Miss Lily

Ah, little miss Lily!  When I last photographed her she was just a few months old, NOT yet mobile and as accommodating as they come.  Fast forward to yesterday....  What a difference a year makes!  That little girl is FAST and FEISTY and determined NOT to look at the camera.  Mom, dad and I were chasing her all over trying to redirect her in the general vicinity of my lens and she would intentionally run the other way.  If she saw me she would deliberately turn her back to me with a mischievous little smile on her face.  She only stopped moving on one occasion and that was so she could poop.  So funny!  We tried every trick in the book to grab her attention and get her to slow down for a second and she was on to us every time.  She just threw her head back and laughed at us silly adults and shook her head saying "no! no! no!" in her playful and taunting little way.  I swear it was like Ellie all over again.  At one point I accidentally called Lily by Ellie's name, that's how much I was transported back in time!  I was really struggling to get her to stay in the light I wanted her to be in too and was astounded at her "energizer bunny" nature where she just kept running away without once looking back to see if any of us were even remotely closeby.  A super independent and determined little soul in that girl!  In the end, we prevailed, but I think the adults involved all collapsed on a couch when they got home! :)

Ginger and Art, thank you so much for driving so far to come see me and chase Lily around!!  She is a very bright, charming and delightful little girl!

Here is the one second she stopped moving to attend to other business.

For these, I'd get exactly ONE shot and then she'd literally launch herself off the bench, dad would scoop her up, put her back, I'd get ONE shot, she'd launch herself off again... you get the idea.  I have never seen a toddler move that fast in all my years of doing this!

She is actually still moving in this next shot which I caught as she momentarily, and accidentally, glimpsed at me.  HA!  I had my SS set to 1/640 instead of my usual 1/250 or 1/320 that I use with toddlers.  

I love this classy, simple denim dress with bloomers by the way.  It photographs beautifully in both color and B&W and keeps all the focus on Miss Lily.  Beautiful choice by mom!

HAHA! GOTCHA!

I quickly figured out that the best thing to do with Lily was NOT suggest anything.  So rather than ASK her to sit in the chair, which she would have politely refused to do, I quietly moved the chair into a location I liked, silently stepped away from the chair and casually squatted down a few yards away.  Then we all looked AWAY from the chair like it was the LAST place we wanted her to go..... and wouldn't you know it.....

Do you see her eyeballing me on the last frame? Trouble with a capital T that one... That's about when I started calling her Ellie.

Look at that determined look on her face!

Then, at the very end, I got these last two shots back to back and when I got them I told Ginger: "That's it! I got what I needed"  And we both let out a big "wooohoo!!"

Next year I'm wearing my track shoes.