Family Photography clients Erin and James - Mother (and Father) of the Month - April

Each month we feature one of our clients who we find inspiring and get to know a little bit about them and their philosophies. April's mother of the month is Erin Chapple. We had the honor of getting not only maternity photography with her and her husband but also family photography once their son was born.

1. Tell me a little bit about yourself, James, how you met. What are your hobbies, what you do in your free time, etc.

I am Erin Chapple. Believe it or not my husband James and I met many years ago while we were both vacationing with or parents on a cruise believe it or not! Thank goodness the ship had a disco! That was where all the young people congregated after their parents went to bed and James and I met one of the first nights of the cruise. We hung out as a group but the last night the two of us stayed up all night to watch the sunrise together and were pretty sure we were interested in each other! Fortunately we didn't live too far away from each other and we started dating soon after we arrived home. I moved to Seattle after graduating from University to work at Microsoft, where I still work. James followed several years later after starting a music production company in Toronto with college classmates. While it was initially our love of the same music that brought us together, we have found we enjoy doing many of the same things which makes it easy and fun to send time together. We are probably best known for our love of hockey. Go Canucks! Additionally we love to travel and always enjoy sharing a good meal with friends.

2. Tell me about why you have me take photos, and why you trusted me to take these special photos.

When I shared I was pregnant with my close friends several of them encouraged me to have pregnancy photos taken. I am not someone who typically likes to have my photo taken, just ask James! I knew however that this was a once in a lifetime experience for me and I wanted to capture the memory. Two friends I trust completely both had Jennifer take their pregnancy photos and I had always thought they were beautiful. That made the decision easy for me.

The experience of working with Jenifer was absolutely wonderful. I felt at ease through the whole experience. Jennifer just has a way of making you feel like the only thing that matters in the moment! While this is a talent in and of itself I believe Jennifer's true talent is in being able to capture the candid experience of the moment - the emotion, its purity, its innocence. Leonard Nimoy recently passed away as his last tweet was “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.“ While I would agree in principal I think Jennifer has captured several perfect moment for us on film.

3. Please feel free to include anything else you like thatis interesting about you or your parenting philosophy. AKA books you read, or like whatever.

Parenting in this day and age is an experience. Almost anything you want to know (or don't!) is just a search away. There are websites, blogs, parent groups, books - everyone has an opinion. It can be comforting and it can also be overwhelming! In the first few days Roland was born we faced out first challenge. Roland couldn't quite figure out how to latch. It was scary. In those days I both welcomed the information I had access to and cursed it. Should I be worried if I gave Roland a bottle he would never latch? Could he not latch because he had a tongue tie? There was so much that could go “wrong”. We turned to the support of our doula who helped in two ways. She first connected us with a caring support community to help navigate the feeding challenges. But more importantly she reminded me in her visit of how I had a strong sense of what was happening with Roland, what was best for him. You don't know for sure what type of parent you will be before you are one and this experience really shaped my outlook on parenting: That you aren't alone, there is a community standing behind you, wanting you to succeed and yet in the end you alone know your child best. The art lies in balancing the knowledge you have in your head with what your heart is telling you.