There are many things that change when you get a baby.
This is not a profound statement and in fact is the obvious truth.
No amount of denial will prevent the truth from overriding any misguided suggestion that everything remains the same.
I am learning so much. I am learning that Ida will let us know when she has a need. She will also let us know if she thinks we are not listening to her needs.
But she is not demanding in an unreasonable way (yet).
As one of her Life Photographers I have come to learn an important lesson. I have had to make a distinction between the photographs I would take because I am the incredibly proud father, and those that she would want (later). I am drawn to her face and have no hesitation to record every nuance of a twitch because it is so amazingly wonderful .... to me. That is the thing ... those photographs are for me. The other day I stepped back from my fatherly besottedness and thought about what Ida Valentina aged 10 or 20yrs would want. I thought about the photographs I had from my childhood and realised that the special ones were the ones that showed the people around me and the place that I lived, because in truth I have absolutely no personal reccollection of those things, just the photographs.
I have an out of focus picture of my grandparents holding me on the doorstep of the house we lived in when I was born. I cherish this photograph because it is the only image I have of my grandparents and because it is the only photograph of the old house. All you can see of me is a bundle of blanket.
My photographic responsibility to Ida Valentina ... my long term client and potentially my greatest critic .. is to photograph her world so that, when she wants to, she can remember what it was like living as the newborn child of two crazy photographers in a small port town in New Zealand.
Hugs
Johannes
I think this is a thoughtful and generous observation from two very loving parents.