This started out as a really good picture. Catherine and two new friends posing in their newly built nest at the park. All three kids looked adorable and proud and a bit messy. It was a great moment.

At the end of the day, I zoomed in to take a look at Catherine and was pleasantly surprised at what I saw in the close up. A sweet, smiling Catherine showing off her random display of teeth, her My Little Pony love and the newest acquisition for her owl collection, while smiling and sitting in the dirt. In short, a true to life snapshot of Catherine at nine.

It is not that I don’t love her sneaky expressions or her faces or her attempts to escape the camera lens’ reach, but I am so glad to have this lovely portrait to remember her passions and temperament and style at this particular point in time.