Brianne and Her Journey

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”

– Maya Angelou

Clients hire us for many reasons and we’re here to create portraits for them for a special occasion, or in this client’s case, a celebration of being breast cancer free for 1 year. She described herself as a “non-girlie girl”, a bookworm who loves Harry Potter and steamy romance novels, and who never wears “fancy” clothes but hasn’t felt like herself lately. I told her to wear whatever she felt most herself, and I would have dresses picked for her if she felt inclined to try some on.

My HMUA did a fabulous job creating a casual clean look. First set was more casual to get her warmed up in front of the camera. She kept eyeing all the dresses and said, “let’s try this one next” and then “now this one!” My HMUA glammed her look up for the next sets. Her smile got bigger and bigger and by then was so proud of her journey, the struggles of losing herself through the treatments, losing both her breasts but being alive today for her husband and 2 boys.

The very last set, she wanted portraits of her scars. As I was taking the shots, I continued in silence. I could see her thinking about all that she has been through, the treatments, the surgeries, and recovery. The tears started to come, but I kept me silence, allowing her to FEEL the moment. Then, a smile. We hugged and she said she hasn’t felt this good about herself in a really long time and I made her feel whole again. What a moment to share with her. I am so proud of her and her courage to not only Kick Cancer’s Butt but stay positive.

At her other appointment, we went through all her portraits and her husband kept telling her how beautiful she is, and these portraits were how he sees her every day. He told her to order whatever she wanted, but HE wanted an album with a special “F*CK CANCER” insert because he loves her so much and wants her to remember how far she’s come and is so proud of her strength.

It’s really an honor to be able to create these products exactly how our clients want them. When I delivered the products, she kept feeling the pages and kept saying how nice they are, and the album even smells fancy (remember, she’s a bookworm lol). Wall Art was also important to them both, but she didn’t want her face giant on a wall, so we picked the perfect product that was 9 of her favorite images on one piece. After some tears of joy, she said she’s already planning next year’s session 🙂