (I walk you through exactly what will be the most flattering things for you) and we corral the chaos of the other family members for a few moments to get YOU in those portraits that you can hang on the wall and enjoy long past the time they are living in your house.
