This is a post I meant to write…well, at the end of 2021. But life has gotten in the way, so here we are. With my recent cancer diagnosis, I have decided to take on a lighter workload this year, with the exception of blogging. I love to blog, but usually find it difficult to balance it with my regular sessions. So before I move into blogging into individual sessions, I wanted to write out my thoughts about 2021.

2021 Started Off Strong…Until It Didn’t

Like so many others, I started off 2021 full of optimism. It was one of the first years since I had moved to Anna that I was kicking the year off with sessions on the books–something that doesn’t always happen during the barren winter months. On a personal level, I had lots of creative ideas that I was eagerly churning out. And bolstered by several big successes that I had earned with photography competitions in 2020, I felt confident enough to apply for my very first photo gallery exhibit. I felt so optimistic that I would be accepted, so receiving a rejection letter was like a punch to the gut.

I wish I could say that I brushed it off and kept doing what I do, but I had a hard time shaking that rejection. I had had so many strings of successes in a row that I suddenly felt like I had hit an unexpected brick wall. And that was difficult to get over. I spent much of the first part of the year languishing, which I found out from the New York Times, was an emotion shared by many of my fellow Americans.

In June, after a year of mostly staying home, my family got to travel

One of the things that helped kickstart my creativity again was finally getting out to travel. While I am a natural homebody, I hadn’t realized just how much I had craved novel experiences again. We were able to get away for a week to visit family up in Arkansas–a week in the mountains and hills was like a balm for my soul. And later that month, my husband and I booked a solo couple trip to visit some friends back up in Virginia. Being near the ocean and around so much COLOR again was amazing. I will never stop saying it, Texas NEEDS to bring back color. Sometimes I feel like we are living in the Drab City from Care Bears. Photographing color helped light a creative spark that I had been missing from much of my work the first half of the year.

When I returned, I realized I wanted to create novel experiences with my sessions as well.

When you are doing multiple sessions each week, it is SO easy to fall into a comfortable routine. While that might be convenient, unfortunately, doing the same thing day in and day out is an easy way to grow bored with your own work and eventually burn out. I did not want this to happen with my sessions, so for the second half of the year, I challenged myself to change things up. While clients often hire me for a particular look which I strive to always deliver, I decided to make sure I attempted one new thing each session. Whether it was photographing an old place in a new way or challenging myself to try a new technique, just adding the challenge of achieving something new with each and every session helped make it feel fresh again. I also strove to get back to capturing more ‘in-between’ moments–those beautifully candid moments that happen in-between the set shots that tend to capture family’s personalities.

Overall, 2021 was a year of growth and pushing myself to think creatively.

I am so grateful for all of my amazing clients and the amount of love and support they poured into my business. 2021 was my busiest year yet, and I never stop being thankful for all of the wonderful people I get to meet and work with each and every year. I am excited to share more sessions from this year, but in the meantime, here is a quick 2021 year in review–one photo from all 81 sessions! Here’s to a new beginning and wonderful 2022!

Thinking about booking a session in 2022? I would love to work with you!

I currently have 5 session openings for spring 2022. The first opening is in March of 2022. Be sure to get in touch to get first dibs on dates!

The post 2021: A Year in Review appeared first on Christina Freeman Photography.

When I began my 365 project at the beginning of 2018, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into. For those who don’t know, a 365 project is a challenge to take one photo every day for an entire year. Part of me figured I would probably do it for a couple of weeks before letting it slide; another part truly wanted to see it through. What I didn’t expect was the difference this simple challenge would make to my entire approach to photography. Although I learned so much during this process, here are just the top 5 lessons I took away from my first 365 project:

1. Discipline

With a background in both music and the military, you might figure I had the whole discipline-thing down when it came to my photography. Unfortunately, that was not always the case. I often found myself treating it more like a hobby, photographing in waves as I had sessions or whenever inspiration hit me.

The problem to this approach is obvious: if you are a client, would you want to hire someone who only practiced their craft during your session? Absolutely not. If for no other reason, I needed to invest daily practice to make sure I was giving my clients the very least they deserved from me: constant improvement.

