Rachel Sarah Thurston portrait, events, travel and wedding photography and travel/lifestyle writing

High School Graduation and Mother's Day
Photo Shoot with Ian Miller and his beloved Mama, Brenda Miller

"The best conversations with mothers always take place in silence, when only the heart speaks."
~Carrie Latet

I recently had the honor of photographing a friend's son for his graduation photos, Ventura-based Brenda Miller. Brenda and I envisioned images of Ian which would be classy, timeless, and hip but not traditional, cliche, or cheezy (i.e. those prepackaged backgrounds with the fake swirls in photography studios).

Although I've spent time with Brenda over this past winter and spring, I didn't get the chance to meet Ian until the day of the shoot. He turned out to be a warm, kind, and genuinely mellow lad who slowly opened up about his love of Borat, Zoolander, and Hip Hop. He was shy at first but after the first hour I could see that he began relaxing and trusting me...it was a joy to see multiple sides of him surfacing...from the initial uncomfortable smile to the caught-off-guard laughter to a very relaxed and confident-looking James Dean sultry brood.





It warmed my heart to see Brenda and Ian's interactions throughout the shoot. While I'm close with my own mother, the bond between a mother and son is uniquely different and shooting them both on their own and together really made me excited to do more creative work with mothers and daughters, mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, and fathers and sons. My mother and I were photographed years ago and I still remember it as a magical and euphoric experience during which we celebrated ourselves and our friendship. I would love to do one together with her every five years or so to mark the arch of our lives and our relationship.







After the James Dean/Poetry Man brooding looks (he wasn't posing, it came out completely naturally!) we took a few more before the sun finally fell behind the pepper trees. I hope to shoot them again sometime in the future and am manifesting more work with men and women and their beloved sons and daughers!



In a special ode to my own mother and to Brenda, here is one last parting quote I recently came across about the beauty of motherhood:

"The sweetest sounds to mortals given
Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven."
~William Goldsmith Brown


Here is the slideshow I created for them both. Once you start playing the slideshow, an "HQ" symbol will appear directly beneath the Youtube icon, make sure to click on it so you can watch the video and photos in High Definition. It will only appear once you've begun watching the video.