Bella's Spirit Session

I’m currently taking a photography class from the wonderful Thea Coughlin. We’ve explored camera settings, lighting, and composition. However, what I’ve loved most is the exploration we’ve done into the emotional side of our photography. Thea shoots what she calls Spirit Sessions. What’s a Spirit Session? Well here’s her definition.
“A Spirit Session is a photography study on the spirit of the object or subject. It begins with emotionally connecting with the subject by entering into an inquiry stage where the photographer taps into the story that is waiting to be told.”
One of this week’s assignments was to conduct our own Spirit Session. Here’s the story of my very first one.

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I did this session with my daughter, Bella. Bella is 10 and amazing. The sad thing is that she doesn’t seem to realize just how amazing she is sometimes and can be really hard on herself. I made sure that everyone else in the house was occupied, so that it could be just her and I. We started our session by chatting all about her. I wanted her to share what she loves and thinks about herself. Bella loves to play the piano and bake, traits I already knew about. She couldn’t say what she liked most about herself, so I offered some things I have observed.
We started out at the piano with her playing and me snapping.
We moved away from the piano and closer to the window and continued our conversation on her positive traits as I took more pictures. I wanted to capture her natural facial expressions in good lighting. Finally, she revealed that she thought her curiosity was a good trait. Why? Because she learns a lot of new things. We got a a few good laughs during this part of our conversation.

 ISO 200
Aperture f/2.0
Shutter Speed 1/320

Next we went outside and I took our conversation in a different direction, tying together what she loves to do and likes about herself. I kept her talking and snapped away.

• ISO 100
• Aperture f/5.0
• Shutter Speed 1/100

I explained to her that what she loves to do makes her a creator and that creators are artists. She is an artist.
“But, I don’t paint,” she replies.
“Artists take what is inside of them and create to express it in any form. You do it through music, baking, and sewing now.”
I asked her to think of others ways she would like to create, and we brainstormed some ideas. I caught the image below as she pondered.

• ISO 100
• Aperture f/5.0
• Shutter Speed 1/100

• ISO 640
• Aperture f/1.8
• Shutter Speed 1/160

This session was a moving experience. I went into it thinking I was going to create wonderful dialogue in order to achieve the photos I hoped for. The photos were actually the secondary experience. Taking the time to help Bella look a little deeper into herself, find what was there, and discover ways to bring those wonderful things out into the world was the prime experience. I was just lucky enough to be able to capture images of the process.