Steel Bond

I had the great pleasure of meeting a little newborn named Camren this past weekend. He was teeny, teeny, tiny, sweet as can be, just a month old. It's always amazing to me to contemplate how tiny the body starts out. Tiny toes, tiny fingers, little ears and little heart. It is such a blessing to me when I have the opportunity to spend time with a family more than once. Seeing their children grow and develop, watching their personalities weave together...it's a joyous thing for me. But that's for another post later this week that will highlight our favorite flower head band diva, Miss Lily.

Camren was not feeling the solo portraits. Frankly, he wasn't having it. He wanted to be fed, cuddled, fed some more, cuddled some more. The cycle continued. And let's face it, with parents as cool as his clearly are, I can't blame him! If I was him, that tiny and new, with parents that awesome, I'd want to stick close to them too. In light of his aversion to solo shots, we opted for a more abstract, casual approach. True lifestyle photography. While they fed him, I clicked away with my shutter. While they rocked him, I clicked away some more. The result was what I found to be a really organic approach to newborn photography. Rather than focusing on simply the newborn, I was focusing on what it is like to be parents. What their day to day life consists of. Over and over and over. And some neat things came into play.

I noticed something. Camren and his family are almost always physically in contact with each other. And not in that weird, clingy, overly protective way. In that steel bond, circle of energy, I am bound to you body, mind and soul kind of way. Very cool. Something simple I noticed when they fed Camren. His father held him, cupping his head. Without thinking, his mother reached up and cupped her hand under his, both providing loving support to a precious being.

Then, when I asked them to sit in what constitutes my tiny (TINY, RIDICULOUSLY SCRUNCHED!) white wall corner to try and snap some family pics while they rocked Camren to sleep, his mother cradled him gently, and his father instinctively reached out and put his hand on Camren's head. Then his mother tipped her head toward her husband, her child's father, and almost forgetting I was even there, they just watched Camren, with love, with patience, with awe. It was powerful to see the energy encompass them and flow round and round as if they were in a perfect bubble. I felt Camren's confidence in knowing THIS IS MY FAMILY.

I guess my point in all this is to remember to keep watch. Don't let a non-conforming portrait session sidetrack you from the beauty of life. Keep your eyes and heart open. Sometimes the best pictures are the ones you least expected. Let life do it's thing and you'll find yourself amazed.

And since my evil blog apparently doesn't want me to post pictures this evening, be sure to follow the link to the Facebook gallery to see them!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4852876&fbid=431626418068&id=271397343068

UPDATE: Ha ha! Victory! Pictures!