Seattle Child Photography - Mother of the Month

Meet Clio the daughter of Luke who is a distinguished doctor in Seattle. I have been working with Luke since she was pregnant with her daughter. Child photography is a big part of what I do and love to do. I am always looking to show the spirits inside of these little ones. Luke really gets me and my work. I love what she wrote. Enjoy!

1. Tell me a little bit about yourself, your husband and how you met. Why you decided to have kids. 

I am a scientist and a physician. As part of my work, I study body composition in relation to chronic diseases. I have become increasingly interested in figuring out whether body composition changes that occur as part of pregnancy play a role in the development of diseases like type 2 diabetes. So it’s not too surprising that I was captivated by the metamorphosis of my own body and very eager to document that process visually.

My husband is a software development engineer. We met at a party and felt a connection to each other pretty much right away. He was already a dad, so I inherited two great big stepsons. I wanted the life experience of having a baby, so we decided to try for one more.

I’m not sure deciding to/having kids is ever easy for anybody. You never know exactly which set of hurdles will be handed to you. My big pregnancy challenge was my long history of type 1 diabetes. My pregnancy and birth experience were very "medicalized." If you don’t do a fastidious job controlling your blood glucose levels while you are pregnant, your baby is at risk of many problems, some of them devastating. I wore a lot of medical devices designed to keep my blood glucose levels as close to a “normal” person's as possible. I felt kind of like a cyborg, and I carried a lot of guilt and worry that processes that were happening in my body were hurting my growing baby and putting her life and health at risk. 

2. How do you want to guide this little person in the world? 

It is not my proudest moment that I let my two-year-old log time in front of the TV, but the simple positive messages in her favorite show are a pretty good reminder of the things I think are most important for her to learn: Be kind to people, help your neighbors and the people around you, take turns and share, and eat your vegetables. We are trying hard to emphasize those simple messages and live them in our own lives.

3. Tell me about why you decided to have professional family photographs, and why you trusted me to take these special photos.

When I was pregnant, I was very interested in capturing the visible changes in my gravid body. I did a search online and loved your photos from the first one that I saw. Before I went to medical school, I trained as a visual artist and worked in journalism. It was a natural fit for me to be drawn to a photographer with a journalist’s eye. Now that my baby is growing up, I am savoring the process of documenting the changes that are happening in and around her. I love the consistent qualities that connect your photographs of me and my daughter across the years, and I love watching your style evolve.

4. Tell me what the experience was like to work with me, and anything special that you came away with or learned? 

I learn something every time we work together. This time, when you were photographing my almost three-year-old, the lesson I was most grateful to learn was one about who my baby is. I got the chance to see her through someone else’s eyes. She is so grown up! It is surprising the things around us that we are blind to. I am very eager to see how that translates in the images that you have created.

5. Please feel free to include anything else you like that is interesting about you or your parenting philosophy. 

I’m not sure I’ve got much to share that would be helpful. I highly recommend the Daniel Tiger potty training episode. We use lessons from that half-hour every. Single. Day. But beware! As soon as we caught our first glimpse of that little tiger, the floodgates opened. Now he’s basically a member of our family.

 To see more Mother of the Month posts, please click here.