Time flies! Time slipping past is much more evident when you see kids around you grow up year after year. The little ones that I took pictures of as babies or toddlers are a testement to that. The same babies who had a vocabulary of ten words are now having full blown conversations with me about so many interesting topics, while standing their ground with dictinct defined personalities of their own. The only befitting way to measure the passage of time as a photographer was to take pictures of these cuties again holding the photographs of their baby self that was shot by Varied Reflections. Celebrating them as well as my decade in photography by creating another milestone shot.
My own personal project, a tribute to passage of time – “Time Jump with Varied Reflections”.
Viha‘s photoshoot was one of my first assignments after leaving my previous job. Her growing up into this charming young girl is reminiscent of how far I have come. Though I had been shooting from before , That morning spent with Viha was one of my most enthusiastic baby photoshoots with all her extending family of maybe 10 of them, completely immersed in it. She was a calm baby, with a sweet smile and hardly complained through the morning. She is still the same. This kind young girl, who is helpful to everyone around her, independent, takes care of herself, her school work and her fun games, all by herself. She is an excellent observer of her surrounding and has some surprisingly intelligent things to add to adult conversations already. I have fun not only talking to her about the animation movies she liked but also losing to her in chess!
We celebrated Kabir‘s first birthday with a cake smash outdoors and he was most excited about it. I still enjoy looking at the expressions he gave my camera as he was tasted sugar for the first time ever. Now Kabir takes part in national level skateboarding and he is so passionate about it. He can sit me down to tell me about which cafe or restaurant he thinks is good to how he will soon want to take pictures from his own optical lens camera. His well formed opinions suprise & amuse me all at once!
It was just a week since Atharv had learned to walk when we did his photoshoot but I had a tough time keeping up with this munchkins speed. All he wanted to do was use his new found skill all the time! Flash forward to when I met him recently, he is still leaving everyone his age miles behind, he know every trivia he has access to and every anime he can get his hands on. All this while he keeps his naivety & curiosity well balanced. It was good fun to talk about all our favourite anime characters and before I meet him again, I need to update my anime database!
From Sia of a few days old in the picture she holds, to Sia now, she is always dancing to her own rhythm. She is brimming with things to say, her own ideas, always up and about & full of energy. She is still so young but has started to show her personality vividly. Makes me wonder where I will find her in a few years.
Among all the 15 month olds that I have met, Anvitha was the most talkative & charmer with her baby talk. She had so many stories to tell the minute she met me on the day of her photoshoot, while brushing her cute curls from her face. Cut to now, she is still the same after all these years, but armed with many more diverse topics to talk about and all you want to do is just listen to her in wonder because of how much enthusiasm she brings in. She has read her whole library and even published a short story! When we did the Time Jump shots, she wanted a picture with her current favourite book, Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers. I can’t help but he excited about all the wonderful books and stories she will come across in the decades ahead.
