the in between time

 

My dream photo shoot would be one that consisted of nothing but the moments in between. What I mean by this: a shoot with no imposed order, no expectation, no promise. The in between time when no shoot is supposed to be happening, so everyone’s guard is down and the camera forgotten. Well of course few people are going to actually hire me to create portraits under these terms, so I content myself by simply looking for, and savoring, the gifts of the in between time in the midst of the more orchestrated client shoots.

I’m convinced that even babies can feel that something is being required of them as we begin a session together. Suddenly they find themselves placed in an area of desirable lighting, perhaps one they are totally unfamiliar with or even slightly uncomfortable in. Mom and a stranger who is holding something up to her face both appear desperate for some sort of “performance”. It may feel like pressure. It certainly feels like expectation. They sense it……I’m sure.

This little one was not loving the long awaited and planned for photo session and fighting every well intended idea her mom had to entice her to “perform”. She wasn’t buying into it, and the harder her mom tried, the harder that I tried, the more the little girl resisted. Her confused mom just didn’t know what had come over her normally agreeable toddler.

When the little girl had flung herself over backward and bumped her head we officially entered the in between time. At first, with the child in a crying heap in her mother’s arms, I knew I could only wait and hope for a tiny window of opportunity before her clothing change and the shoot officially beginning again. And then, like a sliver of golden sunshine squeezing through a small break in the clouds, the child slowly lifted her head off her mother’s chest, and while still in the safety of her lap, looked at me softly, openly, and without resistance.

Sweet, brief, in between time.

~Cynthia