this was going to be the highlight of the trip for me...
(please ignore my hair, there was gale force winds and my hair had behaved itself as long as it possibly could and had decided to do a permanent comb over at this point in the program)~ family pictures with Tara Whitney
~ I may need to amend my opinion on treating everyone equal, regardless of who or what they are (such as a celebrity) and not get excited and goofy when I see them to exclude hockey players, president Obama and Tara Whitney from this rule.
~ I was a nervous wreck up until tonight and was even a little tongue tied during our session (I know, SHOCKING, me with nothing to say!) I think I may have actually swooned and gushed at one point. Luckily my boys were more then happy to do the talking and mingling. Kaeden made himself a new BFF in his eyes and it became more than a little apparent where Kaeden gets his goofiness from. Shelby also thought "she was the coolest and surprisingly enough it was a really fun time". It was nice that they all enjoyed tonight as up to this point they had been very good about going along with me as they knew how much this photo shoot meant to me.
~ I have to say that without even seeing a picture (only Kaeden the charmer got to see a sneak peek) I know in my heart that she caught the essence of who we are as a family 100%.
~ I also know that she has no interest in being a mentor or doing training sessions, its just not her thing, and I get that. I think she finds her enjoyment from seeing things differently from others in her camera, and I can relate to that. However, when I wasn't gobsmacked that I was actually having my photo's done by someone I admire so much I tried to soak in how she handled a session and I think I learned a few interesting things.
~ It was a great, huge, compliment from Scott when he said he sees many similarities in the way I shoot to the way she does. Same style, same focus, same ability to relate to strangers, same concentration on just being who you are. I still think she has a gift that I either don't have or haven't discovered yet, but it was still nice to hear.
~ This blog world is weird. I feel like I know her. I have followed her blog for years. I know all the names of her children and husband. I think her husband is very much like mine (and quite funny that she made the same observation tonight). I feel that I could sit down and have coffee with her and discuss being creative, motherhood and generally just living in this crazy world. If we had grown up in the same neighborhood I could see being childhood friends. However, I just met her tonight. She doesn't know me from someone she would pass in a grocery store. No real point to this paragraph, just an observation that the Internet is a tool that has broadened our communities in so many ways but in a strange, one sided, way.
~ it will be 2-4 weeks until we receive the slideshow of our session and it goes without saying that I am looking forward to them but even without the pictures I will take a lot away from this evening.
~ this ride was a hoot as you needed to peddle around the track, Shelby and I stayed together and Scott had Kaeden do all the work.
we have all survived day 1