An Interesting Perspective

So, I am not going to lie.  This was a challenging sitting.  For lots of different reasons.  But first, the story behind the session.  Emma and Ella are sisters that I have taken portraits of since Ella was born.  Their dad has been in Pharmacy school for as long as I have known them.  He is graduating this semester and the whole objective of the shoot was to get a surprise graduation gift for the father...the vision was of his two daughters in front of Auburn's pharmacy building.  All meaningful segments of his life but of course with vastly different significance.  So the first challenge came with Ella.  As with all 18 months olds, her first objective was not to sit still but to instead run and play and investigate her surroundings.  So, getting her to stay in front of the building at all took deliberate and constant engaging.   Smarties to the rescue again!   Secondly was the enormous difference in size between the building and the little girls.  I tried several different lens, different angles, everything I could think of to compose the portrait so the building didn't completely overshadow the children.  Lastly, I really wanted to merge the delicate tenderness of his two daughters with the boldness of the pharmacy building in the background.  The shoot itself was sad for me because I knew this family would be moving from Alabama really soon.  While I haven't known the mom too very long, I have really enjoyed watching how our friendship has grown as her children have.   Her faith in God has been an inspiration to me as she and her family went through some tough times.  All this to say, I had to think outside the box.  I had to really try some unique camera angles to get the look I was going for.  We all had to be creative to keep the little one from running away.  The result was surprisingly successful, with a portrait she will be giving her husband on Monday.  But it made me really think about my photography business as a whole.  Quite honestly, I started my photography business because I wanted to know how to take great portraits of my own children.  Then I stuck with the business to financially fund the equipment I needed to capture the portraits of my kids.  But as I grow with my business my perspective is starting to change.  The business part of my photography business is the unemotional, brick and mortar building in the back of the portrait.  But the relationships I am making as the years progress is the sweet spot...it is what I believe is God's purpose for me in the business...and honestly what I am so thankful for.  See a portrait of the Pharmacy building would have been a fine gift, but eventually it would have ended up in an attic somewhere.  Meshing the significant but unemotional building with the tenderness of his girls...now that is a true portrait to enjoy for a lifetime.  The passion of photography for me is awesome, it is fun, but ultimately it will never replace the significance of the relationships it affords me to create!   I will miss this family greatly but I'll always remember the important lesson I gained from what started out as a challenging photo shoot but ended up with a lasting portrait!