When I was in school for photography one of the things I loved most about it was all of the assignments we were given. I was never at a loss for what to shoot. I was actually scrambling to get all of my photo shoots done for each assignment. I remember one of my favorite instructors telling me, most students fail when they get out of school because they are unable to self assign jobs later in their careers.

I also happen to know some of the most successful photographers I’ve met are amazing at self assigning photo shoots. They are able to invent shoot ideas and make them happen.  They are often just building their own portfolios, which in turn bring in jobs. When a photographer decides on what to shoot, they tend to shoot what they enjoy. When they do that, they draw more jobs they enjoy. This is following the rule of “shoot what you love, and share what you want to do more of.”

Anyway, I’ve been looking through some of my old photography and I ran across one of my school assignments. Sometimes I like to pull out old stuff and re-edit it. Of course as we grow our skills change and improve. This often gives us more insight with editing.

This assignment was in an advertising class. We had to plan a sunglass campaign. I went for a children’s sunglass ad. Emma was my model and I wanted a “GAP” like feel for the ads. The year was 2007, and Emma was 4 years old.

Miss Happy Sunshine girl.

The Cool girl.

The Princess.

I especially loved just running across the images from the whole photo shoot. I was so blessed to have had three daughters when I went to school, because they were always my models! I felt so lucky they were willing to help me out. However, at the time I never realized what a treasure I was building in the thousands of images I took of them. So many times I’d just let them go with it, and I’d just shoot away, increasing my chances of getting the right image. Each one reflecting different parts of their personalities. All saved on digital files and film, forever.

Here are a couple of adorable images of Emma from this shoot that I didn’t use in my assignment but really love.

Just going through old stuff always inspires me to go out and shoot more. My photography has been calling to me lately. As I approach Steve’s retirement and Emma returning to school full time, I’m heading into that place of returning to my own career of creating art and photography again. I’m really getting excited!