Life is full of firsts of course… and better yet when they involve your kid.

• First day at preschool. Thank you Mrs. Herzog.
• First day of kindergarten. Thank you Mrs. Brayman
• Middle school…
• High school…
• DRIVING! Thank you Mr. Poettgen.
• Senior photos. Thank you me?

I’ve been making senior portraits for a bunch of kids for several years now and this year I get another first. MY kid. Rachel will either be spoilded by me or hate the process… but this is gonna be a summer long project! I can’t imagine having to squeeze all my senior photo memories into one visit to one photographer. Yup. I want Rachel photographed at all her favorite things… school… theater… parks… restaraunts… I want it all in her senior pictures. But that can’t really happen. I guess what I want is simply to freeze time. We have been incredibly fortunate to have a beautiful young girl who loves and cares for her family.. who is growing up to be a beautifully strong and loving young lady.

When Rachel got her license and no longer needed me to drop her off at school I told her I was gonna miss that. As up tight as I can get trying to get my family out the door sometimes I really miss dropping her off at grade school… middle school… high school. Pretty much every day of every year of her school carreer we’ve dropped her off. There were tears and laughs and frustrations.. but an exchange of ‘have a good day’ & ‘love you’ before the door closed.. every day.

I’ve experienced tears in the studio from parents as they watch their son or daughter almost instantly grow up in front of them. Somehow suddenly this kid is ready to start making it on their own in the world. This time it’s my turn and I want to enjoy every minute of this next year.