NOTES FROM JES
A chapter of childhood.
A little world of her own.
I thought I was taking Lahni to watch the new Toy Story movie. I didn’t expect it to send me home looking at her bedroom through completely different eyes. If you’re a parent, you’ll know exactly what I mean. You walk past the messy room, the toys scattered across the floor, the teddy that’s somehow ended up in the kitchen again and your first thought is usually, “Can we PLEASE tidy this up?”
That was me.
But after watching Toy Story, I stood in her doorway and just… looked. Lahni is my youngest and she’s the only one of my kids who still disappears into her own little world. She doesn’t just play with her toys.. she creates entire lives for them. Every teddy has a name. Every little setup across her bedroom floor means something.
And it hit me.
One day, this room won’t look like this anymore. One day the toys will be packed away, the little voices and made up conversations will become quiet and this magical little world she’s built won’t exist anymore. As parents we don’t realise we’re living the days we’ll one day ache to revisit.
We always think we’ll remember them.
We think we’ll remember the way they lined up their toys. The teddies they couldn’t sleep without. The tiny shoes left in the hallway. The sound of their imagination filling the house. But the truth is… life keeps moving. That’s why photography means so much to me. People often think photography is about beautiful images. For me it never has been. It’s about holding onto the feeling. It’s about freezing the ordinary days that don’t feel important until they’re gone.
It’s the reason my heart has always been drawn to photographing families and childhood.
Because one day… this will be everything.
Those aren’t just words to me. They’re the reason I pick up my camera. And here’s the thing I hope every parent hears…
You don’t need to book a photographer every time you want to remember something. Please take the photos yourself.
Get your phone out. Buy the little camera you’ve been thinking about. Record the videos.
Photograph the messy bedrooms, the toy collections, the cubby houses in the lounge room, the artwork stuck to the fridge and the teddy that’s been loved so much it’s starting to fall apart. These are the things your children won’t remember to tell you about one day. But a photograph will. One of my favourite quotes says (that I wrote for my website)
“Because you won’t remember every day, but this is how you keep it.
It’s not about what you see, it’s about what you feel. And if you can feel it, you’ll never lose it.”
That’s what I want my photographs to do. Not just show you what life looked like. But take you straight back to how it felt.
Because long after the toys are gone, the bedrooms have changed and childhood has quietly slipped into the next chapter…
The feeling is what you’ll treasure most.
Jes x
#Family Photography Wagga #In Home Family Sessions #Toy Story Photoshoot
