The Coining of a Phrase

I confess... sometimes I mess up and make a wrong decision. The good part about messing up is that I usually learn a valuable lesson in the process, which is exactly what happened a couple months ago when I first met Shelley & Ken and their daughters Keely & Aislin. Shelley and her neighbor had arranged shoots in Seattle on the same date, with several hours between appointments. I got the first shoot complete in the morning, but of course it was raining steadily by the time I was to meet Shelley & her family at Carkeek Park. I'd never had this happen before so I was perplexed about the best way to proceed with our plan. Since I was already in Seattle, I wanted to make the shoot happen no matter what, so I suggested we do their shoot inside using the backdrop I usually reserve for work with babies and indoor maternity work. Despite the setting being different than my typical work with families with older kids, the five of us had a fun time together and I thought I had created some fun pictures of the girls.

Shortly after mailing the image disc, I got a message from Shelley explaining she was disappointed in the photos I had created for her... she felt Keely wasn't comfortable with the camera being so close and explained that she was really hoping for "those signature Sandi Heinrich photos." It's always hard for me to know someone is disappointed in my work so I was a bit crestfallen for a few days, until I mentioned the situation to a friend who pointed out that it was pretty cool that someone felt there was such a thing as "signature Sandi Heinrich" photos. He was right, that is pretty cool : ) It's amazing how much better you can feel when you choose to look at a situation from a different perspective!

I had guaranteed Shelley she would love her photos and she didn't. I simply can't let that be the case, so we arranged to meet on my next travel date to Seattle and I can't tell you how happy I am that we did this shoot again at our originally planned location, Carkeek Park. I had so much fun racing around the trails with Keeley & Aislin and really enjoyed enlisting the two of them in the decision making process for ideal locations for shooting. After looking at their pictures for the first time, I totally understood what Shelley meant and felt really good about the lesson I'd learned. The silly part is that this is something I already knew and it is the very reason I don't do studio work with kids- it's not nearly as fun for any of us and the pictures reflect it. Apparently Mother Nature thought I needed a solid reminder!

Here are some of my favorite photos from our shoot at Carkeek Park. I really, really love the photos we created together, and so does Shelley. Mission accomplished : )

After the sun dropped low enough in the sky, the girls changed into their spring dresses and we headed down to the beach for some shots of a different nature. I don't usually get to do sunny day beach shots with families because the light doesn't get good until after younger kids' bedtime, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to capture Keely & Aislin in the beautiful light offered up by the setting sun...

These last two shots were Shelley's idea, she wanted something with a gritty texture to contrast the girls' pretty dresses. The walking bridge over the railroad tracks presented the perfect backdrop.

Shelley, Ken, Keely & Aislin... thank you so much for working with me while I learned an unforgettable lesson. I hope you will treasure these photos we created together for the rest of your lives, I know I will : )