There’s a phenomenon that I’ve noticed. It’s nothing new, an age old practice that seems to be repeated generation after generation. The Invisible Women Syndrome is what I call it.
You know what I’m talking about. You take the kids on a family vacation and you are somehow missing from most of the family photos. I get it, you are the one with the camera, you are the one who wants to create those memories, you TAKE the pictures, but you’re not IN the pictures. Am I right ladies?
I can relate to this so much as a photographer! I don’t want to miss that moment. I want to make sure my family has those pictures to look back on one day. But I found that while I was creating memories, I wasn’t in a lot of them!
So I made a change….not only in a physical way, but in a mental way as well. You see lots of times I would avoid the pictures because I didn’t have make up on, or my hair was a mess, or I think I look fat in pictures. But you know who doesn’t care about any of that? My family!! I made a choice to be included in my pictures, good, bad or otherwise because I matter to my family and I need to be represented.
It’s not easy, believe me, but hand the camera to someone else and make sure you are in those precious pictures. In 20 years your family will be so thankful to have those images to remember the great times you had making memories! As an empty nester I can say I know this to be the absolute truth!
Do you let others take pictures so you can be in them too? What are some of the reasons you don’t feel confident to be in photos?