How A Free Headshot Turned Into Priceless Family Treasure
It all started with a headshot
Quite honestly, it was an inauspicious start.
When I started my photography business, I thought I wanted to be a headshot photographer.
I needed to recruit some models so I could build my portfolio, so I turned to the Internet for assistance.
I met Diane (pictured above) through a website called Model Mayhem, which is a site where models and photographers can connect and work together.
As with any online platform, it's a dice roll. There are lot of creeps and weirdos to be found on both sides of the camera on Model Mayhem. And there's lots of people who just aren't professional and will waste your time.
Needless to say, you have to take a healthy dose of skepticism into interactions with people on Model Mayhem.
Diane seemed normal, at first…
We had a headshot appointment scheduled and everything was set, assuming she showed up. Lots of models on Model Mayhem will just no-show on you.
But then Diane called me the day before her appointment to let me know there was a “slight” problem.
As you can see, Diane is a second-generation silver-haired beauty (more on that later).
The problem with that silver hair, I learned, is if you use the wrong kind of shampoo, it changes colors.
Diane told me that she went to the salon to get her hair done for our session and the stylist used the wrong shampoo and now her hair was pink and purple!
This is when things got weird
Diane asked me if I wanted to continue with our scheduled session or if wanted to delay it.
I thought this was incredibly strange.
I'm talking to a black woman who just had a stylist mess her hair up and not only was this lady way too calm about it, she was actually willing to keep her headshot appointment and be photographed this way.
I just KNEW I'd ended up with one of those weirdos on Model Mayhem!
But I played it cool. I told her I couldn't use pink and purple hair in my portfolio, so we just pushed the session back a week.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to get, but I was willing to give it a shot.
This is what we got…
We had a great session!
And Diane wasn't nearly as weird as I feared she might be.
It turns out that she'd been a professional model for many years, so Model Mayhem had worked out after all and connected two professionals who could work well together.
Fast forward a year
It was the summer of 2017.
One year and three days from Diane's headshot session, to be exact.
This time, we were at the senior living facility where the first-generation silver-haired beauty I showed you earlier lived.
Diane knew that her mom had more good days behind her than in front of her, so she wanted to take advantage of those precious good days and do a family photo session while her sons were in town because that doesn't happen often.
So we took over the common area of the senior facility and turned it into their family room because the family room is any room where the family is together, right?
Primping and prepping…and clowning.
No different than if they were at home.
The Queen and her attendant.
Did mama produce a clone or what?
We even got mom out of the chair and movin’ and groovin’ a li’l bit!
Get down, mama! Get down!!!
The fellas went to her room and brought her chair down so we could do some traditional family portraits.
That’s when we got the masterpiece.
This stunning photo hangs as a large wall art piece in Diane and Derrick’s home. This is a piece of family treasure that will be in their family forever.
It was a beautiful day, so we took the chair and the party outside.
And when mama was done, she was done!
You can see her off in the background making her low-speed escape.
Fast forward a year
And now we’re at Thelma’s 49th birthday party.
That’s right, her 49th, as she reminded anyone at the party who made the mistake of saying it was her 94th.
It was a double surprise birthday party, and here you see two of the co-conspirators.
Dad knew it was a surprise for the guest of honor. He was assigned to be her chauffeur.
But what he didn’t know is that his sons would be in town for the party, so it was a surprise for him, too.
This lady is crafty…keep your eye on her!
We’ve seen this handsome trio before, haven’t we?
How often do you get to go to a 94th birthday party and the guest of honor is not the oldest person in attendance???
That’s right. The pretty lady standing behind the birthday girl is NINETY-FIVE years old!
You’re looking at one hundred and eighty-nine years worth of grace!
Let that sink in for a minute…
One hundred and eighty-nine years!
What kinds of stories can these ladies tell?
Here’s another example of what I call a Grand Family Portrait.
You create one of these images and you print it big, and now you have a statement piece in your home that will last forever.
The statement you’re making is “our family values and celebrates family when everyone is happy and healthy, and not just when one of us gets sick or leaves us.”
You only get a chance to create these images at special occasions and you must take advantage of those opportunities.
This is your family’s historical record and you have to capture these memories or your family just won’t have them.
Why You Must Print
You have to print a photo like this one and put it on your wall because neither you nor anyone else can truly appreciate a photo like this on your phone’s tiny screen.
And trapped inside your phone, a photo like this cannot provide the benefits to the little people in your family that come with growing up in a home with precious family memories and family members adorning the walls that allow them to see who they come from and what they’re a part of.
Print your family photos!
You ever seen a more gorgeous set of twins?
And now we’ve made our way back home
Just ‘cause she makes it look easy doesn’t mean mama doesn’t have to do the work to stay fine at 94, uh, 49!
A little smoochin’ on the couch ain’t never hurt nobody.
This family gets it.
Just like this family, you and your family make memories all the time.
You have to capture them as they happen because tomorrow is not promised to any of us and we’re all here for just a short time.
This family understands that and they make it a point to document their family memories.
Farewell, Thelma B. Smith
On September 27, 2019 at 94 years old, Queen Thelma went home.
While there’s no way to avoid the pain of losing her mom, Diane at least has the comfort of knowing that she memorialized her through photography while her mother was still here to enjoy it with her.
This photo above that adorns the wall in Diane’s home was in place for her mom to see it and enjoy it.
I’ll let Diane share the importance of that with you in her own words.
