The Honor of Seeing Someone's True Self

I had a delightful photo shoot today. It was a last minute thing for a dear friend, someone whose inner beauty perfectly complements her outer beauty. It was a young woman in the ward, finally getting around to some senior portraits (I can relate), who I have known, off and on, for about 10 years. When I look at proofs after a photo shoot, it never fails to amaze me. I look at them over and over again, because it is like I am seeing the person for the first time. I just love taking pictures of people, especially close-up portraits. I am getting to where I feel that might be a specialty of mine. I certainly have a lot of them in my portfolio that I really, really like. Anyway, when I prepare for a shoot, I think about what I want the pictures to show, and after ticking off their personality traits and interests and such, it usually comes down to trying to show them (this may sound a little high-minded for an amateur photographer) as I think the Savior might see them. When I get the feeling that I might have succeeded at that in some indescribable, infinitesimal way, clumsy as my earthly efforts might be, it stuns me every time. I hope my clients feel a little of what I feel. Anyway, here are my two favorites of my sweet young friend. I don't know if she'll choose these, but this is how I see her.





















Here is my son-the-senior. He ended up not having the patience for a photo shoot, so I said a prayer and asked if I could take a shot of him on his way to the Mormon Prom. He reluctantly agreed. I took 3 shots, and this was the third one. I have NO doubt that the Lord guided my hand to be able to capture this view of my sweet boy.