Capturing everyday family moments before they become memories

9 Jul 2025
Categories: family

Life changes quickly, sometimes without warning. We often don’t realise the value of everyday moments until they’re behind us. This is a personal story about a family home, a move I didn’t see coming, and the unexpected gift of one last set of photos taken just in time.

A home full of memories

My parents recently moved out of the flat they’d lived in for 39 years. It was the only real childhood home I remember—our family moved in back in 1986, just after the building was completed. We were the very first tenants, and I have a feeling my parents were among the few who stayed for nearly four decades.

It was the end of an era.

I didn’t get to say goodbye. No final visit. No quiet moment to stand in my old room or take one last look out the window. They packed up as much as they could carry into a smaller place, leaving behind a home full of memories—and so many of the belongings that held them.

Capturing everyday family moments before they become memories
Capturing everyday family moments before they become memories

An unexpected gift

But here’s the part I didn’t see coming:

Without realising it, I gave all of us a much bigger gift last Christmas when I booked a photographer to take some photos of us at home.

I didn’t know it would be our last Christmas there.

Next time I visit my parents, I’ll walk into a flat I’ve never been in before, filled with objects I know by heart. It’ll feel familiar and unfamiliar all at once. And while I’m genuinely excited for this new chapter in their lives, part of me will always carry that old flat with me.

The things we don’t know we’ll miss

This experience reminded me of something I often try to share through my own work: we never really know what we’ll want to remember later.

We don’t know which version of home, or which quiet moment, or which ordinary Sunday will become the thing we miss most.

So take the photo.

Be in the photo.

Don’t wait for the perfect moment—this is the moment.

If you’ve been thinking about it…

If you’ve been meaning to document your own family life—messy, beautiful, ordinary, real—I’d love to help.

I offer relaxed two-hour family sessions at home or a place that matters to you. No need to dress up or pose or make it all look perfect. Just come as you are.

Because the everyday moments?

They’re the ones that matter most in the end.

Ready to have your family life documented?

Click here to talk about it
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Anja Poehlmann

Brighton’s photographer and filmmaker for families and small businesses. Cultivating confidence though beautifully authentic images of the real you!