Because She Sees Me: An MB Shaw Photography Givewaway! {31 Days: Day 28}

So this past weekend, I went to Allume.

It was incredible. So much so, that I can’t put it all into words right now. But while I was there one phrase I heard from Sarah Markley kept resonating in my mind.

And I knew I had to tell you why. She was talking about a writer’s voice and how we are all distinct and unique. She used photography as a metaphor to demonstrate this, and she talked about a photographer friend of hers who took her headshots and she said she loved those pictures because she felt like this woman really saw her.

That’s how I feel about my friend Merideth. She sees me.

She’s been at my house when there’s piles of laundry and shoes and dishes. We’ve shrugged our shoulders at one another in the parking lot when we unload our three year old daughters and acknowledge that both of them got the better of us in the wardrobe department that morning. I’ve sat and cried on her more this fall than anyone else and she’s built me up and torn me down in the most humbling and beautiful way because she’s told me the hard things I need to hear and acknowledge.

You’re doing too much.

It’s okay to admit that you can’t do something for someone else because you have to take care of your children.

You’re a mama, that has to come first.

It’s lonely at the top and leadership is hard, but God is standing with you and so am I.

It’s a privilege to have her photograph my family. (Even when we’re in a hurry to get to fall festival and no one is cooperating and all I want is one shot for the Christmas cards that likely will be January cards because I think that’s how we’re rolling this year.)

I tried to pay it forward this past weekend by participating in an Impact Opportunity at Allume. Help Portrait is a group that does professional portraits for those who may never have had the opportunity to have a really good picture of themselves taken. So on Saturday afternoon, I colored and folded origami with fifteen girls from an at-risk center in Greenville. When we weren’t getting crafty, Paul Mitchell salon artists were fixing their hair and brushing on just a bit of makeup so these girls would feel glamorous when their portraits were taken.

They were gorgeous and so excited because someone had taken the time to see them.

This is the beauty of using a local lifestyle photographer to capture your family’s milestones: it can be someone who sees you because they have the time to get to know you. A lot of people shy away from really good photography because it is more expensive than the static Olan Mills Studio, but it’s more than worth the cost to have pictures that tell your story.

So this week Merideth and I are partnering up to help capture someone’s milestone. She’s giving away a spring portrait session, and I’m raising that with an offer to help the winner tell their story through words.

Because another thing I learned this weekend is that everyone has a story for this moment, this place, this time.

And everyone’s story is worth capturing.