It is never nice being caught off guard in a candid photograph, but one mum found that her embarrassment was quickly replaced by joy when her husband took an “unflattering” picture of her.
Kelsey Carder thanked her husband for taking the photo without her knowing, as she now loves it because it holds “precious memories” that staged photos couldn’t possibly recreate.
The mum shared the iPhone snap on the ‘Love What Matters’ Facebook page with a message to all fathers.
Carder explained that her toddler Kane copies everything that she does and in the photo he can been seen styling his hair as she straightens hers.
“Kane is my shadow all day long,” the mother-of-one wrote.
For Carder, this picture perfectly captures that special relationship, meaning it is more valuable than “a million perfect selfies”.
“The pictures your kids will appreciate when they are older, are ones like this,” Carder wrote. “The ones that hold precious memories.”
She also took the opportunity to encourage other dads to be more proactive in taking photographs of their partners.
Recommending they are spontaneous and don’t wait to be told to take a photo, Carder said: “The moments when she’s on the floor playing with your kids, making a mess in the kitchen or is soaking wet giving them a bath. Unplanned, but perfectly imperfect. Because those are the ones she will cherish forever.”
And lots of other mothers agreed that their partners do not take enough pictures, so they are left with only a handful of themselves with their children.
Candice Knowlton wrote in the comments: “I’m always the picture taker. My husband never takes pictures. I feel pictures are so important.”
Shea Bearden agreed: “To me, that’s what cameras were made for...capturing moments. I never like posing for a picture. This is perfect.”
And Cheryl Wood McCoy told all parents to take as many pictures as they can, even when they aren’t feeling their best.
″Please... please take pictures,” she wrote. “I never liked my picture taken because I’m overweight or my hair was a mess, boy how I regret that now.
“We lost our 27-year-old daughter almost two years ago from cancer and I wish so much that I had more pictures of her and I together.
“Thank God for the ones I do have, but I wish I had more of her and I together. So what if I was fat or my hair was a mess, at least there would have been more pictures to treasure.”