Yearly Archives: 2018

Florida child and family photographer brooke tucker

OH HEY there ya’ll!  It’s been a while there and I have to say it FEELS GOOD to take a break guys… like real good!  Sometimes you just need to do that:  take a nice good long break from things!  That way when you come back you feel refreshed, grateful and ready to be BACK!  I feel like we need to do this in ALL areas of our life, not just with social media things (but like especially with social media things) but other things that sometimes we get “stuck” in or make us feel competitive or not bring us joy ALL THE TIME.

Lately, in our little corner of the world we are in a season that is bringing of lots of changes and transitions!  I feel like we are kind of hula hooping through life right now:  Sometimes we got that rhythm going and we are JAMMING… and other times we think we are in sync and then the hula hoop drops out of nowhere… you know that feeling right?!  Especially as parents!

Ya’ll parenting is the GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD… and then sometimes it can also been so hard, like so hard!!!  Which is why I kind of love the hula hoop analogy:  hula hooping is addicting 😉  And no matter what age you are, you either rock it (literally) those hips don’t lie and you got it going on!  And then the next minute, no one quite really knows what happens but that hoop drops and the best thing you can do is laugh, pick the hoop right back up and keep going!

That’s kind of how parenting is:  you do what is best for your kiddo and family!  Each and every single day is different (thank goodness for that right!)

Somedays you nail it!  And you feel soo soo good!  Those are the days we celebrate!

Other days that parenting hoop drops and you have no idea why!  Those days can feel so hard.  Those days can feel defeating as parents.

But the only thing to do is pick that hoop right back up and keep on rocking those hips!!  The only thing to do is start fresh that next morning.

One thing I keep telling myself over and over again is that we are all in this hula hoop circle together!  

We all got this and no matter whether our hoops are up, no matter whether our hula hoops have dropped… we are ALL doing a pretty darn amazing job just keeping at it!  We all want what is best for our kiddos and at the end of the day, that love is enough!

So where ever you are today:   please know:  you are doing awesome!  

Keep on hooping friend!!!

florida child and family photographer brooke tucker

 

 

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving.  What you’ve caught on film is captured forever…. it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything!”

-Aaron Siskind.

 

I recently read that quote somewhere (I can’t remember exactly where) and I have taped it over my computer and also post-it noted it to the bottom of my computer screen and on my desk  just so I can be sure I read it just about every day!  I’m so grateful for that small little two sentence quote.  It’s no secret that I adore photographs and photography. I am a photographer after all but sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the day to day clutter.  Each day has it’s own temper and lately, I make no bones or no secret about it, we’ve been having a hard time with our days temper.

It’s easy for me to forget sometimes WHY I love photography and that Aaron Siskind really nails it on the head with his eloquent words there.  We take for granted every day we get with our loved ones.  We take for granted all the small, wonderful, unique qualities about them and each time we take a quick picture those wonderful qualities are forever captured!  That moment of laughter, those long beautiful eyelashes, those freckles, that baby tooth that was pulled out two days ago…

In a world that moves at such fast pace we are so incredibly blessed to have so many cameras right at our finger tips, ready and available right at the snap of a finger to capture any moment we choose~

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how I am blessed to be able to give the GIFT of pictures and really the gift of remembering to families!  Each time a family steps in front of my camera I am able to give them the gift of time!  Time where they can look back years from now and see exactly how things were.  Time where they can FREEZE their babies just as they are!  Time where they can capture belly laughter, time together, play, magic, wonder, and all those little details of love frozen in just that single moment!

Time that years from now their babies will be able to HOLD in their hands when they are grown up adults!  This always amazes me.  I always think about Linc looking at pictures of the two of us years from now and seeing what he looked like as a tiny little baby and noticing the features that he might have carried over.  I see him looking at pictures from those moments and seeing my young, tired mother face and if he recognizes any of his same features possibly (I have my mom’s eyes and her smile).  I also wonder if he will still see the same me but maybe with a few wrinkles 😉

Sometimes I think we get so caught up in making sure we have the PERFECT picture that we end up not taking the picture at all or deciding that we don’t need to be IN the picture because we ourselves aren’t picture perfect.  Maybe we don’t take the picture because we don’t have the perfect picture taking gear!  Gosh, I know I’m guilty of that:  I didn’t bring my “big girl” professional camera with me so I decide to skip out on capturing the memories of the day rather than use what I have which might be my phone.  The only thing that matters is that actual memory itself and that on years from now if you wanted to be able to hold that memory, really experience it for all the details that it was, you could!  And that means capturing it with whatever camera you had!

The perfect picture is the one you have taken with whatever camera you had on hand for that is the perfect camera!

