I'm excited to announce that I am now offering two new types of portraits that go along with a specific project I am working on to boost women's and girls' self esteem.

Since the #CaptureMomBeauty campaign I ran last year, I have been contemplating ways to help women want to get in front of the camera more - both in photos with their family and children AND photos by themselves. 

It's an even harder thing for a lot of us to have photos of just ourselves. I believe it's equally important, however, for our children and families to have photos not only of us enjoying life with them, but for them to have photos of us just BEING, in our own beauty, our own identity. How many of you have photos of your mother by herself? How about your grandmother? Great-grandmother? And if you do, don't you cherish them? Aren't they beautiful? Before photography, it wasn't uncommon to have painted portraits made of the women in the family to pass down to the generations. Wouldn't you like to have something special like that, printed on archival-quality materials, for your children to love and pass down? A portrait that you feel beautiful in?

Since including the Larry Robinson photography family history on my site, I hear on a regular basis from individuals who are trying to track down more photos of a family member who has passed away. Often, a portrait or two from one of my great-grandfather's studios is the only quality (including archival quality - many times snapshot photos no longer look good after so many decades) photo they have. It has reiterated to me time and again how important photos are for our families. We MUST exist in photos for our families. 

I am proud to announce that I am now offering fine art women's portraiture sessions. These are indoor sessions that focus on the individual, beautiful woman, and are available for women of all ages. 

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The second part of this is for girls. Being the mother of girls myself, I've been seriously thinking about at what age did I start to not liking having my photo taken? At what age is it that we suddenly feel self-conscious about our looks in the camera? And WHY is that?

I started thinking about the affirmations I want my daughters to have - ones that I have often struggled with for myself - and had the idea that perhaps if girls had photos of themselves holding up signs of affirmation that they saw on a regular basis, then maybe they would start to believe them, firmly in their hearts, and not ever hit that point in life where they shrink from the camera.

I chose the affirmations "Strong, Brave, Beautiful" "Kind, Joyful, Beautiful" and "Important." I explain that strength and bravery is beautiful, and that being kind and joyful is not only beautiful, but often isn't the easy thing to be. It often takes a lot of strength and bravery to be kind and joyful. Being kind and joyful are choices that we have to make, and they are brave choices. Each girl is IMPORTANT, and these traits are important traits, and beautiful traits.

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It's my hope that this photo series will begin to affirm to women and girls of all ages that they are beautiful, and important, and I am excited to now offer them! The fine art women's portraits and the Strong, Joyful, Beautiful sessions will be available on a limited basis each month. Many thanks to the recent models I had for each session! You can see two here on this post, and stay tuned on the Facebook page over the next week for the rest of them to be featured! Aren't they beautiful?!