Throughout my 365 project, I learned again and again that practice is not always inspired. Some days I didn’t feel like picking up my camera. Some days I just wanted to do other things. But in the end, putting in at least a little bit of daily time behind the lens greatly reduced my chances of being blind-sided by the unexpected while out on a gig.

2. How to focus my practice

In the beginning of my 365 project, I often found myself taking ‘throw-away photos’: images snapped just to say I had taken my photo for the day. However, the longer I kept up with the challenge, the more I realized I could really utilize the daily commitment to my benefit. Slowly, I began to take on ‘themes’ with my photography, little personal goals I wanted to improve upon. I realized that simply taking an image with no goal of improvement in mind was a wasted photo. Every day was a chance to practice a weakness and transform it into a strength.

3. How to embrace the ordinary

It’s easy to take pictures when it’s picturesque, but it’s a challenge learning to embrace what is mundane or less-than-ideal. When I began this challenge, I thought of myself as a ‘bright and airy’ photographer. I loved rooms with large, open windows and shooting at golden hour. I dreamed of a studio with white floors and walls that would continuously bounce gorgeous light back onto my subjects.

Unfortunately, I don’t have that studio, and the home I live in is much more like a cave. Light is often scarce; clutter is usually in abundance. It was difficult to embrace these conditions in the beginning, but by forcing myself to photograph in less-than-ideal conditions, I became a better photographer.

4. I rediscovered beauty in nature

If you don’t live in north Texas, I’ll let you in on a secret: it is not very scenic here. I often find myself jealous of other photographers’ picturesque settings. While so many others seem to live in the deserts or mountains or on a beach, I live in an HOA neighborhood with wood fence backyards surrounded by strip malls….so not the most inspiring of settings.

Even so, just stepping outside into my own backyard and looking up, or down or around me could be so refreshing. While photographing people is my passion, it is still nice to connect with nature, even if it is just in my own backyard.

5. How to introduce interesting elements

Okay, so some days my photos were just boring. Really boring. Like, I would get bored just looking at the back of my camera. On those days, I realized I needed something to spice up my images. Again, I’m not talking about anything award-winning, but at least something that wouldn’t make me want to fall asleep looking at my own photos.

That is when I learned that inspiration is all around; anything can be made into a modifier to make a photo more interesting. I experimented with shadows, dust, prisms, humidifiers. I shot through vases, water droplets, sun-catchers, ziploc bags and my own fingers. If a shot wasn’t doing it for me, I tried getting up high, down low, shooting up, shooting down. I changed lenses, filters, learned to photograph at different apertures for other effects and how to incorporate flares into my photos (I love flares–I probably need to cut back on them, but I’m like J. J. Abrams–I just love them).

Some of my photos were truly weird. But I’m kind of weird. I probably won’t use some of these techniques out on sessions…probably….

In Conclusion…

I loved my 365 project. It’s just that simple. After completing my first one, I can’t imagine going back to not practicing every day. It has become addictive. I love the way it pushes me to be a better photographer. I love the creativity it has stirred up within me. And I absolutely love going to my clients’ sessions with more confidence, knowing that whatever the weather, the time of day or the location, I can make it work. I can’t wait to see what another year of practice will bring.

Read more:

The start to my 365 project

Why you should start a 365 project this year

The importance of deliberate practice

Christina Freeman is a lifestyle photographer based in Anna, TX. She specializes in photographing families, newborns and children in Collin County including Melissa, Van Alstyne, McKinney, Plano, Princeton, Farmersville, Prosper, Frisco, Wylie, Celina, Little Elm and other Dallas suburbs. Get in touch with her and start planning your session today!

The post 5 Things I Learned From my 365 Project appeared first on Christina Freeman Photography.

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It’s been a while since I have shared anything regarding my 365 project, so I thought I should probably give an update :) The first thing is…I am still going, haha! In case you missed my first month, you can view it here.

