I don’t know about you, but growing up, family vacations with my family were not well documented in photographs. Don’t get me wrong, we often had the obligatory photo of my sister and I beside a miniature village in Niagara Falls, or playing in a random park in the East Coast of Canada. We didn’t have many or any photos with us as a family on these trips and I always wished we did. Our parents were always missing from the photos. It wasn’t until I traveled with my sisters family on a mini vacation to Golden, B.C. that I realized how difficult vacations can be to photograph as a parent of young kids. You have to choose, be in the moment with them or capture it in a photographs without them.
As avid travelers ourselves, we know that its hard to remember every piece of a vacation. You come home, and while the feelings and memories of the place and time you had still lingers in the amygdala part of your brain, its hard to visualize it. Quickly those feelings are just feelings and reliving the moments becomes more difficult.
What I hear from most of our clients is that they want to travel more, but they think their kids won’t remember it until they are older. But the truth is, regardless of age, our memories slowly fade. We need a constant reminder, and photographs are there to serve that purpose.
On a cloudy day in July, a family of 4 set out on a little adventure. A 5 hour trip through the mountains with a 1 year old and 2 year old, and mama and a papa and a photographer. They traveled through the great Rocky Mountains of Alberta & British Columbia through the rain and the sunlight. They stopped to visit the famous ice fields and the Glacier Skywalk. The little boys looked through the glass floor to see the waterfalls below. They saw bears and deer, and stayed in a little cabin in the woods together. They explored, played, and made memories, then the photographer captured the moments, so they would never forget them.
“I could actually be in the moments with my family, because I wasn’t spending all my time trying to create and capture them.” claimed the mama.
That is proof enough for us that vacation photography is important. Its not frivolous, its essential. What I realize now in my 30th year, was that our parents made the choice to be in the moment with us instead of capturing it. That means so much to me. But if they taught me anything, it was to always aim higher. You really can have it all, memories in mind and in photographs. We hope you enjoy this little collection of images from The Gallagher family vacation photography in Golden B.C, Canmore & Banff Alberta.
Thank you for the memories sister.
Love,
& Ryan
P.S- If you enjoyed this post, check out the article I wrote for Sunday Crush Blog, about a vintage collection of family vacation photos I found at at Parisian market.
