Beautiful Moments

Good NIGHT.  My world has been crazy busy lately.

Lots of photography. 

Lots of editing, and making young people look their very best, and spending long hours in front of a computer. 

Ouch.

I need to get up and move.

I love shooting teenagers. They make me laugh, and I make them laugh, and we get to spend some real moments together. It's hard NOT to get to know each other a bit when you're standing so close to them for close ups.  I like talking to them, and finding their personality and I like bringing it out for the whole world to see. 

My favorites words to hear from a mom or dad, "Wow, THAT'S Janie!" 

Or "THAT'S her smile!"

Or "I LOVE that look on her face!"

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One young lady sat in front of my monitor, looking at herself for long moments. Her mom and I weren't sure what she was looking at, exactly.

Finally she turned to her mom and said quietly, "Mom, I'm beautiful."

Yes, girl. You are.

I had a young man in front of the lens that I had been forewarned was notoriously shy and quiet. "You probably won't get any smiles out of him," said his mom. 

I was a little nervous about shooting him, worrying about how I was going to get him to loosen up. I decided to shoot him at the local high school, putting him in familiar surroundings and all that. The day of the shoot came and I arranged to meet them by the athletic fields behind the school. 

Of course there was a soccer game being played. And a football game. And cross country practice. I think there had to be a hundred thousand million people at the school that afternoon. 

Gulp. Now what?

Teenagers DO NOT like to be photographed in front of their peers. Maybe a friend. Singular. But not a whole group of them.

Plan B was moving this show down the road to the local cemetery. Sounds crazy but there's some great backdrops and corn fields there. I always have to promise them they won't be able to tell they were in a cemetery.

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The cemetery loosened him right up. He couldn't stop smiling. It was one of the best shoots I've ever done. Every photo just got better and better.

I was happy.

He was happy.

His mama was happy. And if mama is happy, everyone's happy.

I don't think these young people know how much enjoyment I get from shooting this moment in their young lives.

They're on top of the world, yet still unsure of themselves.

They're surly, yet they still get the giggles over silly nothings.

They're at the height of skin care issues, yet they're absolutely beautiful when you erase all that.

I get to find THEM. I get to find out what makes them smile, and what makes them laugh. I get to hear about their dreams and their plans. Their likes and their dislikes. And sometimes I get to find out what makes them quiet and thoughtful. Those shots always turn out so much better than they think they will. 

I get to show them that sometimes it's okay not to smile in a photograph.

I'll blog about them as a group when I finish shooting. I'd rather do it in one fell swoop and give you an overview of the whole lot of them. 

They are a great bunch of kids, although not so much on the "kid" side anymore. 

And I enjoyed every minute I got to spend with them this fall.

The last of the photos I'll blog about from our trip north to the coast, the Man and I.

We spent our last day driving out to the end of a spit of land, jutting way out into the ocean. Along the way we found a few scenic spots to pull over and get out. The Man knows when I'm going to want to snap some photos and he was pretty good about anticipating my cry of, "Pull over. Now!"

We had pulled over to a small section of beach that had a couple docks with a few boats tied up. We got out, I snapped a few photos and then started walking toward the beach. When I got there, I found some beehive frames that had been washed up from the ocean. The wood was beat up and weathered, a bit waterlogged, but in fairly solid shape. I wanted to take them home so the Man picked them up and punched out the honeycomb part and left the frame intact. 

I have a few ideas for them. *Grinning

At the next stop, we found a buoy that had been washed up. Of course I wanted to take that home too. But it was covered in slimy green seaweed and I wouldn't touch it. He was a bit resistant until I told him I was shopping for my souvenirs. And this particular souvenir was free. What can I say? I'm a cheap date.

He went back to the car, got a plastic bag and went down to the beach to get it.

He likes free.

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We had a wonderful time together and I can't wait to do it again.