This year I’m learning that it doesn’t matter what I look like, what camera I’m using or if it’s perfect or not.  It doesn’t matter even if I can remember the day in great detail… because I can’t always remember!  But a picture can and a picture will remember forever, even if my memory fades over time!

This year over the summer Linc and I went home to VB to visit my parents!  Linc (of course) got his weird fever syndrome sickness as soon as we got off the plane.  We had a crazy few days while we were there but there was one beautiful day that we got to spend on the beach with my mom!  This was a day that I had always wanted!  A day that was my childhood replayed right for Linc!  My heart was so beautifully happy and my cup was so full that day.  We only went down for a few hours in the morning but it was the perfect day.  I was only able to capture a few pictures with my camera but the ones I did capture were priceless for so many reasons, reasons that I could never fully express in words.

Linc learned to body surf that day and he also learned to “boogie board” as we called it when I was little but I don’t think it’s cool to call it that anymore!  He was fearless and that’s crazy because last year he wouldn’t even go NEAR the ocean let alone neck deep in the waves.  But what was more incredible is that my mom went out with him and helped to actually push him into the waves on his body board like she used to do for me when I was so little.  THIS IS EXACTLY what I think Aaron Siskind was talking about when he said photography is a way of feeling, of touching and of loving.

The moments I was able to capture of the two of them out in that ocean, I am able to hold those images that are now printed and feel everything I could never try to express in words.  I feel what I felt as a child when my mom would push me into the waves in the same way she is now pushing my own son.  I feel a sense of love like no other as I watch her with him and wondered IF there would ever be a time when we would be able to do this.  And I know that I have these moments frozen in time forever and not just for me but for my parents too!

Photographs are amazing and so often I think people underestimate them!

I can always come back and re-visit and usually whatever image I am holding will bring me right back to that moment.  It will bring me back to exactly that moment of love!

What about you?  Do you have images that do this for you?

 

 

Child and family lifestyle photographer brooke tucker photography Child and family lifestyle photographer brooke tucker photography

 

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Oh sweet, wild, whirling dervish Lincoln…

Here we are, It’s been a while since I’ve written you a letter, let alone a birthday letter and this one is so much more than that!  You’ve been 6 for a whole month plus some now and we are in the beginnings of such a BIG adventure!  This will be a HUGE year.  I can feel it in my bones.  I can feel it in my soul.

This year we’ve already started our adventure with big kid school!  You’re a kindergardener now and you’ve been waiting on this for an entire year.  You are incredibly independent and while the other kids walk slowly and a little trepidatiously;  you sprint full force into that unknown with a huge smile and a “mom up top!”

Right now, you are more fierce than ever.  You are bold in your opinions and stronger with you will!  You know exactly who you are and what your opinions, your thoughts and which direction you WILL go in!  You do not waiver and you will not accept no for an answer.  Sometimes that causes some friction, I’m not afraid to admit that.  You see I am a people pleaser.  I like peace and calm and I do not like confrontation.  You, however are not afraid to stick to your guns no matter what happens.  You like control and you do not back down.  These are strong character traits that will have you breaking down barriers later in life.  These are all qualities that even now make you a leader:  a leader that sometimes gets in quite the trouble!

Here is the thing about life though something that I will always be eternally grateful for:  Each day it starts new:  it starts fresh with a brand new chance!  One that you always embrace with the most positive attitude!  You always wake up bright and happy with the biggest grin on your face!  You wake up bright and early (5:45 to be exact) ready to take on the day with more energy than anyone on this earth I’m willing to bet!  You are loud, you are bold and you are so bright my little one!

So now you are 6 and more daring than ever!  You’ve entered this place again where there is absolutely no fear!  You’ve taken on all the thrill rides that your big little 44 inches of you are tall enough to ride including Everest and Tower or Terror!  On the first day of school you pulled out your very first tooth and then came home that Friday with a second lose tooth!  You don’t do anything at a slow speed once you start!

You’ve been surfing, body boarding, learned to body surf and love to tackle that huge Tsunami wave at Typhoon lagoon often landing on adults as you get tossed into the air!  Bruises, scrapes, strawberries, gashes we’ve got them all!

You’ve broken boards with your hammer fist (not one but two stacked on top of one another) and conquered the soccer field with your aggressiveness and fierce mohawk!  I lost my voice so many times from yelling so loudly at your games and will always be right there, camera in hand, embarrassingly loud voice, right on the side lines for as long as you choose to play (no matter what it is!)

And every single time you do these things:  take the field, nervously and boldly stand in line, step up to the boards with a new breaking technique, every time you prove to yourself time and time again how incredible you are:  I will ALWAYS be here to say to you:  “You, my sweet boy, are AMAZING and I am always so proud of you!”

