you know the kind right? When all of a sudden it just falls into place. Sometimes we need one of those moments to get us going or we might have one of those moments when we are beginning to loose heart. I had a significant lightbulb moment about 6 years or so ago which has slowly made some real changes to my life. That moment was this picture:

it is my daughter who at the time was just 2. It was this photograph of her that made me realise how powerful an image can be. To me, this shot captured so much of her character, her soul and spirit. As her mum obviously i may pick up those intuitively.

But those things are greatly facilitated by the photographer. Like a storyteller, gently leading the viewer’s gaze to settle on the parts of the image that you want to pull their heart strings, capturing a moment in time so truthfully that the you are somehow ‘there’ in that moment once again. Whenever i look at this image I always feel that. My shy, sweet little girl who was unsure but quietly confident. I think i said to the photographer at the time that he had captured ‘just her’

I didn’t know much about photography then. Once I started getting interested in it and understood the principles of portrait photography I frequently came back to this image and would always strive to ‘find’ that image that captures a personality so well. It is one of my favourite shots of my little girl and probably always will be.

Yesterday…the man who took this beautiful shot of my daughter, a talented and generous photographer and friend tragically lost his 5 year fight against the evil that is cancer.

He was the same age as me.

This week is dedicated to him. thanks so much for the inspiration…..