If you are anything like me, you’re the mum who snaps every pic imaginable of her gorgeous children as they grow up. And also of them with their dad – playing in the garden, snuggling up on the sofa, swimming on holiday, visiting the latest dinosaur exhibit. But when you look at those photos, how many of them feature you – the photographer, their mother, their world?

When you look at the photos you have of your family, if you dont feature in many of them, what have your children got to look back on? As they browse through the photo albums – whether digitally or those gorgeous photo memory books you’ve created – will they see you in them? Will they see you having fun in the garden, snuggling with them under the duvet on a Sunday morning, eating that gorgeous Sunday roast that you slaved away all day cooking? If you are anything like me, the answer is probably not and this is all too often the situation today.

Ill be honest with you….Im not a fan of photos of myself. When a camera comes out my general train of thought is “Aghhh! Its not my right side!” “no wait, don’t take a photo, I haven’t done my hair/havent put on my make up/am not dressed yet/need to loose those extra 5lbs Ive just gained over Easter [delete as appropriate]” but the truth of the matter is, those things that you feel are firstly – not noticed by anyone else anyway and secondly – not actually important to your children! They look at you and see a superhero, an amazing, gorgeous, beautiful and wonderfully perfect superhero. And they are going to want those memories with their superhero.

The other thing that I want to share with you from my personal experience, is that, as much as we dont like to think about it, life can be fleeting – we certainly wont live forever – and, as brilliant as memories are, they do fade. Photographs are something that keep them fresh and alive. I have first hand experience of the loss of my partner, my eldest sons father, and I cant tell you how important photographs are to me. Sadly, its often not until you experience something like this that you really realise just how important they actually are.

So please, make it a resolution this year, get out there and get your gorgeous beautiful superhero self in front of that camera and start capturing those memories – you will look back one day and realise not only how good you actually look right now – but also just how important it really was.

You can start by asking your hubby/partner/friend to get their phone/camera out when you’re out an about having fun and get some of those candid snaps. Failing that, you can find out more about booking a family photoshoot with me here Family photography ….and stay tuned for more info on mummy and me and daddy and me mini sessions that are coming your way this half term!