Every year for the last 17 years my two daughters and I have had an annual Christmas photo session. We started this when we moved to Dallas from Athens, a small town in East Texas, and it has become one of our most important traditions. In many ways these photos tell the story of our lives through the years here in Dallas and mark and celebrate our connection to one another. Though I am am photographer, and so now is my oldest daughter Celeste… obviously we cannot take the photos ourselves… so that’s where our dear friend Linda Stringer comes in. She takes the photos and control freak that I am… I edit them. She is such a trooper and she has the patience of Job… as I can faithfully attest. She has put up with the three of us, two of whom were very little girls when we started this journey of photography… and let me tell you there have been some pouting sessions and stony glares from those very same sweet girls who weren’t so fond of the idea at times. Some things never change… but merely evolve… and let’s be real… we were all a little irritable yesterday trying to pull it together for this session. You must know something about women trying to pick out the right outfits… get the hair and makeup right. It’s a process… that is all I can say. But in the end, we love each other like crazy… and we are so glad we have these photos… these markers in time… to celebrate one another.
Of course one of the key steps in this process is deciding what we want to wear… no matching… we have done this in years past of course, but now we aim for stylish coordination in the same color family. We wait until the day of or the day before at the earliest and then we either pull everything out of our closets or cave and go and buy something… either way it is frustrating but at the same time fun… and the day of the session our home and car look like a cyclone of clothing struck. To add to our color scheme, I thought to myself, “What could be better than confetti?!” Well nothing of course.
We were so lucky this past weekend that the weather was nice… and cloudy days really make colors pop which I love… I’m not sure if folks wondered why were throwing confetti by the side of the road… but we had a great time. When I look at these photos I really can’t believe how tall that Celeste is… my first born who was once so tiny… or that Medora, who cut half of her hair off in the front when she was four, has such gorgeous locks… see sweetie everything works out in the end. I am so proud of both of my girls… their inner and outer beauty… the way they love and the way we are each other’s fiercest defenders and allies. We may get annoyed with one another at times, but if anyone else says a bad word about one of us or hurts one of us… the other two rise up and hell hath no fury… etc. etc. Suffice it to say that these two are my best friends and I wouldn’t choose to be anyone or anything over being their mom.
We were running out of light and had to do a quick change in the Jeep… which is no cakewalk for three girls… but I wanted a certain photo in a certain spot where I have taken clients many times… and I had it visualized in my head… so it had to happen come hell or high water. I’m a boots and jeans outdoor girl at heart even though fashion is still one of my loves so I wanted to incorporate both. I’m pretty pleased with the results.
The thing I most want to say to all you friends, clients and future clients is to have photos taken of you and your loved ones… I am pretty sure you will never regret it and it will become part of your legacy. I promise. Just do it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you from Tamytha Cameron Photography and from Celeste, Medora and me! xoxo
