I love to photograph kids, any age, anywhere, all the time! I started out shooting babies and toddlers as I had a good deal of energy and patience to capture those magic moments that occur through the lens when little ones are your subjects. My philosophy was to photograph them in real environments, doing real things that the viewer would aspire to. I joke, I coax, hold my camera steady with a shallow depth of field and focus on one minute detail that will compose an image the viewer can relate to. I am a storyteller and definitely not a documentarian. My images aren’t necessarily capturing real moments but they make the viewer believe their life can be just like my “pictures”. I call it the extra-ordinary moment. Tweens are the hardest age for me to photograph. Self esteem is something they are trying on for the first time and no adult is going to tell them what to do or how to look . It took awhile for me to understand how to approach a session when I had kids between 10 and 15 in front of my lens. I would talk to much, make dumb jokes or ask them to wear something they abhorred. One time I was photographing a family of 5 and the 12 year old was wearing a T-Shirt that just didn’t work. Everyone was wearing subtle colors and she had on this bright tie dye t-shirt making her the focus of the family in all the group shots. I simply suggested she change to something with a softer color and the tears started pouring out. For the next hour she refused to be in any of the shots. The sun was setting, light was at a minimum and I all but gave up on getting her in to participate in the family shoot. I sat down in frustration on their porch, away from the family and pondered my alternatives which included a full refund or schlepping back  another day to reshoot them. As soon as she realized no one cared anymore she started goofing with her siblings and I grabbed my camera and started shooting without saying a word. Thank god I got  some awesome images that day but even more important, I learned a big lesson. Sometimes I don’t have to coax my subjects to perform for my lens. Sometimes it’s best if I let them just be. This image was created because I was just ready even after the shoot I was hired to do was over.