Portrait: Erin – Montgomery, Alabama

The last time I photographed Erin, she was about five years old.  Fast forward a few years, and her grandmother called me with an idea.  She had dug up an old baseball uniform that had once been worn by Erin’s grandfather, and thought it would be a fun surprise to give him pictures of his granddaughter wearing it.  She even found his old mitt and ball, and since she didn’t find a hat, she bought one in the right color and had it embroidered in a font similar to the one used on the jersey (genius!).

My thinking was it wouldn’t make sense for us to shoot at a modern baseball field since the uniform was vintage, I was picturing something with more woods and dirt – a place where kids might have tossed a ball around or started a pickup game back in the day.  We found an empty lot in a neighborhood that happened to have a fallen log on it, and decided that was as good a spot as any since it provided the perfect place for Erin to sit.  Since she would be wearing the same outfit for the whole shoot, we decided to give it some variety by changing up her hair – we did a few shots the way she had it when I arrived (with her ponytail sticking out of the back of the hat), then some with it all down, then I braided it down one side and mussed it up for a rough-and-tumble tomboy look.  We must have done a good job, because rumor has it, granddaddy may have shed a tear or two when he opened up the album.