After going to one of the largest real life Pumpkin patches in the US, and seeing the world’s largest pumpkin at Half Moon Bay’s annual pumpkin festival almost on a yearly basis, I wasn’t expecting to be impressed at a Pumpkin Patch in the parking lot of a local church in central Florida, and I wasn’t but I still had a great time watching my little man have a grand old time!

It was his first kindergarten field trip and I would’t miss it for the world! Seems like it was yesterday that I brought him along to his older sister’s first field trip, and I was still holding him in my arms most of the time back then! Time does fly and kids grow up fast! I still can’t believe my baby is in kindergarten!

I used to be very much obsessed with constantly taking pictures of them at events and milestones like this, but as my photography and Mommy skills have improved, I’ve learned you don’t need a ton of pictures to capture it all! Instead of being all frantic and pointing my camera up his nose every time he takes a step, I’ve taken a step back and learned to take in more of those special moments and enjoy them, to truly be present in the moment instead of trying to force a moment or a smile out of them!

As my photography has improved, and I’ve gotten used to shooting with film, I choose my shots wisely and no longer over shoot “Just in case I mess it up.”

I mean how in the world did our parents ever survive (ok, myself included) back when all you had was 24 or 36 shots in a roll of film for an entire weekend getaway! It was simple, they (we) didn’t obsess over ourselves and look for photo ops on every corner! Instead we just lived our lives, enjoyed our time together, and snapped a few pictures in between as a momentum, that’s it!

Don’t get me wrong, I do love photography, I’m a photographer; and capturing all my children’s milestones is what originally perked my interest in photography, but I’ve realized that having a huge quantity of pictures of my children isn’t what’s important, it’s spending time with them that matters, and a few quality pictures from a special event, or milestone is more than suffice! I mean who doesn’t get stressed out when they look at their phone, computer, laptop or other mobile device and see tons of pictures and their storage nearly filled up! Aaaahhhh!

What if it crashes, gets stolen, gets wet, or the most likely scenario; your kid gets a hold of it and breaks it, and it’s not backed up! Just the thought of it is stressful! Isn’t it!?

So, at this field trip, I took less than 15 pictures total throughout the time there, and I was by no means pointing my camera at him the entire time. I actually really enjoyed it. I watched him as he sat among his peers and listened to a story, then planted a pumpkin seed, blew bubbles, tossed bean bags, and showed off his muscles next to the big pumpkins. I simply snapped a few pictures as those moments unfolded and I then put my camera away. I watched other Moms and Dads constantly pointing their phone or their cameras and calling their kids for attention and asking for smiles. That was me just a couple years ago! Man, am I glad I’m passed that phase! Moms and Dads! Please stop! Just be there and enjoy yourself, I promise you won’t regret it, and you don’t need ten million pictures of your kid on your phone, instead just hire me once or twice a year for your family portraits and you’ll be fine! Ha, ha, shameless plug! Anyways, whether you hire me or not, I hope you enjoyed my two sense on taking too many pictures of your kids at special events and enjoyed these pumpkin patch field trip pictures as well! Remember, a few quality pictures is ENOUGH!