Siren or Saint

I love, love, love when I get to be an artist in my sessions. Every photo session I do I am working to make sure that the poses are pleasing to the eye and that background isn’t distracting, etc, etc. On the rare occasion I get the opportunity to be truly inventive, this was one of those times. Something special happened the day I met Mary. I could tell that she was a lot like me when I was a kid, a dreamer and a philosopher. Now don’t get me wrong I know I was a flake too, but then again my heart was sincere. Mary is that way too. We started chatting a birthday party when I was admiring her great choice of books, and by the end of it, we were talking about a modern day fairytale told through Mary’s perspective. I thought, “Wow, I would love to be the one to do this for her but I don’t know if she will be interested in me a photographer”. I gave Cathy (her mom) my business card and said a little prayer that I would get to see this happen.

I got a message from them a month or so later via email inquiring further, I tried not to look desperate as my inner artist was crying out when I asked if they wanted to come over and talk about it. When we got to talk I really got to see that they were just as passionate about it as I was. It was a big undertaking and we knew we would only have one day to get it in the can, so as everything just seemed to work out our ideas became so grad we scaled them back. It was so delightful working together with the Fosters, from start to finish!

Before we began for the day we took some family photos as well just to commemorate their time together. It really got the day off great! I couldn’t have asked for a better day, or a better crew, Cathy and Robert helped with lights, lunch, costumes and props, and even Jamie helped me get a few night time shots with building a fire and even jumping over fire at one point. We emailed back and forth for weeks about colors and props, and where to shoot, what a treat, one can only hope I get to do more of this in the future. Building a concept and then seeing it through is an amazing thing to me.

My heart has always been to tell stories and Mary wrote a beautiful one to go with her images.

Once upon a time…

in a land far, far away, a princess was born. Now this princess knew that she had great things ahead of her in life, but she still had her doubts. Her name was Princess Mary Evan and she was loved and admired by all those around her, except for her own evil half.

The princess’s evil half was never seen or felt by those around the princess but Princess Mary knew she was there. Princess Mary’s evil half only came out when she was alone. Now, it wasn’t just Mary who had an evil half. We all have evil halves. Your evil half is the side of you that causes you to doubt yourself and lose hope.

One day Princess Mary’s evil half took over. When Mary’s evil half took over she became very doubtful, dark, and pessimistic. Later in the week, Princess Mary looked in the mirror and realized how bad things had gotten, and decided to use the last bit of hope and strength she had left to fight her evil half.

It was one of the biggest and longest battles the princess had fought in, and that included her battles with mean, neighboring princesses when she was younger. But eventually Mary won and gained control of her evil side.

Princess Mary had astonished the entire kingdom for many reasons, two of the big reasons being that she had managed to fight her evil half and win by herself, not needing a prince charming to do it for her, and despite the fact that princess Mary had lost in the beginning, she still fought through the hurt and held out hope, even in one of her darkest moments.

Princess Mary was so overjoyed to have finally won and to have control of herself, that the people of the kingdom could’ve sworn that her smile lit up, and was bigger than the brightest and biggest fire that day.

Though Princess Mary’s dark side was still there, Mary now thought of it as a reminder of her victory. Every night since winning the battle, before going to sleep, Mary looks out at the stars, reminding herself that there is always hope and to never give up, no matter how tempting.

The End

Cathy, Robert, Mary, and Jamie, Thank you so much for a truly priceless memory of my time in Spain as well as a remarkable journey of how a princess is made. Forever in my heart, Rebecca