As a mom and a photographer, the percentage of mothers who are nearly never in their family photos is sobering

Last year, I decided to do something for myself for Mother’s Day – I set aside some time to take some self portraits of myself with my kids. As a photographer and mother of three, I know how all too often, the photographers in the family aren’t often in their own family albums. But I just read the results from a survey of moms on photography – and the results are sobering.

More than half of mothers – 58 percent – are “almost never” in their own family photos, according to a recent survey conducted by the UK-based photo print lab CEWE. Around 45 percent say the reason is that it’s too difficult to get in the shot, while 44 percent say they don’t get in the photos because they are unhappy with how they look.

Mothers aren’t always the designated photographer in every family, but almost nine in ten moms reported being the family photographer in their family, with 11 percent saying that their partner was the family photographer.

Despite the difficulty of getting in front of the camera, around 66 percent of those surveyed said they felt sad not to have more photos of themselves with their infants.

Around 66 percent of mothers surveyed reported using a smartphone exclusively, while 22 percent use both a camera and a phone. Only 7 percent said they “often” use a camera, and just 2 percent said they use a camera exclusively when snapping family photos.

The survey comes from more than 500 mothers based in the UK and was recently shared by CEWE.

I’m the designated photographer in my own family – I even photographed my youngest's first hours earthside from a hospital bed in the labor and delivery ward. Fitting in the demands of being a photographer with the demands of being a mother is no simple task.

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The self-portraits I took last year. I used a tripod and a self-timer set to take a burst of several photos.

Because getting myself in the frame is such a challenge, I’ve hired photographers to capture my family before on a few different occasions. The memories – and the simplicity of not having to both be in the photos and take the photos – are worth it to me.

Other times, I’ve chatted with another mom friend to find she faced the same challenges as the designated photographer in her family as well. The solution? I photographed her family, and she photographed my family.

When that’s not an option, I’ve never regretted setting up my camera on a tripod or, yes, even sticking my arm out with my phone for a classic quick selfie.

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