07 Sep Session Share: Allison Parker, Little Girls
Little girls . . . It’s their prerogative.
1) Inspiration
Little Girls!! Who knows raising girls ISN’T as easy or as pretty as it looks?? My gosh am I in love with their quirk and individuality. . . I love watching them transform and learn. I am a mom to 2 (almost 3 girls – any day now!!!) – so I may be biased!
They are lovely. They are sharp. They are fierce.
They are moody and intuitive.
They can see beyond what is on the surface and they love deeply.
They are frustrating and fickle. They can melt a heart with their smiles.
They are constant and pure. They are everything good and perfect and a gift to this world.
I adore this little girl for all of these reasons . . . I can see each of these things in just a few pictures . . . but, I can now look back at every session I’ve had with her even before I saw all of these things and I can see them now . . . that is what I treasure about baby and child photography. Just because you don’t see it with your eyes some days, doesn’t mean it isn’t growing into something lovely before your very eyes. Our world is hard on little girls and I want all of mine, the ones I work with and live with to know it’s okay to be a little girlie, it’s okay to be a little tough. It’s a broad spectrum, but most of all this world really needs you to be you and ignore all lies to the contrary!!!
2) Favorite Element – I loved the beach blanket from Urban Outfitters and her grey and yellow dress from CrewCuts . . . they tied the flowers, the beach colors and her personality together perfectly!
3) Biggest Challenge – The biggest challenge for this session was that she knows me so well. I’ve been taking her pictures since she was a baby and she knows most of my tricks. She keeps me on my toes!! We took a few walking adventures off and away from her parents to explore . . . while that usually works well for me, she did her best with her parents helping this year. Her dad is quite good at getting her to laugh. You just never know! So, being flexible and trying different routes is key.
4) Final Thoughts
I’ve learned not to plan sessions with this sweet girl (or most kids for that matter) . . . I follow her lead always!! I meet her where she is comfortable and I aim to gain her trust there before asking her to do a thing for me. Capturing her heart and her childhood is what her parents pay me to do and that is done best when she leads the way on our “adventures.” We do this every summer around her birthday. The last 2 summers we have ventured down to the Texas coast because it’s just so hot in Houston in the summer and this sweet girl has a beach house down there which makes it a) an important part of her childhood, b) easy! and c) muuuuuuch cooler.
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