Jake and Dannie 
I was tired from working. Dannie was tired from working. Lisa was sleeping in the backseat. We’d spent the entire previous day doing photo shoots. We’d spent the day before that driving in the car, stopping only to feed Lisa and stretch our legs on our way to Delray Beach where we were staying for a commercial photo shoot. But that’s work, it’s what we do and we can’t complain. Yesterday, We’d finish our day long of commercial work and all got to bed late. But this morning we got up early for an even more important job.
While we were in town, Dannie and I wanted a photo of Lisa watching the sun rise over the ocean for the first time in her life. We got there just before the color started to change from blue to yellow, and eventually to gold. Dannie and I kicked off our shoes and I pulled off Lisa’s socks and stuffed them in my pockets. I held my camera and watched Dannie walk away from me along the edge of the water, our daughter peeking over her shoulder with sleep still in her eyes. I followed her from a distance, taking in the moment before I started snapping photos.
I know she won’t remember it, but I will, and Dannie will. Later in her life, Lisa will probably have seen hundreds of sunrises that are more or less the same.  Some of them will probably even be more dramatic, more beautiful and more memorable. Someday she’ll probably fall in love and watch the sunrise with the person she’ll spend the rest of her life with. That will probably be much more special to her than the one we woke her up for one Spring morning in Florida. But we’ll show her the photos anyway, and tell her it was her first and how special it was to us.
And someday she might have a daughter of her own, and when that little girl watches the sun coming up over the water for the first time, Lisa will want a photo too, because it will be the most beautiful sunrise she’s ever seen.
What’s your most special family photo shoot? What’s your favorite beach for sunrises?
