If you have a spare 10 minutes I urge you to head over to this blog post on Scott Kelby’s blog – http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2009/archives/3681#more-3681. I have admired Rick Sammon’s work, personality and attitude for some time and this is an article written by him last year on being a dad and a photographer – personally I find it very moving.
As we approach the birth of our fourth baby I felt this would be a good time to write my take on being a father and photographer and what it means to me.
I could not imagine life without my wife and my children, they are my world. We are raising our children together so I am not just a dad/photographer I am a husband/dad/photographer and I would not want this any other way. Until you become a father you can’t really understand the immediate love you have for the new life that has been brought into the world and the immediate unbreakable bond that is created. Of course babies grow up and we now have a 6, 5 and 1.5 year olds running riot at home with a new born baby taking all the attention too- believe me, raising children is not easy and certainly not for the feint hearted!
Aside from the most important job I have (husband/dad/photographer in case you were wondering) I also have a full time “day job” as an IT Manager and then the part-time but very much full-time consuming job as a photographer/businessman running Frame It Photography. But one thing I don’t agree with is making time for the children! NO – I make time to work as the children come first. Of course there are those times when you miss something because you are working and let us be clear that we live in the real world where people do have to earn money in order to eat! In an evening, after the day job, I am a dad first then when the children are sound asleep I will do any of the business admin that is required.
When it comes to shooting, well that falls into two categories. The first is studio and weddings; studio portrait shoots are a no-go zone for our children unless it’s their friends with their families having the session, it would be unprofessional to have them running around when people are paying to have my concentration. The same can be said of weddings and other events but I guess you knew that 
Being a dad and photographer does have it’s perks though and one of those is that you have willing little models around to shoot in all sorts of ways – and they love it, it’s such fun shooting the girls in the studio (or anywhere for that matter). The second category is my personal project work, so that’s anything in the “other” category on the portfolio section of our web site, I generally do this work on family days out and the children form a huge part of that.
Often when shooting whilst out and about the children are in the frame somewhere. It’s a great reminder of a family day to see a print and your family is in there; it may not be obvious to some viewers and they may be a tiny part of the frame but I know they are there. They also like to get involved too! They have their own little point and shoot cameras but there is nothing quite like getting hold of Daddy’s 50D is there! Actually a Canon 450D with 50mm lens is pretty manageable by them and they have taken some greats shots with it too!
Okay, so we haven’t travelled the world with our children but we haven seen a fair bit of the UK. World travel will come when the time is right, we want to actively broaden the horizons of our girls by allowing them to see other cultures rather than package beach holidays. But we also feel that there is so much to explore in the UK and we always try and head out somewhere with the girls on a weekend to give them experiences that they will remember, and along the way we will photograph and document the journey.
Not every shot taken whilst out with the children is a piece of gallery art. Remember that first and foremost we are a family and family snap shots are fun to look at and invoke so many memories; it’s not just us that could sit for hours looking through old photos, the girls can and do too!
My advice to any photographer that is a dad is to put the family first, and the photography will follow.
