We all have at least two families. There's your immediate family that you live with and then there's the other family that you play sports with. Whether you are a soccer parent, dance parent, or hockey parent (like me), you are likely a dedicated member of your kids' sports community. You LOVE watching your little ones perform at all stages of the game. Two of my boys are in hockey now. My oldest, B, is in first-year PeeWee: he has for many years now, kicked my butt in stick-handling and skating skills, but there was a time when I could skate circles around him! Hard to believe, but nevertheless, true! My youngest, J, has just finished his first year of hockey as a Junior Timbit. Watching J now takes me right back to when B could barely keep his legs under him and his rate of making contact with the puck was probably less than 10%. How quickly things change!
A few years ago I started taking photos of B playing hockey. There is just something about the action shots that I like so much more than the standard off-ice portrait that we all buy from the association each fall. Don't get me wrong - I love those too, and I buy them every year, but I wanted to do more to commemorate the progress and development of my child in his chosen sport. He has a big poster of his favourite player Zdeno Chára of the Boston Bruins on the wall of the garage next to his dad's poster of Phil Kessel. So, I thought, why not plaster my son's wall with photos of MY favourite player? Here is the view that he wakes up to every single morning.
Every single morning, he gets to feel like a star. It reminds him of how his dedication and effort has turned into pure skill; how being part of a sports team is like having a second family; and how much his parents love him.
Now that I have a second hockey player in the house, I will be decorating his room the same way. Here is what it will look like:
Before I know it, he will be kicking my butt, just like his brother, but I will always have these photographs that remind me of the time when I could skate faster than him.
shoot.print.love.laurie
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