We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amanda Morris. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amanda below.
Amanda , appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
Being a Fine Artist who doesn’t quite get a chance to draw and paint as frequently as I used to ( we all have our seasons,) I use the mobile photos I capture of my children and the locations we explore as a continuation of my creativity as an artist. I love to photograph the moments and use different compositions and Lightroom editing to create aesthetic photos as well as to fully illustrate the feeling in that moment with my children. I aim for my photos to tell the stories and portray the fun and feelings of joy and amazement depending on the places we explore and enjoy. And I can only hope that others will enjoy them as well.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I became a stay-at-home mom when my son was born in 2020. Thankfully my husband was in a good position to support our family, and this allowed me to focus fully on enjoying my time with my child and provide him with as many little adventures and exposure to all kinds of different sensory experiences as possible. As you could imagine, this was a bit of a challenge in that year. This allowed me to rethink what “entertaining my kid” truly meant, and got me back into nature and taking my son along with me on outdoor walks and carrying him along on hikes.
These adventures grew as he did, and we explored all different kinds of exciting and colorful playgrounds, as well as me getting a little more motivated to find more challenging and interesting hiking trails to conquer with my little guy. As we explored, I shared our experiences here and there on social media. It was back in 2021 where my fellow mommas became interested and excited over the places we would visit, inspiring them to visit as well. It was suggested that I put the places we explored together in a blog of some sort. A lightbulb went off and I took a moment to revive an old Instagram account that I had activated and seek.discover.play was born.
As I began to discover and follow other likeminded moms and photographers, I was able to find more mom friends and interact with so many wonderful people and communities and giving our little guy the opportunities explore with other children as well.
I gave birth to our daughter in 2023, and I have been doing the exact same with her. I love seeing her curiosity and sense of adventure, along with watching my babies grow and enjoy learning, exploring, and taking chances together.
My platform has grown and developed so much in the past 3 years. I have been working to grow my following and have been privileged enough to be able to collaborate with a number of small businesses, forest schools, indoor play spaces, museums, various children’s products, clothing brands, a swim school (this one is so important to me,) and more! I am so incredibly grateful for the experiences I have been able to provide my children and hope that core memories are being created every step of the way.
Overall, this account and the community of parents I am lucky to be a part of has inspired me to get my little ones out and about to explore so many different locations. Whether it be playgrounds, waterfalls, oddities, museums, or sites that I never would have thought of exploring, I hope to continue to bless my kiddos with these experiences and memories.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Patience, patience, and patience. In all seriousness, though, behind the beautiful photos is also the fact that I am exploring with tiny borderline unpredictable people. So, the motivation to get out there can definitely waver from time to time. Getting little ones out the door is a challenge. Moods and tantrums on the trail are a challenge. Tips, reminders, and tricks I’ve learned from my fellow adventure mamas (and my husband) have helped a bunch, and I could share a few here as well.
Snacks. Always bring snacks. Thats basically it with that one.
Don’t set high expectations. Days out with the little ones are never perfect (again, don’t let the aesthetic grid fool you.) There are days where things are absolutely fabulous, there are days where leaving the playground is a battle, there are days we stay home, there are days that we are able to sit beside a waterfall and enjoy a cute and peaceful lunch. Most of the time you just have to pick your battles and go with the flow. But always remember that the most important part is taking in the beautiful moments and enjoying the time while your kiddos are still small.
Overall, the biggest reminder is that these experiences are for my babies, no matter how many likes or follows or photos, these are my children’s memories (and mine with them,) and I aim to make them as wholesome and worthwhile for them as I can.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I am always looking for new partnerships and opportunities to collaborate with different businesses that can provide an unforgettable experience for my children.
I have already been so blessed to have partnered with places such as Goldfish Swimschool in Denville, Firefly Forest School in Randolph, so many amazing places within American Dream Mall, various farms during the Autumn and Winter seasons, Sesame Place, and so many other amazing experience focused and educational places.
I have also collaborated with various toy companies which have, of course, brought joy to the kiddos.
We have even been able to represent different brands such as Kizik, Keep the Littles Wild, Piggy Back Rider, Wham-O, Chatbooks, Easy Spirit, Outdoor Wise Living, and more. All this while being able to advertise what they provide and stand for with my followers.
I am so grateful for these experiences, and I look forward to continuing and growing my partnerships with many more amazing small and larger businesses.
I can be contacted via:
Email: [email protected]
Direct Message on Instagram: @seek.discover.play
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Photo of me and my two children in front of the waterfall kindly snapped by: @lilroamingexplorers
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