Secondly, I have been learning so much through this process of taking pictures every single day. As I have shared before, with a background in classical music, the importance of practicing a craft every single day has been engrained in me. I think I could see the effects of not practicing easier with music–if I took even a single day off, I could feel the loss of dexterity in my muscles–I could practically feel myself moving backwards. With photography, I don’t really feel a day or two missed the same way–my muscles don’t feel more sluggish and I don’t lose tone. But I can tell that I see the world a bit differently when I am actively practicing every day. There are little moments that I am more aware of, little plays of shadows and light that I might miss if I didn’t practice seeing the world in this way.

Moments like:

The way a shadow is playing on the wall.

Or the amazing ways light can create little moments of magic, even when doing something pretty mundane.

How ordinary objects around the house can create pieces of abstract art.

Even the textures on walls or beneath my feet.

And finally, little moments that fall into place that I would not have captured had I not had my camera out to begin with.

I have a long ways to go…I’m not sure if I will ever reach where I truly want to be in my photography. But I am enjoying the daily journey along the way. Here are my daily images for most of the year so far :)

McKinney TX family photographer Christina Freeman is a wife and mother to 3 little ones who enjoys capturing details of ordinary life from behind the lens. She currently resides in Anna, TX and loves photographing other families, babies and children in Collin County including Melissa, Van Alstyne, Plano, Princeton, Farmersville, Prosper, Frisco, Wylie, Celina, Little Elm and other Dallas suburbs. Send an email to christinafreemanphotography@gmail.com or call her at 940-453-4962 to get a conversation started today!

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The day that I left music to be home with my children, I thought I felt liberated…it turns out that now that I’ve been away for a while, I kind of miss it. Not necessarily the music, or the unhealthy pressure I would often place on myself, but the feeling of self-propelled growth.

I realize now that I have an incredible background to apply to my photography. Throughout college and my years spent in the Navy, I perfected the art of discipline, focus and practice. I had wonderful professors who poured their hearts and passion into teaching me how to teach myself. I love studying, and sometimes I toy with the idea of going back to school just because I love learning so much. And I find a joy in my photography that I feel I often lacked in my music.

As this new year began, I realized that I was doing myself a disservice by not applying so many of my musical principles to photography. This is why I decided to embark on my first 365 project–a simple concept…take one photo a day, every day, for one year. Through this project, I hope to apply the same daily discipline that I learned years ago and use it to learn to master light, composition, posing…so many things.

That said, here are a few samples from my first month of my project! Please follow along on this journey of growth with me!

Christina Freeman is an Anna TX family photographer focused on capturing genuine moments in daily life.  Send an email to christinafreemanphotography@gmail.com or call her at 940-453-4962 to get a conversation started today!

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Guys…I have a confession to make. Running a successful photography business is not a natural part of the way my brain works. I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time talking about money. Well, that’s not entirely true. I love talking about budgets–I love to write down my goals for each month and follow my husband around the house telling him my step by step of how I plan to achieve my monetary goals. He’s not such a huge fan of that. As long as I am talking budgets, I don’t mind talking about money. But the other part of finances…the taxes, the spreadsheets, basically anything dealing with the business side of making money, my eyes start to lose focus and my mind wanders immediately.

I still often think back to a conversation I had with a friend when I first started my photography journey. We were sitting in the library talking over what we wanted to do when we left the Navy, and I mentioned that I loved the thought of taking pictures for a living. When he asked how I planned to make this dream business a reality, I laughed a bit and said, “Oh, that’s easy! I’ve already purchased my camera and most of my equipment, so there’s really very little overhead from here on out. Really, photography is a great field to get into, because once you’ve made your initial investment, it is basically all profit.”

I remember looking at other photographers’ pricing, and after picking my jaw up off the floor, swearing to myself that I would never price gouge honest people like those photographers were doing. I figured that if I kept my prices as low as possible, the rest would work itself out in the end.

How naive I was.

