Little girl, wee muse.

This girl is my gift in this life. She is my wee blonde muse. She amazes me every day. If you look at her quickly you might not guess that she is only 6. I believe that she really does have a very old soul. That she is as wise as she is funny.

When I took her into the studio it was with the intention to make some beautiful portraits which I knew wouldn't be hard, but what happened was really interesting to me. She led the session. She went right over and picked out what she wanted to wear from my dress rack (an adult gown of course). And then I just kind of let her do her thing. I was pretty quiet other than getting her to giggle a couple of times so I could capture her amazing dimples. ( And I intend to share more portraits from this session soon. )

I love this portrait of her. To me it encapsulates what childhood or maybe our dream childhood looks like. For those of us that grew up with that vintage rocking horse in ours or a friends house it's a real symbol of being a kid. (And maybe you can even feel getting pinched by those damn metal springs!) We all have that idea, or dream of what our childhood looked like or what we wanted it to look like. This portrait to me is about the ideal childhood.

This portrait also tears at my heart because while I see her as a tiny girl on a horse I also see so much more. Maybe it's because I am a mom and that's just how we think. But I see the fleeting moments that truly slip by so quickly. I see her in elementary school giggling with her girlfriends, I see her with her first crush, I see her in high school, I see her learning to drive, I see her moving away from me...

And again I am drawn back to being so grateful that I can do something to capture these moments for both of us. That I can stop time. Someday she will see this portrait and know that this was where she began her ride. The ride of her life, the ride away, the getting dressed up in clothes way too big, the dreaming of being a big girl...whatever this image holds for her.

I am simply grateful that I was there.

                                                                                        In life and love. - Jen