365 project #8

I once booked a session for a family

where the father was very much into photography.

He took me aside and let me know that he

had been all over the yard trying to find places

for me to take the photos

and gave me a list of areas he wanted me to use.

I wasn't feeling many of them,

but he was persistent,

so I lined his family up and shot at his suggested locations.

I felt....trapped.

I knew how drab and passionless

the photos were going to be

but I kept snapping away

waiting to be released.

Finally, when I had exhausted all of

his desired locations,

he said, "I hired you for your eye,

so do you have any areas where you want to shoot?"

Like a bird let loose from a cage,

I grinned and pointed to an old weed ridden

stone staircase that had caught my eye as soon as I got there.

He shook his head and told me all the reasons

why he thought it was not a good location.

It was damp and ugly.

Some of the steps were crumbling and

covered with dirt clumps.

It was not something that they saw any value in

and would certainly not want to see in a photo.

I didn't say a word but I smiled at him,

pointed to my eye and then to the staircase.

I was asking him to trust me.

He led his family to the stone steps

and I shot as they sat and cozied up to eachother.

I framed two giggling raven haired girls,

a pleasantly smiling mother

and a doubting, but grinning father

in my lens

and shot what came to be

their favorite family photo

of the whole day.

The rustic stone steps,

darkened a bit from a recent rain,

with bits of green weeds and newly fallen yellow leaves

strewn about proved to be an unlikely

but absolutely perfect perch for

a somewhat controlling father

and his gorgeous family.

In the end he saw what I saw.

In photography it's all about the eye.

The eye is what tells the story

through positioning all of the necessary components

in just the right way.

To the subject it might seems nuts,

but it's nuts with a purpose

if the person in control

sees the big picture.

And so it is with life.

Right now I'm sitting on some ugly, damp steps

wondering what in the world is going to come of a few situations in my life.

But I know that God knows the big picture

and if I just trust his eye,

I will get a beautiful family portrait out of this.

Even if I am sitting on weeds.