I love photographing women, especially women who are starting out in finding their feet and their confidence. Lydia is a budding young model and wanted some photos for her portfolio. I happened to be building my own portfolio at the time and it’s been a pleasure working with her on a few small shoots.

Confidence in young women is rare and it is quite often missunderstood as arrogance. We can be confident in our skills and ourselves, yet still be humble. This pose by Lydia makes me think of confidence, standing in a forest with a couple of her friends near by chattering and I asked her to look towards the sun and think of a specific thought that was calm and happy.

So here we have it, a young womans confidence in her self, in that moment.