The lyrics to Billie Holiday’s song, “Back in Your Own Backyard” have been inspiration to me…
That bird with feathers of blue Is waiting for you Back in your own backyard You’ll see your castles in Spain Through your window pane Back in your own backyard Oh you can go to the East Go to the West Someday you’ll come Weary at heart Back where you started from You’ll find your happiness lies Right under your eyes Back in your own backyard…
I have fond memories of playing in my own backyard with my siblings… Making forts out of junk in the woods, running through cornfields, cart wheeling, tire swinging, “treasure” hunting and cherry picking. I tell people I grew up on a farm. It was a farm to me. There were gardens, pigs, a barn with barn cats and mice, hay bails and fields of corn nearby. My mom tells me now that it wasn’t really a farm, but just a rented farmhouse. Okay, fine. This is MY memory though and I’m stickin’ to it. I love this photo of me with my gramma in our backyard.
I recently photographed three children here in Austin, Texas and I’d love to share a little of my experience with you. Their parents have asked me to respect their privacy and not use any of their names and so I won't be using their names. Mom (we’ll call her Sandra) contacted me after seeing an advertisement in the Austin Kid’s Directory, a great resource for children services in the Austin area. Sandra and her family had recently moved to Austin and was looking for a professional photographer to create unique portraits of her three children. I gladly met with Sandra at her home and discussed my ideas and her dreams about portraits of her children during a pre-consult appointment. One aspect of concern for Sandra was the location for the portraits. She expressed that the house was a rental for the family and that she wasn’t sure if this would be a good location. Sometimes clients are unsure if their home and surroundings are suitable for photographing and I am always glad to take a look during our pre-consult and provide my suggestions. After seeing the backyard and talking with her about what it was she wanted in her photographs I felt confident that this location would work and that the portraits created there would be meaningful to her and her family.
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Consider that the portraits that are going to be the most valuable to you are the ones that are created in a space that is personal to you at the time. There’s no need to wait until you’re settled in your dream home or have the yard and house perfect. I am always going to help create images that are beautiful and meaningful to you. So your child just gave himself a snazzy new hair cut… that could be the PERFECT time to create portraits, in my opinion, because you’ll never forget this time in his life! Okay, maybe you should wait a week or so, but my point is that these images are for you and your loved-ones and they are a creative document of who you, your children and your pets are right at that moment in your lives. When you look back at these images years later when your children are grown or your beloved pet has perhaps passed on, you have these images to put you right back in that moment. This is something I absolutely love and cherish about photography. I have images of pets that have passed and when I look at images of them I can almost feel their fur between my fingers and hear their bark or purr. I’m thankful for the ability of photographs to trigger these sensations and memories of my loved-ones.
This backyard turned out to be a perfect location for creating portraits of Sandra’s three amazing children. These images will trigger the memories of these children playing with one another in the dappled sunlight with blades of grass tickling their toes...
