Never stop growing

Wow it has been a roller coaster and I wouldn't trade a single moment of the experience for the world. If there is any truth to the statement that when it rains it pours, then I am dancing in the rain. I'll have to blog about it once some of the legalities are over and I can speak about it. So what does it have to do with growing? Everything. Without failures there would be no progress, without actions there would be no reaction. Without momentum, there would be no moving forward. Today I looked at a blog of one of my most admired photographers and in his blog there was this photo taken from a low point revealing just  how beautiful things can get when you just look up. And that is also what happened when I looked up and saw little Yessi smiling and waving in my direction. It seem like so very long ago since I last saw Yessi, and I would have expected her to be wearing boxing gloves and standing like a B-boy. The third photo was taken a few years ago, and I added it to sort of time-lapse this story between than and now. She looked radiant, happy and certainly not like a B-boy or girl for that matter. I wanted to capture that moment quickly before she relapsed so I grabbed my ring flash and decided this would be a good time to shoot a few single light shots and determine power to distance with the ringflash. There isn't a more finer tool for getting high key shots in my own honest opinion. I wanted to keep Yessi smiling so I kept talking about her tomboy days and her eyes kept smiling and laughing. I don't know why I am so fixated with the eyes but it is always through the eyes that I determine how I would shoot something. I took a few test shots and was amazed at what we had captured with Yessi in a dark dress standing near a white wall. Wanting to switch it up a bit, I asked Yessi to make a quick change, and so she slipped into a light colored top and we used a dark color wall at relatively the same distance. The lighting was just a tad bit darker, so I made a minor adjustment and the results were as amazing. Yessi looked at the photos and I can tell from the look in her eyes that she knew she was no longer going to be referred to as one of the fellas ever again. In her quiet soft voice she said she liked wearing heels now. We both laughed about that one because I could recall her sister saying to me that her mom wanted to see Yessi wear a dress and heels just one time for her.
"Last night I felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders, and today I realized that it was only my reflection from standing on top of the world."

How was it done:

High Key B&W shot:
Tamron 28-75 2.8 (68 mm)
Alien Bee 800 ringflash
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/10
Shutter speed: 1/160th second 
(changed to B&W in Lightroom)

Color shot:
Tamron 28-75mm (68 mm)
Alien Bee ringflash
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/8
Shutter speed: 1/160