As I’ve been working diligently on my 365 project (shooting one photograph daily for a year), I realized that much of our life happens at our dining room table. There is at least one meal a day together at this table, plus play time, art projects, lots of silliness and of course our fair share of tears.
I will admit that there are days when I feel completely uninspired. Like my life is monotonous and boring, with the same scenes and the same characters day in and day out. But then I take a moment to step back and look at this collection of photographs of my people that I’m creating, and I find renewed energy and inspiration. Yes, the scene is familiar. But these are the moments, the connections, the expressions, and emotions of the people I love, and I remember why I picked up my camera in the first place. So yes. There are days that are not as easy, and I might end up with a pretty “blah” image that day. But overall, I’m really loving the challenge of shooting daily (I have never shot for this many consecutive days in my ENTIRE LIFE!). I’ve been giving myself grace and not expecting a share-worthy image every day, but I’m loving the handful of gems that I’m walking away with.
I’ve found that the beauty comes in being able to step back and look at the images as a collection. Noticing little themes in our day to day life. I know I’ve been photographing a lot at the dining room table, but just today it occurred to me to put a handful of them together to see what they look like. I did that the other day when I noticed that I had a number of 365 images of Morgan with her Care bear. I’ll post that one to the blog soon. But for now, behold….what life looks like at our table!
Carrie Yuan is a family portrait photographer in Seattle, Washington, specializing in storytelling and documentary-style photographs that tell real stories about the loud, chaotic, messy, full-of-love journey that is parenthood and childhood. Carrie lives in Seattle with her family: a husband who makes the best breakfast-for-dinner, a five year old who is hands-down the best big sister ever, two year old twins who are enjoying their new-found freedom of being out of cribs and in toddler beds (cue Carrie’s emotional meltdown), and a lab-ridgeback canine who is shedding her winter coat something fierce!
Carrie is currently booking family storytelling sessions, in-home newborn sessions in the Greater Seattle area, and hospital newborn sessions in Seattle hospitals.
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