It was such a magical evening – the leaves were starting to turn, pushed into a funny little dance by the gentle breeze.  As soon as the family stepped out of the car I saw that precious little toddler girl.  She was angelic looking!  I was so excited with all the surprises I had brought to this portrait session – especially for her.  Fresh flowers to complement her Mexican dress… A stuffed puppy in a box for her to open and discover…  A prop camera to play with…  A new story book to read with her parents…  But… If there is one thing you should know about girls, it’s this…

Once a girl has made up her mind, that’s it.  She’ll do things other than she thought of, but her face will surely tell you that it was not her idea.  This one was no different.  She laughed at my jokes when I told them in a silly voice, she let me join her family walking down the path, but she did not want my camera to be involved, and she did not want to discover all the fun things I had brought.

But that is completely OK with me.  Know why?  Because I was interested in getting to know her, so I moved at her pace and was completely flexible with my ideas of which shots I wanted to get. I’m so glad I did, too, because I enjoyed every minute with this family.

This little girl loves her parents.  She is enthralled with them.  They are the proverbial “cat’s meow” (she has a cat, by the way, named Aslan!).  It turns out I didn’t really have to do much but let them play together.  And the faces her daddy can make! I’m surprised I didn’t have more than a few blurry shots for all the laughter I had!

After she was relaxed, I started playing hide-and-seek with her in a weeping willow tree.  And we chased bubbles.  And we danced.  When she was tired of that her mom brought at her favorite books, and she was perfectly fine to flip through those while I got some stunning shots of her parents.

And in the end… I got a high five from her!

No, she didn’t care about the fresh flowers or the stuffed puppy, but I couldn’t be happier with how our afternoon was spent!

Thanks for reading!  This is just one of my ways of putting a smile back in the world!