Creativity Trapped

“Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”        -Picasso

This quote resonates with me.  You know that feeling when there’s something you want to do, but simply cannot do?  The feeling that there’s a song inside you that wants to be sung, but you don’t have the words or tune?  I think there’s something to that and I hope I’m not alone.  I love music, singing, photography (duh) and I have for a long time.  As a kid, I was always dabbling in a new instrument.  First it was violin, then clarinet, piano, guitar, and back again to violin (which I still dabble in today). Looking back at my relationship with music, it’s as if it beckons me.  As if there is some part of me that is asleep but wants to be woken up.  Like there’s a voice inside that just HAS to sing and when it can’t, I feel very trapped.  My poor family falls victim to my prison at times as I rearrange the furniture… again.  Tweaking decorations here and there as I go along.  Or painting a chest of drawers on a whim (without moving it from the place it sits and not covering the carpet around it with a drop cloth.  I’m a renegade.  I know it.).  I am so so thankful for my photography.

Sarah Gray Photography | Tallahassee, FL wedding and family photographer - post on creativity

As my business picks up and I am able to share my creativity with others through the lens of my camera, I feel that those prison walls are cracking… the metal bars, weakening.  I can’t help but wonder though, what is it?  What is that feeling?  Why has it been a constant companion through my life?  The more I think about it and the more I study God’s love letter to me and read the writing of other creative believers whom I admire, the closer I come to understanding that I really am made WE really are  made in the image and likeness of God.  Creativity is His trademark. More accurately, He is creativity personified.  He started with creation and hasen’t stopped since.  In fact, he’s busy preparing a place for us now.  So I’m starting to think more and more about this “pull” inside me.  It’s not weird or uncertain.  I know exactly what it is but it’s never satisfied… and I’m thinking it won’t be until that place for me is ready… and I can rearrange furniture in it.

I have a growing list of places around Tallahassee I want to photograph.

Goodwood. The Grove Museum (seriously, how is it that tucked away on North Monroe?). The canopy roads. Wakulla Springs. Florahome-style spots that make you feel like you stumbled onto something.

I want to grow a collection of prints from this area, and I am genuinely curious what spots matter most to you.

What are your favorite places around Tallahassee and the surrounding communities? Drop them below. I want to hear what this place means to the people who live here.
Our country turns 250 this year. I was in the middle of editing a gallery when that number actually stopped me.

I have four kids - 6, 11, 15, and 17. And I have spent years telling other families that childhood is fleeting, that these seasons pass before you're ready, that photographs are one of the most meaningful ways you hold onto them.

I've said it hundreds of times.

And then I sat there and realized I needed to take my own advice.

So this summer, I'm photographing all four of my kids in what I'm calling Heirloom Portraits. Not elaborate. Not trendy. Just simple, timeless portraits that show exactly who they are right now, in the year America turned 250.

Because someday I want them to be able to show these to their own kids and say, 'This is who I was that year.'

That thought made the decision easy.

I opened up a small number of spots for other families to do the same. Details are linked in my bio if this is something you've been quietly wanting.
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Memberships and Affiliations

Sarah Gray Photography | Professional Photographer of America Member
Sarah Gray Photography | The Motherhood Anthology Member
National Association of Professional Child Photographers Member 2026-2027

Sarah Gray creates timeless and joyful images that are designed for living room walls and photo albums. A tallahassee photographer, Sarah Gray also serves Thomasville, Crawfordville, St. Marks, Gainesville and throughout the Forgotten Coast and panhandle of north Florida and south Georgia.

email us | sarah@sarahgray.com

telephone (850) 321-0208

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located in tallahassee, florida