I Captured Happiness

Last Saturday, I participated in a session hosted by a senior band I'm close with.

The location was Hamamatsu Station in Shizuoka Prefecture.

From the moment they invited me, the vibe was 'You're staying over, right?', so I gratefully accepted their offer and stayed at the guitarist's house.

The senior band member has a two-year-old daughter.

I took family photos for them at Shinjuku Gyoen a year ago. Back then, she couldn't even crawl yet.

Compared to that time, she has grown two or three times larger, is running around energetically, and has started to speak a little bit.

After waking up in the morning, I took a lot of photos as a way to thank them for letting me stay.

After a while, as I watched the expressions of the couple overflowing with love for their daughter, I was moved by the thought, 'Everyone has had a time in their life when they were showered with this much love from those around them,' and before I knew it, I was crying while taking pictures.

'Wait!? Are you really crying!?' they asked in surprise, but the tears just kept coming.

As soon as I returned to Tokyo, I edited and sent the photos, and they were so happy, saying, 'They're all amazing, we're going to print them and display them in our room.'

The experience of that day still remains in my heart even now, days later.

I was able to capture good photos that they were genuinely happy with. A sense of joy is spreading in my chest.

For the past few years, I have been
constantly thinking about what kind of photos I can take.

There are many people who are better at photography and lighting than I am, and I can't take photos that are perfectly styled with hair, makeup, and costumes.

Amidst those worries, this time I was able to take photos that they were extremely happy with.

Just everyday life. In casual clothes, inside the house.

Perhaps the everyday moments that we spend so naturally that we might not even be able to recall them later are exactly the kind of photos I should be taking.

It's not just photos of the daughter laughing; the couple watching over their daughter is also captured.

Anniversary photos are beautiful, but I feel like the moments you remember later are often those ordinary times in the living room or at the park.

Photos with that kind of intimacy cannot be taken with technique alone.

It was a moment I could only capture because I met them in person, talked with them, and they felt, 'It's okay to invite Tomohi into our home.'

I had the feeling that I had taken a photo that only I in the whole world could have taken.

It was a moment I could only capture because they let me into their family.
I want to keep taking photos like that from now on.