Girlhood.

Recently, on a trip home to visit my family, I held a photo session with my nieces just before the sun was setting. My vision was simple: capture that magical time of girlhood and sisterhood, that “we’re growing up but not quite grown” stage of life. It’s playfulness, beauty, lots of giggling, dancing, friendship with a few minor sister squabbles, and movement. I thought about the Bennett sisters in “Pride and Prejudice” or the March sisters in “Little Women.” I wanted to capture them as they are, in this moment in time.

Although we did play around with some direction and posing, near the end of the session when it was nearly too dark to shoot (we were on our way back to the car), they continued playing and being their goofy selves. I kept capturing, and the imperfections in the images due to the low light actually made the image. It shows the wild movement and the high energy the girls have on their own nearly every day.

I will always make use of a dramatic landscape. In central Illinois, this means using the one hill for miles around.

Most of these images are of the girls just being themselves. I was just snapping them in their natural state.

I love experimenting with in-camera techniques to create unique images. For this next set, I used my Prism Lens FX Split Diopeter FX filter. It makes hazy edges, especially around movement, which is why I had the girls dance, spin, and run to get the full effect.

I love how my middle niece is looking up to her older sister.

This is the epitome of the joyous, silly, girlhood that I was trying to capture.

They really do care for one another so much.

The sky was pink as the sun was just about to disappear over the horizon.

It was pure joy to create these images with my nieces. I will hold the memory precious for years to come. I hope they will remember this evening for years to come as well.