By Terra Avilla
Before I was a mother, I would politely smile as parents would proudly show me pictures of their children. “Oh cute,” I would say as I smiled and nodded, looking at pictures of newborns and first birthdays of my friend’s children.
Then I had a baby and I got it.
I got how much love and pride there is in being a parent. I understood the desire to share photographs of your baby with others. I changed. I began to love to see pictures of my friend’s babies. Often requesting it.
You appreciate them so much more. Their tiny toes, their tuffs of hair, and when you see a baby picture done by a true professional, you can almost smell that new baby smell. The best smell in the entire world.
You know who captures those moments and feelings better than anyone I have ever met? Lassen County’s very own Shannon Ewing with Sweet Days Photography.
Like most good things that happen to me, Shannon entered my life by happenstance. The girls’ sitter, Michelle, is good friends with Shannon and as a gift to me while I was pregnant with Peach, gifted me a newborn photography session.
Now I come from the era where my mom marched me into JcPenny’s with my sisters, sat me down with an oversized bow on my head, I said “cheese” and that was it. So, you can imagine my surprise when I showed up to Shannon’s studio and saw the outfits. Oh. My goodness. The outfits. The props. The entire atmosphere.
It wasn’t a photo session it was an entire experience.
How she finessed Peach into sleeping for the entire three-hour photo session, I have no idea. Through five outfit changes, dozens of props. It was truly an art form. But more impressively, Shannon captures Anna. All the tiny nuisances that make Peach – Peach. The way her toes curl when she’s sleeping, or she half smiles when she naps. Shannon perfectly captured my baby.
I cried when I received the photos. The grandparents cried, the aunts the uncles cried. Crazy Uncle Diz (Michael Haldane) cried.
There wasn’t a single person in a mile radius of my family that weren’t proudly shown those pictures. So naturally, when my sister had her first born, she had to have Shannon do her newborn pictures.
When I had Pearl, I had Shannon do a yearlong package and each time I took her for her session she made me cry. It’s not just her creativity, attention to detail and patience dealing with newborns but also dealing with picky, finicky, emotional and tired mommas. She is a saint.
Over the past five and half years I have watched, in amazement, all the photo sessions that Shannon has completed. Some photos of beautiful families and newborn babies I know and others I don’t.
Either way, each photo shoot is amazing, each picture is a true work of art. A piece our babies’ childhood captured.
Every time I visit Shannon while she is photographing cake smashes, first steps, little feet, family moments, I just sit back in amazement. We have a world class photographer in our midst, who is a humble as she is kind. Who has no hesitation to donate photo packages or her time to her children’s sports.
Every time I look at my girls’ newborn photos my heart becomes full. It is a perfect reminder of the things that matter most. Things that are captured by a truly talented and wonderful woman. A wonderful, one of a kind businesswoman who is a talented as she kind.
Every time I look at those pictures of my babies I am reminded of Shannon, and of one of the reasons I love the place I live.
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