The more I do family portraiture, the more I feel the Lord reminding me that this is where He has called me to put forth my efforts, photographically. It is the joyous celebration of the family and the honor of getting to spend an hour or two with young people and their families, simply hanging out for a late afternoon and documenting a day at the beach, or at the local park.... Just watching and enjoying the joy of children at play and parents loving on their kids.
I first met Kenlyn as a complete stranger when she had her oldest daughter baptized at Leadbetter beach here in Santa Barbara couple of months ago. I was taking portraits of all of the people being baptized and the picture (above) of her and her daughter were among my favorites for that day.
Fast forward another month or two and it turns out that we ended up in the same small group that meets on Friday nights. After a couple of weeks, I got a call from her asking if I would be willing to do a shoot with her and her three daughters. Absolutely! We decided to meet at Butterfly beach near the Biltmore hotel last Saturday, about an hour before Sundown.
One of things I love about doing shoots like this, is to just let the kids run around and do their thing and then just candidly "snipe" shots and just go with the flow of what the children want to do. If they want to run, let them run! If they want to run TOWARDS you, even better!
We turned the kids loose on the beach and let them do their thing. As it turns out, the oldest daughter was a bit shy and kept a bit distant, while the middle girl was a bit more of a social butterfly and a bit of a flirty ham. She kept asking me to take her picture (How could I resist? ;0) She was an absolute joy to photograph as she was always smiling and even willing and able to take direction and pose. It was pretty much impossible not to get a perfect shot of her. ;0)As I was shooting the girls, a song lyric kept popping into my head as I was reminded of the song "Soliloquy" from the musical Carousel. The song is about the hero "Bill" just learning the amazing news that he is going to be a dad. As he goes on and on about how he is going to raise his son to be a tough, no-nonsense kind of a guy, reality smacks him in the face and he says "Wait a minute, what if he, is a she?" He then instantly starts thinking about the beautiful precious little girl and thinks of her growing up to be "A neat and petite little tin-type of her mother..." A "tin-type" being a old photograph, ie an exact copy.
Watching the girls do their thing, I marveled at how much they looked like their mom. Genetics are funny like that....
"Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” Luke 18:15-17
Lastly, this is the third family I have photographed in two weeks. Coincidentally, each family has had small children. In my Bible reading the other day, I was reading the book of Luke and read the verse above. Seeing these families and their small children, this verse really hit home to me what child-like innocence and trust in The Lord is all about in our relationship with Jesus. We are all called to receive and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ just as little children.It's funny... I am reminded that sometimes we have earthly models of God's love and grace in the seemingly ordinary and mundane things in life. Sometimes we can see the Lord and his various attributes at work, simply by watching child-like joy, laughter and all-out playful abandon on a Southern California beach, on a late Saturday afternoon.
What a beautiful sight to behold.
=BM=
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