- Rita Thompson
- “I’ve learned that the patience, kindness, humor and intelligence that they carry through life is brought forth through the lens so clearly to me.” -Mike Melnotte
- “I want to capture what inspires me and put it back out into the world.” Tytia Habing
- “[This] shot had me arranging my daughter’s hair and surrounding her with a halo of pink roses. It was not lost on me that these shared moments are fleeting and how much I love them.” -Mike Melnotte
- Sorin Costache
- “The wide range of emotions, harmonious compositions and the elegant dance between light and the subject is what motivates me to pick up my camera.” Sorin Costache
- Karine Puret
- “It could be an image of me as a child, or my mom, or my grandma…We’ve all had rhubarb in our gardens. I can remember helping my mom pick it…so I guess it boils down to nostalgia” -Tytia Habing
- “I wanted to capture the beauty, fragility and ephemeral nature of the slices of life of my children.” -Karine Puret
- “You have to be prepared and you have to be quick. They have very little patience for photography.” Rita Thompson
On Photographing Your Child
We have many photographers with niche specialties around Your Shot: underwater, wildlife, astrophotography, to name a few. One of my favorite groups are the parents. We have many parents on Your Shot that bring us sweet, heart-wrenching, funny, raw moments from their children’s lives. With The World Next Door assignment running this month, I thought it would be a good time to feature some of our incredible parent photographers. I’ll let them share some of their thoughts on these intimate, beautiful images they make.
“I’ve always loved photography but I started feeling the need to capture the world around me when I had my kids. I felt compelled to document…not just them, but this time we had together, so I could feel at peace. Everything was just going by so fast, I wanted to know I could relive it all again.” Rita Thompson
“I think too often children are portrayed as smiling, cute, adorable little creatures. They are much, much more than that. I enjoy portraying him for what he really is, a complex, thoughtful, strong, amazing little boy.” Tytia Habing
“My goal is not so much to display my children, however beautiful I think they are, but to stir childhood memories of smells, noises, tastes, forgotten sensations in those who look at my pictures and to remind of these times when we were not hiding ourselves by wearing masks.” Karine Puret
“[My children] give me the opportunity to connect with their inner feelings and we have a stronger relationship because of it. I understand their world better and the sincerity of their expressions are priceless, my daughter likes to play to the camera more, she is definitely the entertainer of the house and my son is a dreamer, he gets lost in his thoughts and I love capturing that.” Sorin Costache
“I’ve never encountered anything that brings such satisfaction and sense of inner peace as when everything comes together with an image. I wish everyone had a love like this.” Mike Melnotte