The Little Ladies | Portraits

“behind every beautiful thing, there's some kind of pain.”  

bob dylan

Just about two years ago I took my sisters out for portraits on the beach.  They moved away to Florida, so when I came to visit I couldn't help but to steep in their beautiful childhood.  Being away and then being with gave me artist's clarity and I wanted to photograph them "as they were."  Mom watched on glowingly.  We ran around the sand until the sun set and once it was dark we ate tacos and laughed.  They were free, funny, best of friends and shockingly engaging (I crave their social skills).   The setting of a twilight beach was utopian and timely.

But now, they are different.  They are older and they are wiser and they ever-more engaging and they watched their mother deteriorate before they're innocently round eyes at only ten and twelve years old.  As they traveled with us across the country on a recent road trip, I was able to "people watch" them in concentrated doses and I had the itch to document them again -- how they are now.  All trip I talked about doing a shoot but it was never 'right.'  As we drove through Wyoming, with it's hard, repetitive, self-shrinking constance, I knew it was time.  We had driven through the night and for 16+ hours, but as soon as we arrived to our hotel I threw them dresses and we ran out to the neighboring pastures.

These little girls have held cold, mottled feet and wept into the chest of an unresponsive mother.  They've caught the stomach bug and cleaned themselves up alone, wishing to crawl into bed with the best nurse of all.  They've witnessed the various outbreaks and processes of other grieving family members, which is sometimes scary.  And they sing along to "The Lonely Goatherd" like sparkling buffoons, purposely off-key and definitely amused.  And my goodness: do they know how to savor and dissect a delicious meal (especially Chicago deep-dish pizza.)  The mix of severe and whimsical I see in their faces, watch in their actions is powerful to me.  I am a proud big sister and I am moved to present my silly, smart, sad, strong, shockingly engaging, happy, all-too-grown-up sisters:






















(I think Mama Bear still looked on glowingly.)




--- + --- + --- + --- + --- + --- to book your own i'm kristen family session,  especially in the maryland/virginia/dc, or oklahoma to dallas areas E-MAIL ME HERE

The Sherrill Family | Dallas Family Portraits

"it’s been a long hard ride (we've got a ways to go), 

but this is still the place that we all call home."

dierks bentley 

“Suddenly it seemed to me that I looked back from a great distance on that smile and saw it all again - the smile and the day, the whole sunny, sad, funny, wonderful day and all the days that we had spent here together. What was I going to do when such days came no more? There could not be many; for we were a family growing old..." Jetta Carleton

I have nearly ten good friends who are now wives and mothers.  When I met most of them they had neither "a guy" or "kids."  What a meaningful and fascinating experience it is to watch someone else grow, overcome hard new things, nurture a brood, bring new relationships into the world, develop, and happily thrive.  Jessica (Shae) and I met with weirdly similar life goals, and similarly weird current-life circumstances.   "It's the oldest story in the world.  One day you're 17 and you're planning for someday.  And then quietly, without you're ever really noticing, someday is today.  And then someday is yesterday.  And this is your life."  It's wonderful to look at a short-legged, fat-footed, brownie-eyed, watchful, puppy-boy and see my friend looking back up at me.  At least parts of my friend.  His eye-shape is the same as hers when he smiles, and just like his dad's "at rest."  Her dimples, his eyebrows.  Her goofiness, his need to figure out how things work.  A whole, original, never-before-and-never-again human who was wondered about in parks and Chipotle's all over the east coast.  I love knowing a talented, quietly sassy, determined woman and then meeting the new characters in her story -- finding out where her story all along was written into somebody else's.  This is the man.  This is the child.  Here is her family!

Josh is a friendly, smart partner for Jessica, and she is a lively, tough match for him.  Judah is clearly and affectionately loved by them both (I think every time we've hung out together Josh feeds/changes/cleans-up Judah.  Caleb and Josh have special bonding time over their sons' stank! haha) Being with them is easy and warm.  I love this little family, mostly because I know how much joy they have in each other.






























--- + --- + --- + --- + --- + --- to book your own i'm kristen one-year or family session,  especially in the maryland/virginia/dc, new york/boston, or oklahoma to dallas areas E-MAIL ME HERE (i'll also be traveling around southern california + the lake tahoe/nevada areas in coming months.)