In a day and age where everyone has a camera in their pocket, we have all fallen victim to having our picture taken but with results that aren’t flattering. These are the pictures that you see on Facebook and immediately un-tag yourself. Maybe you're mom still likes the picture because she loves you, but you know that those double chins, weird faces, and awkward angles make you look like a completely different person. Seeing pictures like this can make you feel incredibly self conscious and even make you camera shy. That's exactly what happened to this girl.
This girl, we'll call her Chloe*, had her senior pictures taken in high school. The photos were cheesy, impersonal, and awkward. They were extremely posed and Chloe did not have a good time while taking them. In the end Chloe felt like they didn't look like her and even worse she started to hate her smile because of how it looked in these photos. She began to tell people that she wasn't photogenic.
Fast forward to this year and Chloe was about to graduate college. She had a job lined up and had everything going for her. Her mom had been making comments for years about how she wished she had good photos of Chloe that were recent. That's when Chloe reached out to me to take some graduation photos for her to give to her mom.
We spent time talking and I really got to know who Chloe was a person. We came up with some locations and outfits that suited her and made her feel comfortable. As we were out taking photos we had a blast. She was laughing and even said at one point that she forgot I was taking photos. When I showed her one of the photos on the back of my camera at the end of the session though she said it looked okay but again she hated her smile. That broke my heart. When I look at Chloe I see an amazing woman with a gorgeous smile I wanted her to see that as well.
When she got the photos back from that session she was in shock. She loved the photos. Chloe told me that she was amazed at how happy she looked. It was the first time in years she had looked at a picture of herself and found joy in it. It was also one of the rare times that she also liked her smile in the photos. Chloe just kept telling me how grateful she was for the photos and I got a message just about every day for 3 weeks with her still being in awe of the photos. She was originally just going to give them to her mom, but she ended up printing out some of the photos for herself and even put some of the photos up at her work.
Anyone can take a picture, but it takes a person with passion to see the picture before it's taken. I strive to be that person bringing into view not just what I see behind my camera, but also who that individual truly is and how they want to see themselves. I am that photographer with passion. Not passion for just taking a picture, but I’m a photographer with a passion for taking THAT picture. I want people to see themselves in a positive light. I want people to see what I see behind my lens before I take the photo.
-Laura’s Lenses
*Name has been changed