My little guy has a heart of gold. So full of love and compassion.

The purity of his heart brings me so much more joy and satisfaction than any of his soccer goals, stripes on his karate belt or gold stars on his worksheets ever could. (Although don’t get me wrong … I am quite proud of all of those things, too!)

In first grade, the kids have to do home reading every night. A few weeks ago, he read a book about being a leader and doing the “right” things. I was floored (not really) when he read the page below and without prompting, he told me what he would do “if that boy were real.”

I share this on my blog not to boast about my kid (well, yeah … I admittedly am kinda am doing that a little bit) but to illustrate how you can use photography to capture a feeling, a fleeting moment in time. Even after the fact.

Sometimes, you happen to have your camera with you right when something special or spectacular happens. More often than not, however, you find yourself saying, “I wish I had had my camera!” In some instances, I find it’s actually worthwhile to recreate a moment for documentation purposes. In this example, I knew that I wanted to remember this moment when Nate showed his compassionate self. I wanted to document it so twenty years from now, I could remember how even back in first grade, he was always such a lover. So after Nate was finished with his book reading, I grabbed my camera, flipped the book back to the appropriate page and made Nate read the page again. And then I snapped this photo and added the caption.

There’s something about seeing the image that really helps cement this memory into my brain. I know I won’t ever forget that he has a heart of gold, but every time I look at this photo, I relive that little moment with my son. And it makes me smile.

I know we barely have back-to-school to do lists behind us, but I’m here with a little public service announcement: It’s time to start thinking about and planning for holiday card season!

It seems early but honestly, it isn’t. There are only — get ready for this — 11 weekends until December rolls around. Those weekends are going to fly by, especially when you need to coordinate family schedules to squeeze in time for photos, select photos, order photos, shop for holiday cards, customize cards and then order, address and mail ‘em! (Wow I made this process sound fun, didn’t I?) Bottom line is that it wouldn’t hurt to get a jump start on your holiday cards.

Many of you know that I’ve been working with Tiny Prints for the past few years and many of my clients have used – and loved! – the end result. I can’t say enough good (fabulous! stellar! awesome! fantastic!) things about the company, its products and customer service. What I will do instead is recommend that all of you go check out their site and take a look at its new line of holiday cards. Click here for the newly launched line: Tiny Prints 2011 collection

For those of you with photos ready to go, take advantage of a great deal (20% off $99 or 25% off $199) if you order your cards before 9/20/2011. Use CODE: HOLIDAY11

And while you’re card shopping, pay attention to some of the images. You might just recognize some familiar faces throughout the collection. (And if you work with me, you never know … your lovely faces may show up in next year’s holiday collection, too! )

This clever little one cracks me up:

The photo came from this fun client photo session last year.

Happy Shopping!