I LOVE doing these mother/daughter sessions!! But I ESPECIALLY love when they come in and see their images for the first time.  Why you may ask? Because most women think they are going to come in and flip through the images and maybe pick one or two they don’t hate. They think that they’ll be at the studio for about 10 minutes. They think that the photo session itself was an amazing, pampering, fun experience that they will remember and cherish but they *know* that they are not photogenic so that none of the photos will turn out so it will be just that, an experience to remember.

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And then I show them the photos. And then their jaw drops.

Is that me???

Yes. That is you.

Are you sure??

Yes. I am positive.

After this conversation continues for a bit and she has gone through her photos a gazillion times and made her selections and has been at the studio for about an hour and a half, and we have laughed and sometimes cried, she goes on her merry way – but never without a hug and always with a smile that is a little bigger than when she came.

And now that she has seen the beauty that others see in her, I hope that she never stops seeing it.

(make up by the fabulous and talented Kate Johnson Artistry)