Being a children’s photographer isn’t always easy.  In fact, it’s rarely easy.  Especially with the younger ones.  I’ve gotten so used to rapid-fire shooting and moving quickly through poses to either capture a fleeting smile or capitalize on a few moments of happiness that when I photograph “big kids” I fly through the shoot in no time at all.  Just last Friday I photographed a high school senior, and we were done in 45 minutes flat.  But I digress.  Back to the little ones.

I first photographed fraternal twins Sylvie and Brynn last November when they were three months old:

Brynn has since had surgery to repair her cleft lip, and I met up with them on a recent trip to Portland to take their one-year photographs.  I will say in full disclosure that I did not get one shot of the two of them together.  But I also didn’t really expect to.  Getting toddlers to do anything specific for any measurable amount of time requires a bit of finesse.  Getting two of them to do the same thing at the same time requires magic.  Combine that with the fact that we were shooting outside when it was near 100° and I had no expectations.  So we put the quilt down in the grass and played.  And I sat back and photographed life as it was currently for Sylvie and Brynn.

It took a little bit of warming up:

And the security of some familiar friends:

Mom warned me early on that “Serious Sylvie” can be a challenge to photograph.  But “Serious Sylvie” was soon happy as a clam:

Brynn had a more difficult time, and I soon resolved myself to the fact that I might only get teary, non-smiling photos like these:

So we picked up our toys, folded up the quilt, and went inside to the air conditioning.  The girls stripped their clothes off, and recovered from the stress of modeling.  And I began packing up my camera bag.  And then… twenty or thirty minutes later… Brynn found a moment of happiness.  And we ran to the front porch.  There, the heavens parted.  And as Mom held her, she began giggling.  And I began shooting.  While we were at it, we grabbed Sylvie for a matching happy shot.  I think I might have jumped up and down with excitement.  A few times.

Happy Monday, friends!