Hannah Elizabeth Photography

I just realized as I was writing out a rough draft outline for a autobiography I am writing for school why I want to take pictures and do photography. Well, maybe not the only reason, but one that stands out.

Taking pictures of an engaged couple about to be married, or your new little one that just came into the world, or your graduation of high school about to take the next step in your journey of life, or the day you commit the rest of your life to the one person you vow to love and always stand by their side… all of those moments are pivotal moments. Moments that stick with you throughout life. Just like in my outline for the autobiography I am writing for school, the paper is only suppose to be one page. JUST one page to write out your whole life’s story… No big deal! Maybe it’s just me, but I thought that was kind of hard. As I started making out my outline for the paper I realized I can’t fit every detail like I started to do then soon realized my paper would be 10 pages if I kept at that rate. Thanks to my wise boyfriend when I complained “I can’t write this!! I have too much to say whaaa!!’He told me I had to pick the PIVOTAL moments. The times that stood out and marked me to make me who I am. As I was writing them out I was picturing them in my mind. I could picture the moments exactly as they happened like I was still in that moment of time. How those moments affected and shaped me.

Then I was thinking how sacred are those moments. Whether or not they were good, bad, hard, or easy they all impacted in a big way. They all had a story behind them and DEVELOPED me to be who I am today. When you capture those moments with a photograph, they hold such a big meaning. That one photograph can tell an entire story. The one photograph of the newborn baby can stand as a story to share as a testimony of the parents who were not able to concieve children. The mother and father that prayed together and when all the doctors were telling them the odds were not in their favor, giving them no hope of building a family, God favored them. They were gifted a miracle and now they have a simple photograph with a huge story of grace behind it.

I know not every photograph seems to be that significant like that example, but even the small every day inbetween moments are still special because they get you to the next key moment in life. They serve as the moments you may think that specific time isn’t special or important, but later when you see a photograph from it you’re taken back to that time and remember something. Maybe you remember how far you have gotten from that time or something special that happened in that season.

So with all that said if it even makes sense, I want to help people remember those key points of the outline of their story. I want to help document moments they may not even see themselves, but when an outsider steps in and captures it it serves as a memory that holds value. The photographs that show the development of them becoming who they are. Capturing those moment of life, love, sorrow, joy, whatever it is. Each is a key point for a reason.

And as an ending note, just because I thought this was neat and maybe this doesn’t make any sense to anyone else, but when I looked up the definition to the word pivotal…

piv • ot • al - Of crucial importance in relation to the development or success of something else.

Your PIVOTAL moments captured in photographs marking the DEVELOPMENT (like a picture being developed) of your life’s story.