We can wash the hot chocolate off their foreheads, brush their hair, wash juice off their lips, and put on clean clothes. Or we can take kids how they are.

A photographer can photoshop the mosquito bites from their skin, remove the "stuff" of meals from their faces, and quickly take the bruises of 3 year-old lives off their legs.

Or we can take them how they are.

At the end of a long day (for both of us), this sweetie came over for some unplanned fun in the studio. I suggested she sit on a chair in a way she wouldn't usually -- backwards. And she settled in for this pose. 

Sure, it's nice to have the formal studio shots -- all cleaned up. But I think it's also nice to do natural shots in the studio. Studio does not mean overly formal if you don't want it to be. Perhaps the trick is to bring out a person's "natural self" at the moment that the lights flash.

This gal knows me and pretty much does what she wants in the studio. And if she wants to smile, she smiles. Dance if she wants to dance. And relax if she wants to relax.