There’s a reason so much of my photography centers around the in-between moments—the mess, the movement, the quiet joy tucked inside everyday life.

For years, I shared confetti photos with my kids. On the surface, they looked playful and spontaneous. But what they really represented was something much deeper for me: letting go.

Not just letting go in a single photo session—but in my life. And in my business.

Because the truth is, embracing imperfection doesn’t come naturally to me.

I’m a perfectionist at heart. When I decide to do something, I want to do it right. I want it done well, done fully, done now. I crave smooth, predictable outcomes. I work hard to make things go exactly how I imagined them.

And yet—life doesn’t work that way.

Motherhood doesn’t.
Creativity doesn’t.
Business doesn’t.

Over time, I started to see how tightly holding everything together was costing me. I saw it in my mental health. I saw it in my kids. I saw the quiet anxiety that lived underneath the need to control outcomes—believing that if I could just make everything perfect, the anxiety would finally go away.

But it never did.

What I’ve learned—what I’m still learning—is that peace doesn’t come from fixing what isn’t broken. It comes from letting go of the belief that everything needs fixing in the first place.

I don’t want to leave behind a legacy of perfectionism for my kids. I don’t want them to grow up believing that worth is earned through performance or that life only counts when it looks polished.

I want them to know it’s okay to be human.

That’s why I focus less on how things look—and more on how they feel.
Less on appearances—and more on presence.
Less on what life could be—and more on what it already is.

This is my “why” as a photographer.

I’m not here to manufacture perfection. I’m here to notice the beauty that already exists in the chaos, the joy, the ordinary moments that pass too quickly if we’re always trying to improve them.

My work reflects the way I want to live: a little more relaxed, a little more honest, a little less afraid of things not going according to plan.

I’m learning to let things be.
To breathe.
To trust that imperfection isn’t the problem—it’s the invitation.

This New Year was a small but meaningful example of that. The images I’m sharing here were taken during a simple celebration that happened after the fact- confetti everywhere, kids full of energy, music blasting, nothing carefully staged. And instead of correcting every detail or polishing the moment into something cleaner, I let it be. I photographed what I saw, trusted what mattered, and allowed the realness- the movement, the background, the imperfections, the kids too close to the camera-to stay.

And if you’ve ever felt that same tension—between control and peace, between perfection and presence—I hope my work reminds you that you’re allowed to choose feeling over appearance too.

~Carissa