"G" is for "GLOW princess night." My latest photography job was to take portraits of little girls age three up to fifth grade for a service project at our church.
Our church has a teenage girls' discipleship group, called "GLOW," which stands for "Girls Lighting Our World." This is the third year that I have been their official photographer for their princess nights. The first year, the teens dressed up in prom-type dresses and were taken downtown to Kansas City's Plaza and rode in horse-drawn carriages and I took their pictures in front of one of our famous fountains. Then they had a sleepover. The second year, they rented a cabin at a lake and the girls dressed up and had their pictures taken near the lake and then they ate dinner at a "four-star" restaurant (the leaders had hung four stars up in the cabin and prepared dinner themselves). Then they had their sleepover at the cabin. The first year, my oldest daughter was my photography assistant. The second year, she was a participant, and I began to do more helping out in the group and stayed overnight as a chaperone. I have been even more involved with the group this year, which now includes my other daughter. I sit in and help where I can in probably 75% of their meetings. Sometimes I write encouraging notes to the girls, sometimes I lead a sister group if one of the leaders is out, and I pray for these girls that have grown to be very precious to me.
I had thought for a few years that I wanted to help with teens because I had some wonderful women that were very influential and inspirational to me at that stage of my life. If I could be there for one girl, even just give a girl a hug when she needed one, I would feel like I had given back and helped.
This year, the leaders decided to do something different with their princess night. Instead of having the teens dress up and get their pictures taken, they were going to make this a service project (they do a different service project every year). They decided to put on a princess night for the little girls. Make the little girls feel special and give them some older girls to look up to. And show the teens that it's not all about them. They had stations to do their nails and hair and face painting and coloring and crafts. They showed princess movie clips and had princess music playing. The girls came dressed in princess-y attire and the room was decorated with pink and sparkles and balloons. The teens and the leaders brought princess-themed snacks--lots of pink stuff! Even though I am not a studio photographer, we put together a pretty scene for a backdrop and I took the little ones' pictures. There were fairy wings and magic wands and tiaras for props. Each will receive a print, courtesy of the church and the GLOW girls. It was an extremely fun evening and the girls were so cute. You can enjoy the rest of the pictures here.
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| ~ Robin ~ |
Lovely!
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