5 Reasons to Stop Saying You Need to Lose Weight Before You Book a Photo Session

I hear this one a lot. More than almost anything else. Someone will reach out, we'll have a great conversation, and then right before they commit they say some version of it: "I just want to lose a little weight first." Or I'll be at an event and somebody will lean in after I took their photo and say "you can work your magic and take 10 or 20 pounds off right?"

I get it. I really do. Being in front of a camera is vulnerable and most of us have a complicated relationship with seeing ourselves in photos. But I want to push back on this one because I think it's costing people something they can't get back. SO here is my no filter, no holding back mini rant on why you GOTTA stop babe.

1. This version of your life is happening right now whether you document it or not.

The kids are this age right now. Your friendships look like this right now. You are living a life worth remembering right now — not a future version of it, this one. Waiting for a smaller body before you book a session is really just waiting to give yourself permission to believe your life is worth capturing. And it always was. The photos don't create the worth. They just reflect it.

2. You are going to wish you had photos of this season.

I say this with so much love and also complete confidence because I have never once heard someone say they regret having too many photos of a chapter of their life. But I have heard people say the opposite. Ten years from now you are not going to look back and think "good thing I waited." You are going to wish you had more photos of this version of yourself. The one who was busy and full of life and showing up every single day even when it was hard. That person deserves to be in the album.

3. The people in the photos with you don't see what you see.

They see someone they love. They see their mom, their best friend, their partner, their person. When you take yourself out of photos because of how you look, you are also making a decision for them. That the memory of you together isn't worth keeping. I know that's not what you mean when you do it. But that's what it does. And the people who love you would choose a thousand imperfect photos of you over none at all. Every single time.

4. Saying it out loud teaches the people around you to say it too.

This one is the one I feel most strongly about. Kids especially. When the adults they look up to talk about their bodies as problems to be fixed before life can really begin, they absorb that. They start to believe the same thing about themselves. You don't have to love every single part of yourself to get in front of a camera — that's a lifelong journey and nobody is asking you to have it figured out. But showing up anyway, being present anyway, saying "I'm here and I matter right now", that is a lesson worth more than you know.

5. Your body carried you to every moment worth photographing.

Every adventure. Every celebration. Every hard season you dragged yourself through and came out the other side of. Every ordinary Tuesday that turned into something you'll tell a story about for years. Your body was there for all of it. It held you through the grief and the joy and everything in between. It deserves to be in the photo too.

You don't have to feel confident to book a session. You don't have to love what you look like or feel ready or have it all together. My job is to show up for you exactly as you are and find the truth and the beauty in it. Because it's always there, in every body, in every season of life.

Book the session. Come as you are. Let me do the rest.

Until next time :)

Michaela