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I think the question I am most often asked is in regards to the name of my business...When I was a young girl, kids always teased me about the color of my hair, which has always been some shade of red. Both of my parents were brunette. And there was really no sign of red hair anywhere in my family. Then....my brother was born...three years younger than me.....again, red hair. I still wasn't fond of my hair color, but at least now I had a crony. I remember many times adults telling me how beautiful my hair was....especially older gentlemen, for some reason, to which I'd smile and politely thank them, only to turn my back and roll my eyes. I was far from convinced.
As I grew into my adolescent years, the only thing I was certain about was that I looked much better with mascara than without.
Over the years, I have had a wave of different experiences directly related to the color of my hair. It has only been in the last few years that I have really grown to love it::::for several reasons:
For it's amazing properties as a conversation piece:
It is easily a topic, especially considering that fact that both my parents are brunettes.
For its descriptive properties: It has always made me easy to describe.
"You know.....that red-headed girl!"
No need to be tall or short....or fat or skinny...red-headed was usually enough....which leads me to my final reason:
For its uniqueness....
did you know that of ALL the minority categories a person can fall into...including everything from skin color to left-handedness....that redheads are the most 'minor' of all minorities..only somewhere between 1-2% of the world population is redheaded....most every famous redhead you can name, including, but not limited to, Lucille Ball, Julia Roberts and Debra Messing have dyed their hair red.

It is in fact this love of my once-dreaded hair color that gives me the occasional opportunity to tell a beautiful child in the grocery line how gorgeous their hair
is...many times a curly-locks in a flaming shade of scarlet....
It is so fun to watch their eyes widen as if to figure out whether I'm telling them the truth or not. It is then that I touch my own hair and announce that, It is, indeed, the best color of hair to have!....
It is through my own eyes, as an adult, that I can look back at my own childhood and realize how beautiful my hair color was.
It is that same keen eye for seeing the most beautiful parts of a person, sometimes the parts that that person never gets the chance to see honestly in the mirror. Because it's in a quirky smile....or a way they hold their mouth, maybe one eyebrow slightly more arched than the other when they grin, that all their friends and family know and love....
Many times it takes a person a few times of looking back through their pictures before they will agree with their family on which photos are the best, and that's because of exactly what I just said......what other people see in you that makes you unique and beautiful and who you are.....the things that are usually only reflected back for us to enjoy when looking at a photograph.
Some of my favorite experiences include phone calls from someone's grandma telling me how the recent photos I took of their grandson look EXACTLY like him. You might think that's odd, considering the fact that a photograph SHOULD look exactly like the subject, but, to me, the 'art' part of photography ends with phone calls like these. A photograph is always a likeness.....but when you're able to capture a little piece of someone's spirit and put it on paper for them, that's amazing!
And, that's why I chose the name "Strawberry Blonde Photography"