“You Can Find Me in the Birds…”

I’ve wanted to start a little blog about things that moved me during photoshoots. Most sessions, there is something that sticks out to me or something that reminds me why I do photography. I think that this session will be a good start to this blog.

So, why this session? What made this one so worthy of being the first blog post?

Well, this session in particular was my first time back after the first major death in my life. My grandfather, “Papaw”, went to be with Jesus about 3 days before on Wednesday, May 28th. I spent the remainder of the week with family and friends going through the grieving process and getting all the things handled. We spent a few days choosing photos for the slideshow, gathering outfits, and remembering things that we wanted to put in our speeches for the funeral service.

Following the funeral service, I had a photoshoot. I knew I had the option to move this session, but I knew Papaw would want us to get back to usual. He wouldn’t want us to mourn for too long and he would want us to continue life as normally as we could.

I pull up to the session, get out and start walking around to check out the location. I am getting a feel for the environment and trying to get into the spirit to take photos. It has obviously been a long day, full of emotions. I look toward an area of wildflowers (the one pictured at the beginning of the article). The area is obviously chaotic and has a lot going on. If I wasn’t paying attention, I could’ve easily missed it. Sitting in the all the brush was a little red bird.

You may ask, what is the significance of that? Or why did that stick out to you?

One of the last things that Papaw told my mom while at the hospital was that we could find him in the birds. Sure enough, he was there, sitting proudly with his little chest out. I know for a fact that it was him, making sure I knew that he was with me. I come to this garden all the time and I have never seen such a pretty red bird. It was a breath of reassurance that I was doing exactly what Papaw wanted me to do.

Overall, this session turned out beautiful and I’m sure at one point I will talk about some other details but for now, I wanted to share this little detail that re-ignited the spark for me during such a confusing time. Anything you see can give you hope and comfort to get through the day, you just have to look around.