Lauren | Provo Canyon Senior Session

Lauren is luminous, so it was fitting that this day brought some of the most enchanting light I have seen in a long time. It surprises me sometimes how sessions turn out. I always pray beforehand that God will allow me to get a glimpse of how He sees the people I photograph. I love to craft the session around what I see in them, and not just spit out the same poses or use the same formula for each portrait. As it turned out, God already had the perfect day picked out for Lauren. As much as I can try to create as a reflection of Him, He is still the master artist. To be honest, I’ve never quite photographed anyone like this before. The combination of the light as subject was like discovering something as it unfolded before my eyes. The warm light that kissed Lauren was not of my making, but God’s. The colors shifted into unique hues with the changing of the sun’s rays behind the clouds. I can see and frame things, but it was all already there. I didn’t make any of the beauty that came into my lens.

I find this truth to be such a thrilling part of making art, and it leaves me increasingly more in awe of the Master Artist. It truly felt like He made this perfect evening with it’s multi-dimensional light just for this beautiful young woman with green-blue eyes, a deep warmth of heart, and shining joyful spirit. And I believe He really did. How else can it be explained? In over a decade of photographing people you’d think it all kind of feels the same, but I am continually finding it to be new and made to be something I could not have crafted on my own to fit so perfectly. And I am left in awe.