I never thought that I would look back one day and say “I vaguely remember being 16.” I thought that I would remember my teenage years; every detail; every friend; every triumph and every fail.

The truth is that I remember very little. But what I do remember is formidable and lasting.

I remember having friends and meeting them at the mall for an afternoon of shopping. That was my first taste of independence. I didn’t drive. But I do remember riding in cars with boy for the first time (without my parent’s knowledge of course). I also remember the feeling of turning sixteen and remembering the famed movie “Sixteen Candles” and thinking that this would be my future.

It’s funny to think about these things now as I re-edit photos from this shoot I shot back in 2021. I watched this young woman go from being a typically teenager to being a “young woman” all in the span of a rainy evening.

As I spend the next few weeks catching up on my blog, I look forward to sharing more of these introspective moments with you, my audience. It is important to feel what I felt when I shot these photos to embody the why and the how. The experience is just as important as the final product.