Wilkerson Sarah. - Capture the Moment: The Modern Photographers Guide to Finding Beauty in Everyday and Family Life

Copyright 2015 by Clickinmoms LLC

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Amphoto Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.amphotobooks.com

AMPHOTO BOOKS and the Amphoto Books logo are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilkerson, Sarah, 1980
Capture the moment : the modern photographers guide to finding beauty in everyday and family life / Sarah Wilkerson.
pages cm
1. Photography--Technique. I. Title.
TR146.W459 2015
771--dc23

2014030435

Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-77043-527-1
eBook ISBN: 978-0-77043-528-8

Cover photograph by Amy Lockheart
Design by Ashley Lima

v3.1

This book is dedicated to the Clickin Moms community and to every woman who enriches her corner of the world with her camera.

We are indebted to the talented CMpro photographers whose vision and skill grace the pages of this book. Thank you for allowing us to share these beautiful images that we know will inspire and empower others to begin their own artistic journeys. The unique ways that you see the world through your lenses is an inspiration.

I am so thankful to the people who prepared me for this project and helped me along with its development:

To my husband Malcolm, for the many nights of takeout, letting me sleep in after the nights when work and creative momentum kept me up until 4 a.m., and unconditional support and encouragement in this and every endeavor. I love you so much!

To my mom, who every day inspires the mother I hope to be and the relationships worth photographing. You compiled twenty-three years of scrapbooks that represent every magical memory of my childhood and remind me how important it is to capture everyday moments for my own children.

To my dad, who told me since I was three that I could be anything I set my mind to becoming. Nobody could have anticipated this path, but I do know that I wouldnt be here without the foundation you gave to me.

To my sister Kelly, who has with an enthusiastic and generous spirit celebrated with me every accomplishment and undertaking, big or small, for my entire life.

To Carol Wood, for letting me play with your Nikon D50 in my parents backyard back in the spring of 2006 and getting me started on this path. You opened this door for me.

To Me Ra Koh, for meeting up with me one afternoon for a lunch that Ill always look back on as a game changer. Your optimism and warmth are infectious, and your belief in the strength of women in this industry is positively inspiring.

To Julie Mazur, who saw something extraordinary about the Clickin Moms community and worked so closely with me to get this project off the ground. It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with you.

To Amy Lockheart, for the magical cover photo that captures the exquisite convergence of a creative eye, technical mastery, and a mothers love. Thank you, as well, for the ever insightful contributions you made to the development of the book proposal and content.

To Caroline Jensen, Elle Walker, Emma Wood, Jen Bebb, Megan Cieloha, and Michelle Turner for exploring concepts with me and filling in the gaps with your creativity and expertise.

To Julia Tulley, for helping me to organize our many contributing photographers and for always keeping me on track.

To Bill Kelly and Cameron Bishopp, for the dozens of emails you fielded and the consistently thoughtful feedback you gave as the book took shape.

To the team at Watson-Guptill, including designer Ashley Lima, publicist Kara Van de Water, and especially my editor Lisa Westmoreland, who patiently and tirelessly worked with me through many (many!) rounds and countless emails to make this book what it is. I could not have imagined what a rich and exhaustive process this would be, but its been an amazing experience.

And, most of all, to Kendra Okolita, for her unconditional friendship, support, collaboration on this books concept, and for creating a safe and warm place for women to learn about photography in the first place.

Clickin Moms is contributing 100 percent of the royalties it receives on the sale of this book to Ronald McDonald House Charities as part of our commitment to giving back to the community. Ronald McDonald House Charities and the Ronald McDonald House program provide accommodation for the families of seriously ill or injured children by offering a home away from home near the facility where a child is hospitalized. We selected this charity as our beneficiary by a vote of the CMpro community.

On a gray Texas morning in 2005, with a ten-day-old baby bundled in the backseat of the car, I kissed my husband good-bye and watched him walk across the parking lot to join hundreds of other soldiers headed for Iraq. The year that he was away was simultaneously the longest and shortest year of my life. Every parent knows the joy and heartbreak of seeing a child grow: the sleepy newborn phase gives way to giggles, and that first belly-inch forward becomes a full-on crawl. Enjoy it while it lasts, strangers would say with a smile, this time passes so quickly. It only made me more aware that my husband was missing everything. The milestones wouldnt wait. I ordered an entry-level DSLR and a kit lens, and I dove into shooting and learning. I took it upon myself to become a memory keeper. I sought out beauty in the details of daily life. I documented the nuances of emotion and expression that come and go in an instant. By the time my husband returned, photography had evolved from a way of capturing life to an integral part of my life altogether.