It’s hard to believe my oldest daughter turned 8! She is such a kind, intelligent, perceptive girl, beautiful inside and out. In my church, turning eight is a milestone because at that age you may be baptized. Because of this I wanted to do a special portrait session to commemorate this turning point in her life. A few weeks prior to the event, I took this picture of her to use on the invitations:
I wanted the image to communicate reverence, a connection with God, humility, and innocence. By shooting through the lace curtain, it is reminiscent of a veil and foreshadows the next major covenant she will make in her life.
Because baptism symbolizes renewal and rebirth, I felt it apropos to use spring blossoms as the background and elements for her more formal portraits. I chose (mostly) white flowers because white is a symbol for purity. A talented stylist, May, from Estila salon, incorporated the blooms into her hair, along with one bright pink one for fun. I first took some pictures indoors with window light and a painted wall background. Then we went to the Shakespeare Garden at Golden Gate park where the trees were bursting with blossoms. I shot some of the images with 35mm film since I’m starting to shoot with film in my personal work. Although many of the film images were underexposed for my taste, there were some real jewels in the roll. I’m thrilled with how I captured London’s coming of age in this series yet still retaining some youthfulness–vulnerability in some shots, playfulness in others. Her younger sister Eden tagged along and I had to get a few shots of the girls together at the end. Enjoy!
