"Sharing"

This picture is dear to my heart, it is of my little girl Giselle and her little friend Ryan. This shoot helped me realize how much of a hand God was playing in bringing everything together. Let me lay a couple of things out to explain, and wrap it up with the story of this shoot.

I have been putting photo shoot productions together for years. Everything from fashion editorial shoots to commercial children shoots. One thing that is absolute, is that they never go exactly as planned. This made me a tad bit nervous. Originally the collection was going to be only one day of shooting and 8 final images. It took me 3 weeks to pull the ideas, people, locations and props together. Pulse putting a shooting schedule together that would catch the light in the exact spots I needed for each shot and location. (most were done with natural light that day) I have done many shoots with children and know there is one thing you can count on... young children rarely do what you would like them to, when you would like them to do it for photos. (any mother getting a family picture taken with young children would know what I mean). You are on their schedule. Children with Christ begin the theme, this made me so nervous that we would not get everything done that we needed to, let alone in the right timing with lighting and other children and parents waiting for their shoot times.

As I headed out to my first shoot that morning I said a prayer. "Heavenly Father, I have done all I need to do to be ready for this shoot. I am leaving it in your hands. No matter what happens I will trust and have faith that it is going the way it needs to, to get the shots that we need, when we need them. This is your project, I am an instrument n your hands." I felt peace that whole day. Believe me tons of things happened that I was not planning on that pushed us off schedule. I will share those with you as I post the pictures that were part of them. One thing I was not planning on was children thinking they really were with Christ. It was amazing to watch them as they walked up to Jason.(who played Christ) Some were in awe, and others were freaked out and scared of him. That was what I wasn't planning on. One shoot took 30 minutes, just to get two children to stand by him. Another 15 mins to were they didn't look scared in the picture. That particular shot is still being finished and there is more to the story that is so amazing. I will share that when I post the final image.
What was amazing is that that delay actually put us in a better natural lighting then we were planning on for the rest of the day. God's hand was in everything that whole day.

My daughter's shoot "Sharing" (if anyone has a better title idea, I am open, please share) was suppose to be the last shoot of the day, we ended up having to switch it with another one. When we got to the pond, the sun was setting perfectly in the back ground. Gigi, my daughter was not participating very well. She was crying and being a 2 yr old. I got some shots I thought would work. When I looked at them later that night, I had nothing. I looked at the digital file and saw the exact minute they were taken. Dressed my husband in Christ's wardrobe and took him and Gigi to the pond the very next day, at the exact time. Hoping to get the same lighting. To my surprise the sun was drastically different and didn't look as amazing as it did the day before. The sun was peeking over the trees totally different, I had missed my amazing back light. The light was good on Giselle, so that worked out. One of my favorite things about that shot is the sun light in the back...It made me realize how God really did help me down to the very second, not with just this shoot but all of them. Fortunately I was able to get Giselle smiling and happy, and with my photo shop magic you wouldn't even know I had a crying, unhappy 2 yr old.