When you’re observing light, thinking about composition and waiting for the right moment to strike, you can create pure magic. There is nothing better than knowing you nailed your exposure and captured an image you love.

If you’re shooting with intent, all the elements of proper exposure and white balance should be spot on before you even press the shutter. Of course you’ll have moments where something happens quickly and you may not be able to get your settings just right. Post processing is great in those situations, but don’t use it as a crutch.

When you have a DSLR, it’s easy to fire off a bunch of frames. The thing about shooting with intent is that you have to be patient and know that sometimes it may take awhile for the right moment to come.

It’s really difficult to overcome that feeling of having to document everything ALL.THE.TIME. But if you go into shooting with a general idea of what you want to capture, you can help speed along the process by creating those moments.

For example, my son fell asleep on the bus ride to our hotel. Our hands were full and we had to set him down on the floor while we checked in. I noticed how beautiful the light was and really wanted to capture the moment of our sweet boy who still needs his naps. I turned his face towards the light and shot just one frame.

When you’re culling and editing just a handful of images, you’ll have so much more time to shoot and create. I took 242 frames during our trip and it took me 15 minutes to cull and edit. As a WAHM, time is everything to me.

I don’t want my kids to remember me on our family trips as constantly being behind my camera, so I leave my camera behind and focus on being present instead. If there is nothing in particular I want to shoot, then I opt for my phone instead. Sometimes it’s better to just have a phone for snapshots and live a life with intent as well.