The Beautiful Now with Tanya Jacobs Photography

“Wherever you are in life. No matter how busy. One day you will look back and you’ll want to remember how it felt to be there in those ordinary moments. Will you remember the beautiful now?” – Tanya Jacobs Photography.

These words speak straight to my soul. Why? Because I lost my mom. To cut a long story short, we didn’t own a camera after the age of around seven and I literally have five photos of my mom and I between the ages of seven and 18-years-old. And trust me when you have lost a loved one, you long for imagery of them. Imagery that ignites memories, smells, words and feelings.

Ever since I bought my first camera, I have not stopped documenting life. With my husband, with our dogs, with our family and now with Maddie. For one day these photographs will be treasured forever and ever!

There is nothing more precious than photography! I have always believed and can guarantee you that you will never regret investing in professional photography!

The money you pay today to capture (be it posed photography or a more natural documentary style of photography) you will deem priceless the moment you open the files and see the images and in 10 or 20 years time, you will be so incredibly thankful for those images!

I had the pleasure of welcoming an old colleague and friend, Tanya Jacobs into our home last month to capture our ‘BEAUTIFUL NOW’. Tanya recently stopped wedding photography to pursue her passion in documentary style photography as well as family photography. This new style of photography is massive overseas and I am so excited that Tanya has bought this service to the Durban market!

When Tanya called me to ask if she could capture our ‘beautiful now’ in our home, I initially thought – oh my gosh, my home is far from picture perfect and I will have to clean up and pack away all our clutter!! I was so nervous having a photographer come into my home – something we have never done before but she reminded me that she wants our home to look exactly as it is now, because that’s how Maddie children will remember it when she looks back at these photos years from now!

The beautiful thing about the documentary style photography that Tanya does is that it is 100% natural. There is no poses or styling… just simply living and going about our usual Saturday morning activities.

“It’s capturing the messy counter tops and the kid’s toys on the floor. It’s capturing the tantrums and the tears and the hugs and the mess. It’s capturing the little smiles that we take for granted and inquisitive eyes. It’s photographing real laughs and it’s finally… finally capturing mom in photos,” Tanya

Tanya suggested we just go about some of our favourite things to do as a family and it was a no brainer…

Painting! Maddie loves painting and getting messy in front of her Melissa & Doug painting easel from Mr Tickles (you can read my full review on it here) and it is often a family activity where we all end up with paint on our hands!

We were fortunate enough to have Tanya photograph our annual family photo shoot (something Brett and I have done every year since Maddie was born) last month so Maddie was familiar with Tanya and was quite excited to have ‘aunty’ as Maddie called her, in our home and Maddie quite enjoyed showing off while painting and then cleaning up in the bath. Another thing Maddie absolutely loves!!

Tanya combines a documentary and lifestyle approach, so does provide a little guidance to get a few portraits and interaction with your children to get them on her side but it is mostly ‘hanging out’ like having a friend over for tea while we go about our every day lives. Tanya is so great with kids and you don’t even realise that she is photographing you.

The session lasts between an hour and an hour and a half and it is so fun! You really don’t need to have a picture perfect, neat home either…

After Tanya left, both Brett and I commented on how much fun it was. We have done quite a few ‘posed’ shoots and it was refreshing to just be casually dressed and in our home, doing what comes naturally to us…

I am so happy with the images Tanya captured. They sum up these moments at home so well. Maddie absolutely loves the bath… her ducks, lying with her head under water, being sprayed with foam and splashing! These are moments I wish to remember forever! The smell of her Baby Dove soap, the sound of the foam being sprayed out of the can, the way she laughs as she splashes her hands against the water.

You cannot put a price tag to these images…

So if you have never hired a professional photographer, don’t enjoy being in front of the camera, prefer natural photography and want to capture your very own personal ‘beautiful now’ I really and truly encourage you to pop Tanya an email to enquire about booking a home session. I promise you that your home is beautiful enough and don’t let the way you ‘look’ stop you from booking a session to capture those precious moments with your kids. I can guarantee you that your kids won’t look back and say ‘gosh mom you were fat’ – don’t wait for things like ‘when I lose a couple of kilos’ or when my house is done up. Capture the moments now… You won’t regret it!

For more information on Tanya’s Beautiful Now click here!

DISCOUNT!
Tanya Jacobs Photography is offering my readers R450 off her Beautiful Now photo package and if you book between now and the end of October you will pay just R1500 for the shoot (normal price is R1950).

To book simply email; info@tanyajacobs.co.za and quote ‘Being Maddie’s Mom’ to receive the discount. She has limited spots available so book asap to avoid disappointment.