proud new father

 

The awareness of that which I haven’t been able to contain within the images made during a client photo session continually proves to be a challenge for me. There’s always something that a portrait fails to reveal. Sometimes this works to my advantage, and other times I’m left grasping for more and wondering how I could have approached things differently to extract that intangible quality I felt present but couldn’t quite reach.

I’ve photographed many new fathers over the years, and while it’s naturally a time of great pride and joy in a man’s life, I found this new dad’s appreciation for both his wife and baby girl to be especially moving. Bleary-eyed from lack of sleep and a shoot with a fussy newborn that wasn’t going so well couldn’t extinguish the constant huge smile on his face whenever he gazed at his beloved girls.

I wanted more than anything to create an image that might adequately convey the love and pride and patience I observed in this man’s demeanor. How does one fully capture “thank you”? I couldn’t touch it on this day even though it permeated their home and his entire being. I could blame it on the lackluster lighting, or the baby’s crying, or a hundred other things, but the truth is the most beautiful thing I witnessed on this day escaped my ability to capture it with camera, and I just have to live with that.

Maybe I take my photographs too seriously. The three people in this household know what they have, and certainly don’t need to rely on an image from me to convince them that their life and love is beautiful.

~Cynthia