PHC: "Come here, Coach."

Kat Sloma hosts a photography exercise she calls "photo-heart connection," in which she asks participants to go through their photographs from the current month and select the one which has the greatest connection to their heart. I've noticed that many of the photos are selected by participants because of the emotion they evoke in the photographer or viewer, while I tend to choose photographs because of the emotion contained in the image. Not always, but many times. And this month's selection falls squarely in that category.
I took this photograph at my son's soccer award ceremony.  If you look closely, you can see that his coach is on the verge of tears. He had just given my son his participation certificate and talked about how much he will miss having Henry around after coaching him for so many years. Coach is a gruff man, a man of few words, and perhaps a bit embarrassed by his show of emotion. He was about to turn away, but Henry said, "Come here, Coach." Henry put his arm around him and told him he wanted a photograph with him. In that moment, I was so proud of my son. Proud, not of his soccer skills, but for the maturity and poise he showed in getting Coach out of a potentially awkward situation and of validating Coach's emotions. In that moment, I caught my breath because I saw Henry grow up a little bit, acting like a young man instead of a high school kid. I saw a glimpse of the man I hope he becomes. 
And I relive that moment and feel that emotion every time I look at this photograph. 
And that's what the photo-heart connection is all about for me.
There were a few other contenders for PHC honors this month. First, another one of Coach - this time staring at the Senior Award he is about to give Henry:

One of Henry, showing his fiery competitive spirit in his spring sport (baseball):

And a few which evoke a strong emotion in me, rather than display emotion:

As with all photographs on my blog, you can click on the image to enlarge it and get a better view of it. And, as always, I love to hear your feedback on my selections.

To check out other photographers sharing their photo-heart connection, go to this post. You can see my other photo-heart connection posts by clicking on the label below.