First an apology.. not sure how this wonderful family got overlooked and was never blogged, I will blame the onset of the holiday rush for my absentmindedness… so sorry! I digress.. back to the post!
As a photographer, I pride myself on capturing expressions. The twinkle in a little girl’s eye as she twirls across the floor, the mischievous grin of a brother as he tickles his sister, the proud glow of a tween, radiating newfound confidence in her wise old almost-teen years… My job is to catch all of those faces, those emotions, that make up your child’s personality… so that I can evoke one of my all-time favorite comments from a parent.. “I see that face all the time! It’s just so HIM.”
But with this family, I found myself concentrating so much more on the other expressions in the room. As much as I adore the sweet yawn of a sleepy newborn, or the pensive, curious peering eyes of a wide awake baby, watching you intently as you move through the room… as much as I love everything about those tiny little faces, my favorite faces at a newborn session are the ones looking AT the baby. There is something so pure and raw about the love a parent has for their child, amplified tenfold in those first few weeks, when, both out of inspiration and exhaustion, the sheer magnitude of creating a new life is both exhilarating and overwhelming… nothing if not awe-inspiring… all the months of planning and preparing, and this little person arrives better, more perfect, more beautiful than you could ever imagine. It’s that feeling like your chest might just explode from the pure love and devotion radiating out your skin… the kind of love you think you’ve felt until you feel it for real… then you instantly know you’ve never felt anything this amazing in your life!
These are the faces that make this portrait more than just a pretty picture. The feelings that make these people more than just blood relatives. For the first time, they are a family. And this, is love.
I also have never shied away from professing my love for girls. I was a girly girl, my favorite color is still pink, and the three little girls who occupy my house and heart are just about the greatest little people I could have imagined. Again, I’m sure I would feel the same had I had any boys, but I didn’t… I had my girls, and I love girls to pieces.