Turns out, there is a bit more to running a successful photography business than owning a camera and a few good lenses. Like so many other people out there, I was only focusing on the hobby side of the photography and forgetting the business side of it. I figured that if anyone charged more than a couple hundred bucks, they were ripping people off. When starting out, I was basically throwing numbers into the air and hoping they stuck…hoping I could run a successful business off of completely imagined numbers. When I finally sat down and plugged in the numbers to run a successful photography business, I realized that I was not making a profit. Had I been paying myself an hourly wage, I would not have even met the national minimum standards. I needed to raise my prices, and that hurt.

I write all of this simply because I want to explain, which I know is a bit silly. At the same time, there are a few companies who do explain their price mark-ups, and as a consumer I appreciate their transparent pricing. I am not an expert in the various fields, and so it’s interesting to hear how much goes into the process of what I buy. I also have a feeling that many people out there feel, just as I used to, that running a successful photography business is little more than pressing a button and delivering images. All of that being said here it goes:

Budgeting for Taxes

Before I begin any session, I know that roughly 30% of what I charge will go straight toward taxes. I believe the standard tax rate is around 25%, but I always like to reserve 30-33% to cover my bases. For now, I typically roll anything left into additional savings for equipment upgrades. Eventually I would love to use this extra money to cover an accountant.  I will use a simple $300 session as an example. For this imaginary $300 session, after putting aside taxes, I will be working with just $200.

Budgeting Business Expenses

From this $200, I will also need to pull money to help cover business expenses. The obvious photography expense that most people think of is the initial purchase of a professional camera and lenses; beyond that are the behind-the-scenes expenses:  the memory cards, hard drives, computer, subscriptions to photoshop and lightroom. I have to be prepared to pay for any unexpected repairs or maintenance on these items that may arise.

By choosing to not own a studio, I am able to cut down my expenses. If I utilized one, that would be an additional rent + utilities bill. Even so, every month I still need to cover gas, vehicle maintenance, vehicle insurance, business insurance, retirement, subscriptions to galleries, website hosting and a domain. I also want to continue bettering my craft. To do so, I pay fees to a professional photography organization and budget in several photography courses each year. For now, I try to cover all expenses on another 33% of what I earn, but eventually would love to move closer to around 25%.

Budgeting a Living Wage

That means that with the remaining $100, I have to pay myself. This amount needs to cover the time I put into initial correspondence with clients and location scouting (avg. 1 hour), the session itself (avg. 1 hour 30 minutes with setup and travel), photo upload and editing ( avg. 3 hours), gallery upload and final correspondence (avg. 30 minutes). So for every $300 1-hour session I do, I would typically pay myself a wage of $16-$20 per hour. At this rate, you can imagine how many $300 sessions a photographer needs to book to make a full time salary. Even with additional product sales, l will only be pocketing about a third of any sales brought in. Eventually, I would love to move my model closer to about 25/25/50.

So there you go! This is my current financial breakdown model. Hopefully this shines light into why my original $75 per session turned out to not be a sustainable business plan. In my best case scenario I was only earning about $5 an hour! I want you to know that I will always do my best to take care of each and every one of my wonderful clients. Please know that if I raise my prices in the future, I am simply doing what I need to do to continue doing what I love. I want to run an honest, ethical and personal business for each and every one of you. Thank you so much for your continued support, encouragement and understanding!

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Christina Freeman is a lifestyle photographer based in Anna, TX. She specializes in photographing families, newborns and children in Collin County including Melissa, Van Alstyne, McKinney, Plano, Princeton, Farmersville, Prosper, Frisco, Wylie, Celina, Little Elm and other Dallas suburbs. Send an email to christinafreemanphotography@gmail.com or call her at 940-453-4962 to get a conversation started today!

The post An Honest Look at Pricing | Anna TX Family Photographer appeared first on Christina Freeman Photography.

I know it should be an easy question to answer, but I always find myself hesitating when someone asks me what I do for a living. Do I define myself as a photographer? A mother? A seamstress? What exactly am I?

The truth is, of course, all of the above. To lay it all out there, I am a stay-at-home mom who hustles as much as I am able. I like to call myself an Anna, TX child and family photographer. In the mornings before my husband goes to work, I am either enjoying coffee with him on the couch while watching the kids, or I am out at a photo shoot or I am behind my sewing machine trying to get an order out for my little clothing shop. If the kids are in quiet time or napping, I am working. As soon as I turn out the lights at bedtime, I am working. 90% of the day, though, I am with my children, which is exactly what I want.

