Father's Day in Amarillo: Why Dads Deserve to Be Celebrated Too

A few days ago I was talking to my dad and Father's Day came up. He called it "the forgotten holiday." He's not wrong. Mother's Day rolls around and there are people on street corners selling last-minute bouquets, every store has a display, every feed is full of tributes. Father's Day shows up and it's quiet. No one's selling flowers on the corner for dad.

It stuck with me because I'm part of the problem. Every year I offer Mother's Day mini sessions. Every year I tell myself I'll do the same for Father's Day. And every year it slips. Not because dads matter less to the families I photograph, they don't, but because the holiday just doesn't carry the same cultural weight, and I fall into the same pattern everyone else does.

Where dads actually do get the spotlight

Even though I haven't built a Father's Day mini session yet, there's one thing I'm consistent about in every single family session: I make sure each parent gets individual photos with their kids, not just the group shot. Dad gets his own moment, just him and his kids, every time.

I'm intentional about this because I don't have nearly enough photos of me with my own dad. The ones I do have, I treasure. I don't want any family I work with to look back in twenty years and realize dad only ever made it into the background of the group photo.

A different kind of Father's Day gift

If you're still figuring out what to get the dad in your life this year, skip the tie. A framed photo of him with his kids, or a printed album he can actually hold and flip through with them, tends to mean more than anything wrapped in a box. That's part of why my all-inclusive sessions are built the way they are, every session wraps up with a real, physical album, not just a folder of files he'll forget to look at. If you're already thinking ahead, gifting a session is a Father's Day gift that turns into something he'll keep for years.

Father's Day might not get the fanfare Mother's Day does. But the dads in our lives are worth more than a forgotten Sunday, and that's something I plan to keep showing up for, one family session at a time.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, including mine and my husband.

If you want to make sure dad's in the frame this year, I'd love to help