Your First Professional Photo Shoot

In July 2008, right after you'd reached 18 months old, you had your first professional photography session, Adessa. Not that being photographed was anything new to you; I don't think I'm exaggerating when I reckon that you'd been snapped 5,000 times already in your brief life at that point.


The place was a really neat photography studio in Canyon Crest called Countryside Photography. We used to stroll by there regularly as Canyon Crest Towne Center was one of our favorite places to hang out. We'd admire the portraits hanging in their windows -- especially the gorgeous children's photography on display.


We were intrigued by the idea of having some portraits done of you, but a little hesitant knowing that this was an expensive place. But we decided that it was worth the expense if we could capture you on film at this adorable age. I'm really glad we did.


It took a little planning; we set an appointment for a Friday afternoon. We looked over a lot of the portraits on display and tried to get some good ideas for outfits, themes, poses, etc. Your Mommy created a beautiful customized outfit with a matching tutu/headband/bouquet. All that remained was the photo shoot itself.


Let's just say that the shoot was the tricky part. Like I said, you were definitely already used to being photographed -- that wasn't a problem. The problem was that here you were, just one-and-a-half years old, with a lady you didn't know wanting to take your picture, posing you in a studio with huge bright flashing lights while Mommy and Daddy tried to encourage you from way over on the other side of the room!


I remember that the photographer got about two pictures in before you burst into tears. We rushed to comfort you and told you "Honey, it's OK! She just wants to take your picture! We're right here!" We brought out little stuffed toys and made them talk and dance to try to cheer you up. But you were inconsolable. It was all just a little too much for you to take at that moment.


We thought it best to try again another day and re-scheduled our appointment for the following week. Maybe you were tired (it was right before naptime, after all) or just not on your game that day. Hard to say. But clearly it was best to regroup.


We arrived at the studio the following week and crossed our fingers that this time you wouldn't be so overwhelmed by all the hubbub. Things got off to a wee bit of a rocky start -- the semi-traumatic experience of the previous week came back to you and you started to tear up a bit. But we were able to reassure you this time and once the photographer lady got snapping you figured it wasn't so bad after all. The end result was a whole bunch of absolutely astonishingly adorable photos of the most beautiful little girl to ever grace the earth.


A few weeks later, we were back at the studio to admire the results of the shoot and pick out some portraits for large prints. We were very pleased with the pictures. (My personal favorite is the shot of you in profile -- it's the top photo in this series here.)


In addition to the wall prints, the studio told us they'd make us a DVD with all of our favorite photos -- we just needed to pick out our favorite pics. That's all of these photos here and, in fact, that's where I got these pics since they keep pretty tight wraps on the photo files themselves. After picking our favorite photos for the DVD, they asked us to choose a song for the background music behind the photos. It just so happened we had the perfect song for it...


Just days before, we had finished recording a brand-new song called "Goodnight, My Love." I'd written this song for you -- a lullaby -- and sometime soon I'll write a post with the story behind it. We happened to have a mix of it out in the Jeep and realized that we could use that for the DVD. Perfect!

I'm really glad we had these portraits made, Adessa. They capture you right at that moment between baby and little girl -- sort of in-between. Seeing these pictures brings back a lot of sweet memories.

Daddy