Project 1 - Photos for Foster Kids
Do you ever have a vision for what you want to do which exceeds your actual capabilities and talents? In 2012, that's where I sat with my relatively new DSLR camera and a fire in my belly to help someone with it. While I'd been captivated by and toying with photography since I was 16, I didn't get serious about it until I was about 30. That camera may as well have been a shovel to help someone dig a trench, or a ladle to pour soup into a hungry persons bowl. I have little in the way of formal training with photography, but that never stands in the way of my passion for it so I let that passion light my path to lead me to the experiences that will give me practice and will overtime build out a respectable portfolio and help me refine my mind's eye to create the exact shots I see in my head and turn them into reality.
Helping children in the foster care system find their forever home was what I felt called to use my novice photography skills to do. I had ZERO experience working with placement agencies or even having ever knowingly met a child in foster care! However, God put it on my heart so, off I went! Thankfully I had a few connections who could help me locate a potential client (child in foster care) who could benefit from some decent head shots. The idea was that nice head shots could be used during an adoption fair, where I was told the prospective parents would go but wouldn't be able to meet the children who were eligible for adoption, only see them through pictures. So didn't a quality head shot have the potential to make a big difference? I can't even begin to imagine the sensitivities associated with such an event. The sensitivities of the children who, while not present, must feel like some kind of puppy in a pet store. The parents whose hearts likely ache to add to their families and struggling to realize how many children there are looking for parents to love on them and call them their own, but also struggling to find a connection in a maze of pictures and trying to make sense of any type of discernment of the right move.
So I found a woman who works within Department of Social Services and knew of a teenage girl who planned to participate in an upcoming adoption fair. They reached out to her and inquired about whether she might be interested in a quick portrait session in preparation for that. She in fact did, and the date was set to meet at a local church. I was ecstatic and soooooo nervous!
I arrived and we met and she was stunning. As a result of my being nervous since I'd just been led by this fire belly of mine and was eager to get right into the photos and get behind the camera, I wish so badly I'd taken time to sit and talk with her. To attempt to understand what she was dealing with, and what she loved to do and what she was passionate about. Alas, we live, we learn. She was shy and quiet, as was I, but I made her laugh a few times and luckily she was an absolute natural.
While these pictures don't represent some of my best work from a photography perspective, they represent my heart's work and my passion. For these people who I work with in this way, I want to give only my absolute BEST work behind the camera. While I will never know if these photographs helped her win over the affections of a set of interested parents, I pray that it meant something to her that a stranger wanted to help her do that.