Big Sister - Serena

Several months ago when I photographed Serena's 4-year old sister Savanna, I was able to create some of the cutest portraits of a child. In fact, at the May 2008 PPGF Print Competition one of the three First Place Merits I won was of a portrait I'd taken of Savanna. (That winning image is now in the new header design for this blog; she's holding the doll). Anyway, the day that I gave her parents the ribbons and actual photograph used in the competition, I knew I had a dilemma. How could I photograph the Stapleton's youngest daughter and not the older sister?

To solve this problem, I offered them a session for Serena knowing she might have felt a little left out. On the other hand, she had such an awesome attitude about all the fuss made of Savanna's success (no jealousy with this kid), I felt she would do wonderfully in her own session. Needless to say, she didn't let me or her parents down. I want you to look at the first image I took of her. Perfect! This is how we started the session. The rest of our time together was nothing but fun and laughter for the two of us. We had a ball together and many of the poses you see I confess that Serena struck them up herself. She was doing so well in front of the camera that I started calling her "supermodel".

It's such a pleasure to photograph children who are comfortable with themselves at an early age and are having equal fun simply growing up. I created a lot of images knowing that this is what the parents might treasure, but I also created some images that I believe will show what a beautiful young woman she is growing up to be. The Stapletons should be proud parents of their two daughters. Serena and Savanna are beautiful girls that this photographer think are "special".