Recently I was contacted by a woman out of state wanting to hire me to photograph her brother and his family and their new baby boy…but this was going to be a very different session than I had ever been a part of. This family is deaf…and I do not know sign language. Over our initial emails, we concluded that all would be ok, as there would be other people present who could help with translating during the session at the hospital. After the baby was born, there were some minor complications and we all decided it would be best to hold the session at their home a little while after mom and baby were home and settled into a routine. Once the day of the session arrived, I was a little nervous as there would not be a translator there, but the dad and I had communicated over email and I knew everything would be fine. Arriving at the session I met the sweet little four year old girl of the family, the dad…and saw a glimpse of the sweet new little brother and his full head of gorgeous hair. Dad and baby went into another room to hand baby to mom for a quick feeding and he motioned for me to start taking pictures of his sweet little girl outside.

The little girl was excited to show me her slide and her basketball and shoot some hoops for me. I was able to motion for her to look at the camera and she would smile and laugh with me. We soon began playing with some dandilions and she would blow the seeds and watch them float. When dad came back outside while baby brother was feeding, they explored the yard together, blowing dandilions and signing with eachother about the robins nest that was perched up in a tree. It was wonderful to watch this family communicate with one another. To see this beautiful girl show love towards her baby brother as she would look at him. It was such a wonderful experience to shoot this session and to see the love of a family without hearing a word. Thank you to the sister who hired me for this session, I was honored to be able to be there and your brother’s family is beautiful.