I’d turned my lens on a co-worker during a branding session in Boston this week when she put me on the spot. 

“But who takes your picture?” she wanted to know. 

Shrugging, I admitted that despite all their years of living with a photographer – or perhaps because of them – the members of my family aren’t exactly picture people. They’re more likely to snap a photo of a favorite hockey player than they are of the family. 

I’m asked this same question at least once or twice a year, and the askers always have one thing in common. They’re always moms, always the ones most likely to reach for the camera when their youngest loses a tooth, their eldest catches the big fish, their middle child is finally tall enough to ride the rides at the summer fair. 

In 2025 there are more dads taking on the role of family record keeper, but the bulk of the work remains on the shoulders of moms, moms who spend late nights after the kids have gone to bed planning out the family vacations. 

It’s moms who don’t forget to grab that one photo of the cousins in that one place year after year, the one the rest of the family counts on to mark the passage of time. It’s moms who stand wiping silent tears with one hand and trying to hold a camera steady in the other as 4-year-olds tumble across the stage at nursery school graduation, 6th graders amble awkwardly toward the principal at stepping up, seniors walk tall and proud toward their diplomas on graduation day. 

It’s the moms who call up someone like me to book a family session … then spend their rare slice of time in front of the camera, begging the rest of the family to cooperate, just this one time. For her? Please? 

This weekend marked the unofficial start of summer, and with it will come many of the classic picture taking moments that form a family’s memory log. Kids of all ages will graduate, learn to swim and learn to fish, ride the rides and bask in the gloriousness that is summer as a child. 

And the moms? Well, they’ll be there too. 

So why not put her in the picture? Grab her phone, and tell her to get in the frame. Book the  photo session for her. Snap a photo when she’s simply being herself, basking in the glorious that is the summer as a mom who loves her kids. 

Just take her picture. For her. Please.