UH OH, I BLINKED.

I realized yesterday that the photo above — my Christmas card for 2002 — is now twenty (TWENTY!) years old. These two babies are out of college and have jobs. (What?!?). I remember this day like it was yesterday.

This time of year, I like to share a blog post I did (a mere HOURS ago … or was it 2011???) detailing why I love this photo and confessing a little secret about that the 2002 Christmas card pile. It seems that in those early days of parenthood, I had not yet completed my transformation to the photographer/mother/family historian that I have now become. I actually printed an alternate shot from this roll (yes, of film!) for the “grandma” types who would want to see the kids’ faces. You can read about that dirty little secret and get a real-life glimpse of the hilarious photo procurement process looked like for me with four kids in 2010 by clicking HERE. (Seriously, you’ll laugh).

As I write this, I’m thinking about all the families I’ve had the pleasure of photographing since I turned what had been my own personal obsession into what it is today — a wonderful, happy and fulfilling business. The ones who’ve been with me in the beginning are nodding — fully understanding how a moment in time can feel like it JUST happened when in fact it was a decade ago. Others — the newer ones — are smiling and thinking they understand. They know on some level that time goes fast. What they can’t fathom is how REAL a photo can make a long-ago moment feel. You feel like it just happened, and the reality of how much time has passed on some level just does not compute.

Twenty years later, time has NOT slowed down. I’m paying attention, though. I try not to blink.

Thanks for looking,

~Jaye