The phone rang on a quiet morning in the studio months ago, and our conversation started like many. “Sherry I won a gift certificate for your studio & we’d like to book that session” and like usual I started flipping open my calender to available dates, when the voice began to tell me part of her story…..how they are trying to plan around what should be Reed’s graduation date, and how this would be the first photo together since, the Bus Accident.   I most certainly froze.

I may never fully know why God brings such phenomenal people (& families) & stories into my life. I wondered if I could prepare myself enough to create images, to create a moment with enough value to tell the Steven’s story. I most certainly prayed about it.

There were several months between the phone call and the photo session. Many times we had to reschedule because the weather was raining, or 150 degrees, just not perfect. I most certainly wanted perfection.

When the Steven’s arrived in August, I saw my friends exit a mini van, a family I’ve never met, whom I mainly knew though written emails and the sharing of our faith. I prayed about giving this session to God and began going through the motions of doing what it is that I do.

Kandy Writes Following the Session:

From the moment I “met” Sherry, I knew that she was amazing!  I loved her sweet spirit and how she encouraged me to tell my children that we were going to Sherry’s house to play.  Since my kids are 16, 14, and 8 years old, I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I probably wouldn’t be telling them that.  Boy was that a wasted opportunity!  From the moment we arrived to the time we left, we laughed and simply enjoyed ourselves.  Coming to Sherry’s studio and acreage was just the place for our family to record family memories – something that has been difficult for us to do for a long time.

Our oldest son, Reed, was killed in 2008.  From the first conversation, where I explained our family’s story, to today, Sherry has handled us with love and tenderness.  Once we saw the proofs, we each had our own favorites.  Much of that was due to the variety of shots and the fact that it never felt like we were “posing” for portraits.  We truly felt that we were hanging out at a dear friends house and she just happened to pick up a camera.  However, our entire family fell in love with the shot using some old theater chairs outside in the grove.  The reason that shot was significant was Sherry went out of her way to have Reed included in her own special way.  If she is showing that photo with this testimonial  you can see that a seat was saved for Reed.  She never knew that we have said that one of the hardest things for us to accept is his empty chair at the dinner table.  In a beautifully poignant way, she reframed our thinking by making the chair a focal point such as if she said in words, “Reed is still a part of your story, and always will be.”

Now for my Confession: This is absolutely God’s Image. It wasn’t until Kandy herself pointed out the empty seat that I even noticed…the empty seat.  I simply posed the family in this spot and then moved on to the next image. I can’t take the credit Kandy has given me for creating this.  I am beginning to notice more and more often in my work, that magical, quite unexplainable images & moments happen.  I must give that glory & praise upward. Dearest Kandy this is no doubt Reed’s image.

You can learn more about Reed, The entire Steven’s Family & Kandy (mom) at her personal Blog. HERE

This is another image from the session, that just happened. Do you see what I see?