For the last two years I’ve taken a portrait of my daughter Willa around the time of her birthday. Usually I take her to the gardens at UVA, but this year I wanted to do something a little different. My wife and I wanted to truly capture the essence of Willa. What do we want to remember about her as an almost 3 year old and what makes her tick. The answer was easy. She loves books and she always has. She could sit all day and be read to or sit quietly by herself and look through books (or stories as she calls them). Everyone who knows Willa knows she is book obsessed.

So we decided to set her in a chair with some books in Mrs. Heyward’s beautiful garden at Foxhaven Farm.  We borrowed the chair from a friend, but the dress was my wife’s from the 70’s, as was the book, Petunia, one of Willa’s favorites.

Of course, Willa had other plans for getting her portrait taken and wanted very much to be Tinkerbell. After many treats and promises of a wardrobe change, Willa pranced around the garden like a real fairy, checking out the last of the peony blooms and finding little garden nooks that fascinate children.