As many of you know, I recently went to Kangaroo Island (KI) on a family holiday. I had a wonderful time! Sam was loved and adored by his parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and most importantly to him, his cousins. The scenery was beautiful. Even more beautiful than I remember when I went there in 2006.
There was one thing though that I found really hard: my inability to take photographs of the scenery. There were many reasons for this with all of them being related to my darling son. Now, please don’t get me wrong, I know that Sam is only young once and any sacrifice I make is worth it but I want to explain how my life as a creation photographer has changed since being a mum.
Although KI is a small island, it still takes at least an hour to get to the sights from our base at Kingscote. This meant timing every trip with Sam’s nap. It also meant flying visits to the sights as well as not being able to stop and admire the scenery on the way as stopping the car woke Sam. Ok, I could deal with this as there was always sunrises. Right?
Sadly, no. Sam was sleeping in our room (blast from the past when he was a little baby). Sam decided that he would do his lovely usual trick of being up for hours in the middle of the night for no real reason. This meant that I was either too tired to safely to drive to a sunrise location or when I was up to it, I couldn’t risk waking Sam with my silent alarm. I did manage one sunrise and it was wonderful (more to come on that later).
This may seem like a trivial problem. I mean I was on a fantastic family holiday and I couldn’t take photographs. There are more important things in life. The thing is that photography is a huge part of me. It is something that I’ve done ever since I can remember. Part of me is missing when I don’t get to take photographs of creation. There is this yearning that isn’t fulfilled.
Here I was, at one of the most beautiful places in South Australia and I couldn’t capture that beauty. It was really hard. I wasn’t expecting that. I wasn’t expecting to feel so sad and unfulfilled. I knew to some degree that I wouldn’t be able to take as many photographs as I’d like but to take as few as I did wasn’t planned.
Before Sam arrived I knew that my life would change and sacrifices would need to be made but I thought my photography would be something that would be unchanged. Sam had other ideas though.
Thankfully, Kangaroo Island will always be there and I’m definitely planning on going back when Sam is older. I can only hope that he can appreciate its beauty as much as I did. Until that time, I learn how to be a mum and a creation photographer.
Has there been something that has fundamentally changed since you’ve had children?