Dec--KRR--9

A Facebook friend of mine, I've been bugging her to help me practice portraiture with her since I first got my camera. At first it was a hard no, then eventually turned into a maybe, then finally, FINALLY, she agreed to do it! She's never allowed someone other than herself to take photos of her so it was a real pleasure and surprise when I received the unexpected phone call asking if I still wanted to do a session. While doing the planning I learned she very much so was in her own way. She had spent a good majority of her life being talked down to and she warned me she gets very awkward when she gets complimented.

Challenge accepted! I will say, one of the hardest things was getting her to make eye contact with the camera. So the vast majority of the beginning of the shoot, very few are of her looking my way. But with my awful dad jokes and the way I approached my compliments she started warming up just fine.

But..

I could just tell she was still in her own way and wasn't fully allowing herself to shine.

We had gotten about 30 mins in and were on the dock when I told her I would like for her to take a moment to herself. That it was my invitation for her to just be. All the happiness, doubt, anger, excitement, everything. To embrace it all, forget about me, and enjoy the beautiful gift in front of us (the lake on a beautiful late afternoon!).

What happened next was both remarkable and extremely upsetting. Like a delicate flower blossoming for the first time, she took my invitation to heart and I took some of the most extraordinary photos.

But the moment after we began again, my memory card failed and every photo after that moment was corrupted...
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