My name is Sarah.  Sarah Frechette.  Sarah Marie Frechette.  It sounds French, but I’m actually a pseudo-Finn, having lived in the Helsinki Metro Area since 2004.  My husband Olli is Finnish.  My children Benjy and Henry are half-Finnish.  Maybe someday I’ll be half-Finnish, too, but that will require a lot more language training.

I love my life.  I love my camera.  I love seeing my life through my camera.

What I LOVE are the images of the everyday.  I don’t mind turning up to a family’s house and seeing toys strewn about, the toddler’s face a mess, and breakfast dishes on the table.  If I get to photograph that, you’ll remember that her favorite toy was the wooden duck, her nose was constantly running that winter, and the only way she’d eat her breakfast was with the pink bowl and yellow bib.

You’ll remember that you felt life was so chaotic you could barely hang on, but hang on you did.  You made it.

You’ll remember that amidst the chaos, you found time to play.  Indeed, that you found playing more important than those stupid breakfast dishes, which really might sit there until dinner if you’re honest.

This is also why I’m so honest on my blog.  I can’t expect you to open your hearts and lives to me if I don’t let you into my own heart and my own life.  My perfect client says, “I’m so not perfect, but man, I know how to LOVE.  Please show me LOVING.”

I might not get a perfectly in-focus shot of the entire family looking at the camera and smiling (although, I’ll try- I promise), but if you let me, I WILL show you loving each other.  I absolutely promise that.

It’s just a matter of time before my children grow up and forget to call.  Just a matter of seconds, it seems, until all I have left of their childhood are these precious photographs and some adorable hand-made Mothers’ Day cards, Christmas ornaments, and unused ash trays.

Thank goodness for digital photography and a fast shutter speed is all I’m saying.