So why is it so hard to admit this? What is it about being a stay-at-home mom that can sometimes feel so embarrassing? I never feel shamed by anyone–it’s a self-inflicted feeling. For some reason, if I am not having photo sessions every single day, I feel as though it’s hard to call myself a photographer. If I am not making a full-time income from my clothing shop, it’s hard to call myself an entrepreneur. Why do I feel like I am less of a business woman if I also stay home with my children?

I’m not sure if I know the reason for that, or if I truly want to look it in the eye. The fact of the matter is, though, that I left my last job to live this life. 26 years spent learning and doing music with no regrets. I know without a shadow of a doubt that that was exactly where I needed to be and what I needed to be doing. Yet when my job playing music began competing with my family, it was a no-brainer. That job had to go.

So here I am today…a mother, a photographer, a seamstress, an entrepreneur. A woman still figuring it all out. A woman afraid of the world finding out. This is me. This is who I am.

And I am content.

So thank you. Thank you so much to every single one of you who has helped build this dream for me. I hope you love the images you get from me, and I am so thankful that you entrusted me to take them. But just as much, I am thankful that you help support this dream of mine. A dream of putting my family first. A dream of pursuing my passions. A dream of following this road, even when it doesn’t seem to take the same course that so many other artists and entrepreneurs and business people seem to take. I’ll take this road–as messy and unpredictable and obscure as it may seem. I’ll take it, because it is my dream. Thank you to every single one of you out there supporting me. You help make it all worth it, and for that I will always be grateful.

Anna, TX child and family photographer Christina Freeman is a mother to 3 little ones who enjoys capturing details of ordinary life from behind the lens. She currently resides in Anna, TX and loves photographing other families, babies and children in Collin County including Melissa, Van Alstyne, McKinney, Plano, Princeton, Farmersville, Prosper, Frisco, Wylie, Celina, Little Elm and other Dallas suburbs. Contact her at 940-453-4962 to get a conversation started today!

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My little Honda Civic isn’t much to look at. I bought it from a friend of Steven’s in the Navy who was moving to Italy and needed it off her hands. She had taken immaculate care of it, and even after 5 years of use, it still looked brand new. It was my first big purchase, and I had to borrow money from my sister to make it. I was so proud of my new and practical vehicle. At the time, it blended in easily with the other vehicles on the road, but over time, I have started to slowly become aware that the other vehicles around me look decidedly newer, bigger, flashier. Occasionally, I pull up to the beautiful vehicles of clients and sheepishly step out of my dingy gray Civic with the wonky fuel door. The thought has crossed my mind on several occasions that perhaps I should look into an upgrade. And so, after 8.5 years of marriage, 165,000 miles and 3 kids, have I finally found it in my heart to relinquish my little car with all of its scrapes and bruises and memories?

Of course not.

That is why this past week, my family and I once again squeezed into my little Honda like clowns into a clown car. BTW, you too can manage this feat of frugality with the purchase of certain Britax, Chicco and Diono car seats. Did we notice the stares from all the rationally-minded people out there that thought we were either insane or super poor? Multiple times. Did we start to lose a front bumper and have to stop mid-trip to tie it back on with shoelaces from Steven’s chucks? Maybe. Was there toddler puke? Of course. Did we turn a 3 hour leg of the trip into a 6 hour one? You betcha. Did the memories made with family make it all worth it? Absolutely.

Christina Freeman is a family photographer in Anna, TX. She loves photographing other families, babies and children in Collin County including Melissa, Van Alstyne, McKinney, Plano, Princeton, Farmersville, Prosper, Frisco, Wylie, Celina, Little Elm and other Dallas suburbs. Contact her to get a conversation started today!

The post Road Trip 2017 | Family Photographer in Anna TX appeared first on Christina Freeman Photography.

