Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Senior Soul :) And a little of mine... {Mid Michigan Senior Photographer}

Awhile back I did some posts on “senior pictures being so much more than just a photograph”. I will be honest, I am not the greatest when it comes to writing, I obviously express myself through my camera so sometimes I get frustrated not being able to put my heart on paper. Thankfully the good Lord has allowed me the ability to put my heart in a photograph. But the last few days a few things have happened that relate to this subject and I wanted to share. This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting another amazing senior. Yes I know with all the snow on the ground you wouldn’t think I would have shot a senior session just days ago, but boy were we lucky :)

If nothing else, my goal going into a senior session is to capture the essence…the very soul of the senior I photograph. When seniors come to me, the comment I hear the most is that they see the “person” in the photographs I take not just a picture. And that means more to me than anything!!

So getting back to story about my recent senior session, There was a point in the session when I was taking the photos and the senior had her Grandma along and as I am shooting her Grandma simply says to her, “she is photographing your soul”. That moment stopped me dead in my tracks. I was pretty speechless, yeah I know most of you are thinking that’s a shocker…lol, but truly all I could utter out of my mouth was “thank you”. To that grandma and everyone else who “gets” it, thank you for seeing that with my camera I am digging into the very soul of the person and that I want the photograph to be a reflection of “who” you are not just a picture of “what” you look like.

Yesterday, my friend and fellow photog from Earth Angel Photography posted a photograph of a senior and with it she posted some very beautiful words about the photograph and what it meant to her. It was like in all my ramblings, I would never sum it up as well as Cari did in these last few sentences. So with her permission I wanted to share her words. They are exactly how I feel about my seniors.

“As I look at the photo before me, I can hear the shutter click and feel the camera vibration as I stole that moment from them. A whisper in time, a second they no doubt will eventually forget. I will remember their nervousness when I first picked up the camera, and I will remember and cherish the second they grew their wings and began to fly.”

I am thankful that you choose me to capture a very special moment in your life. It’s WAY more than having a photo taken, its part of who you are right now and I am thankful and honored to be apart of it!!
I am also very excited to meet all the upcoming Class of 2012 Seniors and share in your memories!!

And because no post is complete without a photo, here is the senior I recently featured on my blog and the photo that was titled "a photograph of the soul"


Class of 2012-Now Booking Session!!

2 comments:

Denise Snyder said...

I know you think you dont have the words Hayley... but yours came through loud and clear here... as they do in EVERY photo you make. This is beautiful...

sherry boles~ said...

Gorgeous, Hayley! Your words are just fine and your images speak so well for you! :)