GROWTH

An individual’s growth comes in two ways, physical and personal. Physically, everyone grows from a small baby into an adult figure. Throughout the physical growth seasons, we also grow as a person. Some of the personal growth comes by lessons learned along the way, while some of it is purely a person’s choice. The challenge when working with people is to know what season they are in. Here’s an example of the growth that is occurring in my son, Ian.

He just began his senior year in high school. While mom wanted great senior pictures, it was up to dad (me) to take them. However, Ian is a boy who didn’t really care about having his picture taken. He’s in a season where his physical body has grown to 6’5”, yet he’s still trying to discover his purpose in this world. As a dad, it is a challenge to guess what photo styles would best represent my son, let alone if I was a photographer who didn’t know him.

As we began a day of photos, it quickly became just an average, outdoor photo shoot. I could tell by Ian’s half-hearted smiles that this just wasn’t his thing. So, we went to the studio and played. It wasn’t long until I discovered a little more about my son. His lack of smiling wasn’t because he was half-hearted. Instead, he’s just super chill, with a model-like style. He began telling me ideas, showing a piece of his creativity.

These senior pictures represent growth, from a boy to a man (and from a dad to a proud father).