This past year has been an interesting one. In the last eight months, our family has had a major career change, moved across the country,  added a new little person into our lives, bought a new home, and moved again. I think I read somewhere that any of these things would count as one of life’s major stressors, and here we are, compacting five into just a few short months.

My husband left a job that was increasingly becoming a poor fit for our family, accepting a position with a terrific company (yay, Trader Joe’s!) that would be closer to our families. This perfect new job, however, came with a 30% pay cut from what he had been earning…turns out it has been totally worth it, though. We tightened our belts, realigned our budget, and once again focused on simplicity and necessities. Ironically, it was during this time that we decided to buy a new house. Within the first two weeks of purchasing our new house, we had to replace a garage door, a portion of a fence that blew down, and now we are hoping to add some gutters to the perimeter…not quite what we had envisioned in the first month of being homeowners.

I am not going to lie–being home with three kids amidst all of these changes has been challenging. Sweet little Finley was our surprise baby, and he came at a time when I was at an all time high feeling motivated about my two budding businesses. For the first time since I had left the Navy, I was envisioning myself going back to work full-time, and I was feeling so inspired to finally get these fledgling little dreams off the ground and running. Finding out we were pregnant with him knocked the wind out of me.

Please don’t get me wrong: we had kept the possibility of having three kids in the back of our minds, but with two little children three and under, it was a far-off dream. And looking forward to all of the challenges we knew we would be facing in the course of the coming year, we knew one thing: getting pregnant right then would be the stupidest thing we could possibly do. And so, naturally, we discovered we were pregnant.

Despite it all, Finley has really been a dream baby. I’ve heard somewhere that you feel it deep down when your family is complete, and Finley has filled the missing piece of our puzzle. I love our little family, but despite it all, I have felt like I have not been living up to these impossible standards I have set for myself. When I moved down here, I hoped to have my business as a Collin County family photographer up and running nearly immediately. I wanted to start off slow, maybe with just a session a week, and fill those empty gaps with adding items to my little sewing shop. I wanted to consolidate my businesses and get a new website launched that embodied them both. I wanted to get social media and SEO and all of the other things entailed with getting discovered in a new area up and running. And, well….life has happened. Beautiful, messy, crazy life…life that looks nothing like what I had envisioned.

I know I am rambling, and I thank you for bearing with me. I guess the point of what I am trying to say is this: I have decided to be kind to myself. I have spent so many months berating myself for not having the successful business that holds up to multiple moves, for not getting established immediately, for not buckling down and making things work. Perhaps those with successful businesses would look at what I have done and think ‘failure.’ To rub it in even further, I got more requests for sessions in Chicago in the month after I left than I had gotten in the six months prior. My little business had finally started to take root after three years, and we had just left.

Let me be clear: I am not giving up on my businesses. I still will truck away as I am able. I will still work slowly at getting my new website up and running, I will still steal away for 15 minutes here and there to sit at my sewing machine, I will still hone my skills, and I will still accept photography sessions and special orders from my shop as they come along. But I am allowing my mindset to change. Perhaps instead of seeing myself as a failure, I will recognize that our family has gone through incredible changes, and I have taken them all in stride as they have come. I will allow those changes to take root in our lives as they should. Instead of being embarrassed at how few of new sessions I have to post, I will refocus on what it is that gives me inspiration in my photography. I will try to find those beautiful moments as they come into my life and share these moments instead. I will accept that life with three kids is different than life with two kids. In the time it has taken to write this post, I have had to stop to kiss an owie, to fill a water table, to help get shoes on little feet, to feed a hungry baby. Things will go slower, but as with most things in life, often it is the slow things that turn out truly beautiful.

Last night, I pulled out an old hard drive to look for a particular image, and I came across this photograph from two years ago. It is so hard to believe that my little girls ever looked this way, they have grown so much. This photograph warmed my heart and reminded me why I loved photography in the first place. If you don’t mind being patient with me in the course of…well…however long it takes, I will do my best to share beauty with you. It may not come in the form of new sessions all the time–it may be pictures of my family or of flowers, but hopefully it will be little glimpses of my life behind the lens.

