Annapolis Wedding Photographer (and mom)

As an Annapolis Wedding Photographer (and mom), balance is the key! Some day I feel as though I strike that balance, I get to spend time with the kids in the morning and afternoon before rushing off to a photo session with a client. Other days, like today, I’m huddled in front of my Mac editing a gallery or working on updating my website, while my kids play (and fight) outside in the yard.

I realize I have to set my expectations a bit lower, did I feed my kids today and have meaningful conversations with them, but I couldn’t spending every waking moment with them? Yes! Well, then that’s a win for me.

From an early age, my dad and grandmother programmed me to become a working mother. It was who my grandmother was to the core, and probably to the detriment of her family. She was a head nurse in Baltimore with no financial support from her husband who had serious physical and mental health conditions. She knew they would have been destitute had she not become a nurse and supported her family of four.

I always wanted to be a mother, but I also always wanted to have something of my own, something I was exceptional at, and that was photography. I have always been drawn to the medium, from the time I was a teen…but I questioned whether I could do both.

My eldest son was born when I was 22 and I was overwhelmed by it, the utter stress of raising a baby, but yet I adapted, and I learned how to become the mother I wanted to be. I had yet to graduate from college because I left mid-year to move in with my husband, but knew I would never be satisfied without a degree.

When my son was 3, I returned to college, later earning scolarships and a seat at the esteemed Corcoran College of Art + Design in D.C. I was in love with the school from the beginning, I felt as though I belonged, yet I also drove myself mad with regret from not being an ever-present mother in my little son’s life. I kept one foot at home and the other in school, which was over an hour away from my home.

Thankfully I persevered with the help from my husband and family, graduating with a 3.9 GPA from the Corcoran. I was (and still am) proud of that accomplishment. Did I perfectly balance motherhood with continuing my education, of course not, but I tried my best. And…my son was present as I walked across the graduation stage to accept my degree. I hope this was a proud moment for him, as well.