Dad Never Gets (Photo) Credit

My oldest daughter and I have this thing. Well many of them actually. You know, daddy/daughter kind of things. We have our humor where we shoot little barbs that remind us that we love each other. It’s fun, and we know it’s another way of saying we care.

Like when she gets a high score on a test or big exam. Even if she gets a near perfect score I always let her know “Well, you can do better.” For that I get the expected eye roll and smirk in response. She’s such a smarty pants I say, she needs to be reminded to be humble. But she also knows I’m proud of her. I tell her directly, but also in these many other ways.

Each of our children is unique, which is of course true in every family, but these are mine so I think most of them and their specific needs. And by needs I can also confess they each have their annoyances to go along with their great attributes. I’m sure they could make a long list of mine too, annoyances that is. A good reminder that we’re all human and have have so many ways to grow. For one child we don’t worry about school or a social life, for another it’s the opposite. Lately I try my best to just focus on what they do well and dial back my criticisms, because I’m all too good and that sometimes too.

Knowing that my time with each of them is so limited is a constant reminder to make the most of this time we have. Every single day counts. I get to the end of some days and mentally smack myself for how I may have squandered the time I had, or for things I may have said or done, or not done. More now than ever, but it doesn’t take a diagnosis to realize our time with these people we love is limited. Just a few years back Heather and I were talking about upcoming family vacations and realizing we only had just a few years left with Spencer in our home. Now that’s true again with Allison and not far behind that for Robyn. It’s crazy when you can start counting the upcoming years in “we only have X number of family adventures left with this child before they head out on their own.”

I’m getting old.

This weekend Allison had another school dance and had been planning it out for awhile with her group of good friends for this time. She has such good people she counts and friends and has made it a point to go with a different boy on each dance. We’re happy she came up with that on her own and has so far stuck with it.

Usually I’m the go to photographer for some reason, and happy to do it of course. I like being that small part of their evening, and knowing she can count on me for it. This dance being in the winter it’s of course dark by the time they want to do photos, so without a studio at my disposal any more, we had to think creatively. She wanted lights, so looked around locally and the doTerra building was a great spot. We hoped that wouldn’t be an issue late on a Saturday night, and no one shooed us off the campus. Not sure if just no one was there to care of it was cold enough that security said “nah, don’t care.” We were quick and just used their beautiful tree lights as background.

Being the the photography minded type I wanted to blue them in the background and would light up the kids with a battery powered strobe. I laugh because to me it’s just what comes to mind, and I have the gear so why not use it? Apparently my daughter’s date commented as I was pulling out the light and other gear from my car “Whoa. I didn’t know your dad was like a legit photographer.” Haha, thanks. I’ll take that as a compliment.

So just as a bonus, those that are in my daughter’s date group get their photos taken creatively, and the photos are delivered in a link distributed while they are still at the dance. Yeah. take that other parents. No, I’m not competitive at all. Mostly it’s because I come home and Heather and I bring up the photos right away to enjoy and smile at our daughter and her friends. That’s what we sappy parents do, and we love it.

So the next day I see the photos posted by the kids on their Instagram and the comments from their friends and smile. No one credits the photographer of course, because you know it was just Allison’s dad. And I’m absolutely happy with that.

I’m not JUST her dad. I am her dad. And this is what dad’s do, and we don’t need credit for it because we love every minute of it.