Thank you so much for your constant support to my family and business over the past few years. You are one of the many who have helped make this life beautiful.

Christina Freeman Photography is a Collin County family photographer that specializes in photographing children and families in DFW and surrounding areas including Anna,TX,  Melissa, TX, McKinney, Plano, Princeton, Farmersville, Prosper, Frisco, Wylie, Little Elm and other Dallas suburbs. Please contact her to start planning a session today.

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I know I am far from being the first to compare my life to the chapters of a book, and if I were to categorize my the biggest themes so far, my life would probably follow a fairly predictable timeline of milestones: the innocence of childhood, the unpredictability of adolescence, the bliss of first love, the journey of finding one’s self…so many individuals have followed this same path in their own unique ways.

Today, I can’t help but feel that a big chapter of my life has come to an end.

When my husband and I met, we were students of music, working on our master’s degrees in Austin, TX. I love the memories of those days. We were best friends and neighbors, constantly hanging out together, frequenting movies, restaurants, coffee shops and trying to find the newest, most bizarre attractions in a city known for being weird. It was heaven. Soon after graduation, however, reality caught up.

After just a few months of trying to make ends meet, my husband came to the harsh realization that paying student loans for seven years of out-of-state tuition was not possible on his tiny private lesson salary. After much deliberation, he decided to join the military. He had always had the desire to serve and had been interested in pursuing his music career through one of the military bands. The opportunity presented itself, and was absolutely the right choice to make.

This simple choice led to one of our biggest chapters of our lives. Three months after he joined, my husband proposed, and just three months after that we were married. I sold all of our possessions to pay for the move out to Virginia, and so our new our new lives together began. In the past eight years, we have been through so many ups and downs: the loss of a parent, the birth of two children, four moves, one deployment, the incredible journey of becoming debt-free,  just to name a few. And today, for the first time in our marriage, we will be learning what life is like without the Navy.

Transitioning back to civilian life is something we have looked forward to for so long now; during these long Chicago winters, there were few things we loved doing so much as daydreaming of having our warm lives back in Texas. Yet here is the day–it has finally arrived, and I am met with the bittersweet emotions of excitement for what the future holds and a mourning for the loss of what our lives have been for the past eight years.

Appropriately enough, the weather is starting to shift here in Chicago. The days are still warm, but every once in a while, I can feel the subtle shift of a cool breeze. These days feel exactly like what I remember from when we moved here three years ago. At the time, our oldest daughter was only five months old, not even sitting up yet. So hard to believe. Now she is our active three year old, constantly picking at her little sister, always taking the toys.

I walk around town, and I already miss it. I miss it for all of the good memories we have had here; days spent at the park, climbing the hill at the end of the street and picking the grass for hours to place in the drain; the hours I spent perusing the aisles at the library, checking out every book that I found interesting, knowing full well I could never read them all; walking Gallery Park and throwing rocks into the pond; days at the lake, swatting away the persistent bees; bringing home my sweet Hazel girl from the hospital, evenings spent at home on the couch, unwinding from work…so many memories, already so sweet in my mind. While I am ready to move to this next chapter of our lives, I cannot help but take this time to reflect on the wonderful memories these past eight years have brought, and send up a small prayer of gratitude for what they have meant in our lives.

And a few more things we will miss…

Christina Freeman specializes in family, newborn, children and maternity portraits in the Dallas, TX and surrounding areas including Princeton, Plano, Prosper, Frisco, Allen, Wylie, McKinney, Little Elm and other Dallas suburbs.

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The post The Things We’ll Miss | Princeton + McKinney Child Photographer appeared first on Christina Freeman Photography.

In a world where I am exposed to hundreds of images on a daily basis, I find myself often guilty of becoming immune to the power of photography. Allow me to explain.

