I genuinely love formal time!! I photographed two graduates at the end of last year. Both were the babies of their families so when they walked out of those school gates for the last time, so did their parents. As the youngest in the family myself, I know the feeling of wanting to grow up and do the things that you've been watching your older siblings do but couldn't. But now as a parent I understand that it must be such a mixed bag of emotions. The pride and excitement mixed with relief, nervousness and nostalgia.
I had such a wonderful time photographing Amy and Thomas. It was a real pleasure to be there to photograph this milestone for them!
I wrote the following for my Facebook page as a reflection of this years formal season...
Parenting is tough! It's years and years of investment. Like weight loss (or gain), you don't wake up one morning and you've lost (or gained) 20kg. It's years of making conscious decisions and eventually your body reflects it. Kind of like your kids. It's choosing to invest into them every single day.
Sometimes it feels like you're failing at it. Like all you're doing is yelling and saying the same things over and over- "put your shoes on", "keep your shoes on", "put your shoes back on". And you don't always know you're doing a good job.
But every once in a while you get a chance to stop and reflect. Those milestone moments where you can take a step back and really take stock of the years of investment and see the progress from one milestone to another. Fortunately for me, people like to capture those milestone moments. I get to see them all the time. Graduation is one I love!! Proud parents looking over their adult kids and wondering how they got from those first steps all those years ago to their first steps out of the school gates and into official adulthood!
Sometimes you meet the kind of parents who you look at and think "you guys are really good at raising humans!" This year I got to photograph two amazing families as they celebrate their last ever high school graduation. An even bigger milestone for the parents. They're all done with school (and school fees)! And I can honestly say that I look at both of these families and can say to both of these sets of parents- "you guys are really good at raising humans!"
Congratulations Thomas and Amy on your graduation. And congratulations to Michael & Danielle, and Joe & Karen on raising good humans for society! You can look back at all your years of investment and be very very proud!
Thomas
Amy
