Why the Worst Timing Sometimes Makes the Best Pictures

Years ago, when my oldest son Dean was about five, we took him to one of those haircut places for kids. Somehow, there was a little miscommunication about what kind of haircut he was getting.

My wife and I were sitting in the waiting area with his younger brother when we looked over and saw the stylist running the clippers straight down the middle of his head.

My wife jumped up and ran over, but it was too late. He was sporting a pretty impressive reverse mohawk.

At that point, there aren't a lot of options. You can't exactly glue the hair back on. So they buzzed the rest of it off, while my wife tried very hard not to cry - mostly because we were also trying to convince our five-year-old that everything was fine and his new haircut looked GREAT!

Not long afterward, I photographed him. I don't remember having some grand artistic vision - I think I just wanted to document the haircut so we'd have it to laugh about someday.

Instead, I created one of my favorite portraits of him.

Sometimes the Problem Isn't Really a Problem

Looking at that portrait now, I think I understand why I like it so much. Without his hair competing for attention, everything goes straight to his eyes, and for me, the eyes have always been where the power of a portrait lives. He's simply looking back at the camera with this calm expression.

The haircut that seemed like such a disaster actually helped create the portrait. Go figure.

When Life Gives You a Black Eye...

A few years later, his younger brother Beau gave me another opportunity to test the theory.

He was about four and playing baseball in the backyard with some friends when another boy accidentally hit him in the face with a bat. It split his eyebrow open badly enough that we had to take him in for stitches. By the next morning, his eye was spectacularly swollen.

Most people would probably look at that and think, well, this isn't a great time for pictures.

I went in a slightly different direction. I found some shiny boxing shorts and a pair of oversized boxing gloves, put Beau in the studio, and created a dramatically lit black-and-white portrait of him posed like a little fighter.

Was it destined to become a treasured family heirloom? Probably not. But it became a great conversation piece - and a pretty funny way to turn a bad memory into a good one.

Maybe There Really Are Bad Times for Pictures

I'm not suggesting that every unfortunate haircut, missing tooth, scraped knee, or black eye needs to be commemorated with a portrait. Maybe sometimes it really is a bad time for pictures. But not always.

Everyone has a different idea of what a portrait should be. For me, I've always believed the more pieces of the story we have, the better. Life doesn't wait until everyone looks exactly the way we'd planned. And sometimes the things we'd most like to fix, hide, or wait out are exactly the things that make a photograph memorable.

Sometimes perfect images come from moments that aren't quite perfect.

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See more of my portrait work HERE.