I am a member of multiple photography groups within social media, and although I have the incredible privilege of viewing samples of thousands of amazing photographers’ works, often I get numbed to it all. I suppose this is probably only a natural result of our digital age. We have such incredible resources literally at our finger tips and in our pockets; at a moment’s notice, we can research images and tips that it might have taken weeks or months of research to find in the past. Within these groups, photographers openly share samples of their favorite images, photographs they are truly proud of. They receive critiques and tips instantly as to what could make their photographs stronger. And somehow through it all, I find myself growing numb. Whereas a breathtaking photograph may have stopped me in my tracks in the past, holding me in its grip, too often I find myself simply clicking ‘like’ and moving on to the next beautiful image.

I don’t really know if I have a point by writing this all out. Perhaps it is only to remind myself the power a photograph can have. Perhaps I am simply trying to hash out in my mind what it is I want to express in my own photographs.

I have recently been going through a book on Dorothea Lange, and I would simply like to leave this ambiguous post with a few quotes and thoughts that I have been mulling over. Please allow me to reshare a few iconic images that you have probably seen before, Dorothea Lange’s famous Migrant Mother images.

These images are part of a 6-photograph series Lange took called Migrant Mother. ‘I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was 32. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tyres from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a  sort of equality about it. The pea crop at Nipomo had frozen and there was no work for anybody. But I did not approach the tents and shelters of other stranded pea-pickers. It was not necessary; I knew I had recorded the essence of my assignment.”

I have been fortunate to have seen these images throughout my life. The are iconic among American culture. And yet until I read this quote, I had never stopped in my tracks. 32. She was only 32. My age.

And suddenly my perspective is reawakened.

Her face is worried and tired, lined with years of hardship and misfortune. Her children cling to her, their rock and security. She holds them in her strong arms, yet her eyes are distant, not in the moment. What is going through her mind?

Today, my own children cling to me. Yet I find the luxury to be able to sit with them as they cry and play with them, as much as our hearts desire. If I find a line etched onto my face, it becomes a worry to me…it is not there from years of worrying. My children are often dressed in homemade clothes as well, yet it is not out of necessity. It is a hobby.

Though we may be the same age, we have lived completely different lives in very different worlds.

I live a life of extremely good fortune. I am exposed to so many wonderful thoughts and images every day. I live in a time when the world feels so unsettled. Perhaps it is, yet as I look again at this image, at this mother my age with children of similar age, I see a world of different opportunities available. Life is not perfect and will never will be. But I am thankful for what I do have, and I hope to never lose perspective of how blessed I have been.

Photographs hold the power to stop people in their tracks and cause them to question their own approach to life. The camera teaches me to look for the stories. All people have them. There is always the temptation to only photograph the beautiful.  It is true that there is so much beauty to photograph–I hope to always be aware of it. Yet life is so much more than just the picturesque moments. Life is made up of moments that break us, cause us to question ourselves,  to mourn…and hopefully eventually we pick ourselves up again and realize we are stronger.   Not all stories are beautiful moments, but all stories have the potential turn out beautifully. Some do. Some don’t. But they are stories worth documenting just the same. I hope as you read this that you aspire to value these moments of your life just as much as the picturesque. They are still a part of our lives.

My personal challenge is to not only view my own life in this way, but to also see the stories of those around me, the incredible lives behind them both with and without the lens. I long to be able to see without the camera.

For further reading on the life behind Migrant Mother, please see this link.

And a few other Dorothea Lange quotes to ponder:

“While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see. “

“The people who are garrulous and wear their heart on their sleeve and tell you everything, that’s one kind of person, but the fellow who’s hiding behind a tree and hoping you don’t see him is the fellow that you’d better find out why.”

“Seeing is more than a physiological phenomenon… We see not only with our eyes but with all that we are and all that our culture is. The artist is a professional see-er.”

Christina Freeman specializes in family, newborn, children and maternity portraits in the Dallas, TX and surrounding areas including Lewisville, The Colony, Richardson, Addison, Plano, Prosper, Frisco, Allen, Wylie, McKinney, Princeton, Little Elm, Melissa, Anna and other Dallas suburbs.

Contact me | Learn more about a session | Follow me on facebook

The post Learning to See Without the Camera | McKinney Photographer appeared first on Christina Freeman Photography.