Yesterday I went out to shoot for a local community art project here in Atlanta, and while doing the portrait of the person I had actually selected for the project, these two little kids were there watching me. They both seemed fascinated with what I was doing – the little girl in particular. So, once I finished up with the portrait I came there to do, I ask the little girl, Gabby, if she wanted me to do a portrait of her too. She eagerly nodded her head, letting me know she did.

I lowered my strobe to four-year-old height and rattled off a couple shots of both her and her cousin, Zaire, who was there with her. It didn’t take her long before she said, “Can I take your photo?” Being asked such a question from such an adorable kid isn’t something you want to say no to, but I wasn’t too excited about trusting a four-year-old to hang onto my camera – which is heavy (even to me sometimes). I started to give her my iPhone to do a portrait of me with instead, but then thought better of it. If I were her age and I saw somebody photographing me with this big nice camera – and then ask if I could do a portrait of them, I would want to do it with that camera. If they handed me a Kodak disc camera – the equivalent of an iPhone way back when I was four – I would be pretty disappointed.

So, since I had a strap on the camera I had brought to shoot with, I decided to make her day. I took the strap, put it over her neck, showed her where the shutter release button was, and told her to put me in the middle of the viewfinder and to mash the shutter release button whenever she wanted. The exposure and lighting was already set, so all I had to do was squat down in front of her and in front of my strobe and let her do the rest. This is one of a couple shots she got of me with good composition – from a little girl that will be five in August.

There is no cropping in this. Yes, I do look like a bobble head in it due to the apparent size of my head in relation to my shoulders in it, but other than that it is a  well composed shot of me. One thing better than taking cool photos yourself is showing others how to take cool photos and seeing how they respond to it. Well, she was no different, especially since she is only four. It had been a great day, but her doing this photo of me was the icing on the cake.

And here are some shots I got of Gabby and her partner in crime with my iPhone:

Zaire never quite got his finger on the right button before his mom came over and took the camera from him, worried that he may drop it. I was worried about that too I guess, but I didn’t let that stop me from quickly whipping out my iPhone to get this shot of him being thrown totally off balance by my camera.

I can’t wait to process the files I really went to shoot last night – and share them when I’m able. When I walked back in my place after having shot all this, I felt like my heart was on fire – my cup was running over. Something about connecting with and photographing complete strangers makes me feel like I’m doing exactly what God put me here to do – and for that I am most grateful.