There is something about you Linc.  Your heart is incredibly wild, but you see it’s just also so big and your love for making others feel loved is even bigger!  You are crazy, but whats amazing is that you are also so incredibly empathetic!  You have always had these BIG EMOTIONS and although right now, sometimes those big emotions can be a little scary, you also have this way of using your emotions to connect in a way that is really quite beautiful!  Sometimes it’s in the way you use that tiny hand of yours and place it on my cheek sometimes in a random moment.  Sometimes it’s in the way you can just talk to just about anyone and you say something that is truly profound.  You have a way of connecting with people, anyone just about anywhere and you are always ready to help.

This worries me too because sometimes hearts like yours and mine can be sensitive and broken easily.  Although, each time I worry about you and that big heart of yours, you tell me “Mom, I’m always OK” and you know what, you usually are because one thing you are is silly and you have a way of letting things go and turning the not so happy bits of life into something silly or goofy or laugh out loud funny, and that is what you love most is making people laugh!  I’m sure you will be the class clown!

So here is to 6… a full year of new adventures!  A year where I am beginning to see that maybe it’s time I loosen my grip a bit (just a little maybe).  You are too independent for me to hold on anyway.  Here’s to a year of laughter and craziness!  A year of new beginnings and daring new heights!

There are so many things that I want for you but could never say it as beautifully as Jason Mraz does:

 

May you have auspiciousness and causes of success
May you have the confidence to always do your best
May you take no effort in your being generous
Sharing what you can, nothing more nothing less
May you know the meaning of the word happiness
May you always lead from the beating in your chest
May you be treated like an esteemed guest
May you get to rest, may you catch your breath
And may the best of your todays be the worst of your tomorrows
And may the road less paved be the road that you follow
Well here’s to the hearts that you’re gonna break
Here’s to the lives that you’re gonna change
Here’s to the infinite possible ways to love you
I want you to have it
Here’s to the good times we’re gonna have
You don’t need money, you got a free pass
Here’s to the fact that I’ll be sad without you
I want you to have it all
Oh! I want you to have it all
I want you to have it
I want you to have it all
May you be as fascinating as a slap bracelet
May you keep the chaos and the clutter off your desk
May you have unquestionable health and less stress
Having no possessions though immeasurable wealth
May you get a gold star on your next test
May your educated guesses always be correct
And may you win prizes shining like diamonds
May you really own it each moment to the next
And may the best of your todays be the worst of your tomorrows
And may the road less paved be the road that you follow
Well here’s to the hearts that you’re gonna break
Here’s to the lives that you’re gonna change
Here’s to the infinite possible ways to love you
I want you to have it
Here’s to the good times we’re gonna have
You don’t need money, you got a free pass
Here’s to the fact that I’ll be sad without you
I want you to have it all
Oh, I want you to have it all
I want you to have it
I want you to have it all
Oh, I want you to have it all
All you can imagine
All, no matter what your path is
If you believe it then anything can happen
Go, go, go raise your glasses
Go, go, go you can have it all
I toast you
Here’s to the hearts that you’re gonna break
Here’s to the lives that you’re gonna change
Here’s to the infinite possible ways to love you
I want you to have it
Here’s to the good times we’re gonna have
You don’t need money, you got a free pass
Here’s to the fact that I’ll be sad without you
I want you to have it all
Oh, I want you to have it all
I want you to have it
I want you to have it all
Here’s to the good times we’re gonna have
Here’s to you always making me laugh
Here’s to the fact that I’ll be sad without you
I want you to have it all
Heres to KINDER my big 6 year old… and the many emotions that come with it!  haha
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the pensive
I like to call these below the silly excitement and the awkward smile!
awkward smile is the best ya’ll ^^^
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Back to silly and then the don’t look at me ^^
ohhh this might be my favorite… but it’s just too hard…. and it’s too hot… and I’m having a melt down!!! ^^^^
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just kidding, I’m fine now and mom said something funny (like a bodily function word, let’s be honest he’s a boy) and now it’s all alright!  who can relate!!!  ^^^
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Ok the one above ^ is my favorite even though time was CLEARLY running out!  hahaha
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So what do you do as a photographer?!!  Or a mom?!  Throw an apple at him?!
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Love you kid!!
“And may the best of your todays be the worst of your tomorrows
And may the road less paved be the road that you follow
Well here’s to the hearts that you’re gonna break
Here’s to the lives that you’re gonna change
Here’s to the infinite possible ways to love you
I want you to have it
Here’s to the good times we’re gonna have….”