It’s the most wonderful time of the year. The holiday season is full of so many memories, vacations and family gatherings. This year I want to experience it more with both eyes instead of one squinting through the view finder of my camera all season. At every family event, I find myself glued behind my camera trying to capture every single detail like I’m shooting a wedding and can’t miss a second. I forget to sit, enjoy and live in the moment.

I recently stumbled upon a study that showed the constant camera snapping stops our brain from remembering what really happened. (Thankfully we have those photos to remember those moments we were too busy taking pictures, right?!) My goal and challenge to photographers this season is:

put your camera down.

I don’t have the self-control to put my camera down and leave it down for two months. Of course I still want the high quality pictures of my children and family during this holiday season, BUT I am going to limit myself. For every few minutes I spend with my camera, I will spend hours without it.

I don’t need to take a photo every second of every event. I looked through my pictures from last holiday season, and realized there were about 4 pictures from each event that I had to have out of the hundreds that I took. So everyone, let’s enjoy our families more this holiday season and our cameras less.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

Kylee Maughan

Kylee Ann Maughan is a family and international brand photographer based in small-town Northern Utah. She has been a business owner for 13.5 years, and also runs a successful and award-winning associate team. Kylee hosts semi-annual retreats, speaks at conferences and teaches online courses about running a small business and marketing. Her niche in coaching is helping moms turn their passion into profit, while being the mom they dream of. 

kyleeannphotography.com/kylee