Ruth's Fourth Birthday Session
"The sun is ready to go to sleep!" Ruth announced as we raced against time and weather. Little did we know we were about to have our wildlife encounter that would have us both screaming and laughing.
Three Years of Growing Up Too Fast
I've had the joy of photographing Ruth's birthday since she was a sweet two-year-old who LOVED her pacifier. Now she's a beautiful, smart four-year-old with big dreams of growing up. Her mom always tells her to slow down and enjoy being a kid. Ruth and her sister love getting their Elsa dresses on and running around the living room saying, 'Let's get married!' That's exactly why I adore being a family-focused photographer in the Denver/Westminster area—her mom will have these photos to look back on one day and think, 'Where did the time go?'"
When Weather and Wildlife Collide
In the last three years, my favorite session with Ruth was this past Saturday! The weather was playing tricks on us, and we weren't sure we would be able to do our session because of the rain. But if you live in Colorado, you know—just wait five minutes and it will pass. So we waited our five minutes and off we went to start our session. Ruth was worried the sun was getting too tired and wanted to go to sleep, but I told her the sun would stay up a little bit longer. I quickly grabbed her hand and we ran to our spot to start our session. All of a sudden, we both screamed and looked down—we had stepped on a toad! Ruth and I started laughing and continued to run again. I did think, "I hope that toad is okay and isn't hurt too badly!" She was so much fun and loved to twirl and spin and put her hands on her hips to show me her pretty pink dress! The sun started to set, and she sighed and said, "I'm tired," as she rubbed her eyes. And just like that, another birthday session was wrapped up.
The Sweet Reality of Photographing Four-Year-Olds
That's how most sessions go with kids—you get about a good 15, maybe 20 minutes of them cooperating, then just like that, they're done. But that's okay because it's hard to be four!
A Toad, A Check-In, and A Realization
On the way back to the car, I realized Ruth won't ever be four again. She's going to grow up, and next year she might not want to twirl in her Elsa dress anymore—maybe she'll be into unicorns or horses or something completely different. But that's the beautiful thing about these sessions. We captured her exactly as she is right now—this confident, silly four-year-old who makes me laugh and keeps me on my toes. These are the sessions that remind me why I fell in love with family photography in the first place.
