HP Photo Books are perfect for sharing memories. In these interviews, mom bloggers share their thoughts on photography and the photos that captured the special moments of their lives.
When
Mom-101
Liz Gumbinner isn't figuring out the parenting thing, she is the creative director at an ad agency and co-founder of
the online shopping site
Cool Mom Picks.
Liz, partner Nate, daughters Thalia and Sage and their English Bulldog live in Brooklyn where they enjoy things like
George Clooney-watch and Japanese takeout.
Both of Liz's parents were avid amateur photographers and encouraged her interest in photography. She recalls that they
let her snap photos with their cameras back in the day you actually paid for film and processing, even the bad ones.
"I remember taking an absolutely beautifully composed photo of them together at the zoo when I was
about 8 and staring at it. I couldn't believe I had the ability to make anything so artful. Let's just say macaroni
collages were never my forté."
Her first camera was an instant camera with a cube flash and she remembers
"saving the burnt out flashes because I thought each one was so cool and different, like snowflakes."
Now she uses a small digital point and shoot. She says that while it doesn't have all the features of some cameras,
she appreciates the small size. "I'm a blogger; I take my camera everywhere."
Her favorite moment "on film" was the birth of her first daughter two years ago. She says: "I was in
such a haze, that in some ways all I have to help me remember the weariness, the joy, the overwhelming emotions, are the
photos."
She also loves a series of pictures taken of her and her daughters, mother and grandmother.
"Four generations of women, together. My girls will be lucky to have those photos."
Liz loves photos of interesting signs. A photo that makes her smile every time she sees it is a black and white she
took of a rickety sign near a flea market in North Carolina that says 'Carey, NC home of the original ham biscuit.'
Liz thinks that posed shots can be fun if kids are hamming it up and being themselves. But she really dislikes
department-store style portraits of children in their "special photo outfit" because they never really capture the
personality of the kids: "Candid shots--even if the lighting is imperfect or there's a hair out of
place or a diaper is sticking out--these always evoke the purest memories. Sometimes my favorite photos end up being
the ones you almost discarded, like a kid throwing a tantrum."
Speaking of candid, Liz is nothing but. She's written on her blog more than once that her partner Nate is a better
photographer than she is so I asked her about that: "Nate has a phenomenal eye and it pisses me off.
He has a recent photo
I love of me holding my newborn, right at the moment that my two year-old jumped in to cuddle with us. We were lying
on the couch and he came in above us and shot downward and we just look like a tangle of smiles and exhaustion.
It's perfect."
Liz is planning to use her HP Photo Books as gifts for the grandparents. She explains: "Really, how
many Mother's day/ holiday/ birthday gifts can you get after four decades without running out of ideas? The Photo Books
are perfect and truthfully, you can give a new one every year and it never gets old. Just so long as the grandkids are
in there, you've got happy grandparents. Only a crazy grandparent wouldn't love that forever and ever."
Do you print your photos or just share them digitally?
"Definitely share them. I don't print as often as I should, except for my grandmother who doesn't have a computer."
Printable version
When
Her favorite moment "on film" was the birth of her first daughter two years ago. She says: 
Liz thinks that posed shots can be fun if kids are hamming it up and being themselves. But she really dislikes
department-store style portraits of children in their "special photo outfit" because they never really capture the
personality of the kids: