Bishop Paul S. Morton - Let it Rain

Grandfather, Take My Picture

When my granddaughter (Jazmine) asked me to take her picture, she was home from college this Thanksgiving, I realized that this might be one of those rare moments in a relationship between two love ones. Although, my wife and I have three daughters, between them we only have two grandchildren.

So, I wanted to do something really special for the two of us. I didn't want the traditional motif of portraiture. I wanted a set of images that would reflect how I viewed her as a young woman and how she reflected herself to others as a strong Christian woman who loves to dance for Jesus. That was my idea for her session although I didn't let her in on my intent. Being the professional that she is I knew she would met the challenge and she did.

I hope you'll enjoy these personal images of my granddaughter, "Jazzy". I think she's awesome!

Enjoy!
Willie

"Say, what?"Jazzy's dancing form is so beautiful
to see in person as well as on stage.

I wanted to capture Jazzy's strong
spiritual side in the following shots.
This is one of my favorite images of Jaz.

It's something to see a little girl

grow up into a beautiful young woman.

Our New Family Portrait

In the photography business Fall marks the time for having family portraits created for holiday gifts. Thanks to my wife's demands on me as her personal photographer, that tradition holds true for the Hill family, too. Although I didn't see how I could top the last self-portrait session we created a year ago, I have to admit that it's fast becoming a successful challenge that I'm enjoying.

The scenario goes like this. My wife tells everyone what colors to wear and informs us that we're having the session the day after Thanksgiving. The grand kids fly in from their respective colleges, we stuff ourselves with turkey, then lie awake that night thinking about how fat we're going to look for the photo session the day after.

My job is easy. I get to pick the location for the session and maintain crowd control as I corral everyone into an acceptable posing position. First, I try "shhhhing 'em up. Of course, that's to polite. Then, with a loud voice I yell out, "Okay, let's all shut up". That worked. Now, I've gotten their attention off each other or their hairdos (as you can see I've got a lota women in my family).

Now the real fun starts for me as I turn myself into a 10 second marathon track star. With everyone finally quiet, I push the self-timer on the camera, sprint over to my vacant spot in the group, and smile gleefully at the invisible photographer. Beep, beep, beep, beep, CLICK! Of course, you know some one's mouth is yakking or they've blinked at the wrong time, so I repeat this self-inflicted technique about 8-10 times to make sure that I've captured the perfect shot. I check the back of the digital camera. Yeah, we did it!!! Look at all the beautiful people (I'm just about certain that everyone is ONLY looking at their expression and could care the least about the other turkeys in the family. No pun intended).

Happy Holidays from the Hills!

My Mother Taught Me #3

My mother taught me TIME TRAVEL.

She said: "If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"