I recently had a shoot that was very personal to me. After chatting with the mother of 7-year old Marshall on the phone for a few minutes about scheduling a session, I concluded the call by asking her for their home address. When she said the name of the street where they live, my jaw dropped. It was the street I grew up on!
All of my childhood memories -- 17 years worth of them -- involve growing up on a historic dead-end street in the "Old Southwest" neighborhood of my hometown. It's an area known for its beautiful, old homes, narrow and often times all brick streets, and gigantic trees everywhere.
It was, to say the least, a dream to grow up in an area where all the neighborhood kids knew each other, rode bikes through each other's yards, played kickball right in the middle of the street, and went from door to door singing carols every Christmas Eve.
So, it was a great joy to return to a place so close to my heart.
To kick off this blog entry, I will share with you a simple photo of the street so you can see for yourself how picture perfect a place it is to grow up.
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And, this is the house I grew up in. And that's me, in a diaper, with my hands
wrapped around the trunk of MY new tree. |
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| And here is the same tree... 30+ years later! |
Okay, that's enough of my sentiments related to this shoot. Now I want you to meet 7-year old Marshall. He is a ball of energy with a great sense of humor and a love for Legos, his mini Jeep and his dog Suzy! It was quite the workout chasing him around with my camera. But I managed to get some shots of him in action doing what he enjoys and also a few shots of him looking at me, sometimes with a smile, sometimes with a mischievous glint in his eyes, and sometimes with all seriousness. Take a look for yourself at what seven years of adorableness looks like.
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| This was in his room. He was showing me all of his cool toys, including his dinosaur! |
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| So cute! |
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| Meet his four-legged buddy, Suzy! |
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According to his mom, these two can spend hours driving around in the yard together.
I even think Suzy helps steer! |
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| Aren't his eyes AMAZING?! |
These three shots are a little glimpse into the many faces of Marshall!
Now you can see how much fun I had taking his picture!
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| And then... He gave me some Preciousness! Love this one! |
Well, there's your sneak peek of a funny, energetic, super-cute 7-year old enjoying the many perks of growing up on a beautiful little street that holds all my own childhood memories.
P & C, thanks for giving me the gift of returning to my childhood street and of photographing your wonderful boy!
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Love! Love! Love! I am so happy you were in town to take pictures of Marshall and even more more fun to have you visit Thilly Avenue! Thank you Ashley!
ReplyDeleteWow! What beautiful pictures & lighting. My favorite is the picture captioned "look at those eyes". I love that picture with the pink flowers in the back ground and the red brick house to the left. What a great picture!! Cwb
ReplyDeleteLove the new blog - your writing is so beautiful too, about your childhood street and memories.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures are just AMAZING! Thanks for sharing. That little boy is so cute and his parents have to be so excited to have those photos now.
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