Take the pictures. Take them now. Because time will slip right through your fingers.
A picture of an Alabama 4-year-old showing his unbearable brotherly love to his 18-month-old little brother went viral as he appeared to place the little sibling in a chokehold during a family photoshoot at McCallum Park in Vestavia Hills in September.
The impromptu headlock had parents and the photographer in stitches. Older brother Emmerson followed instructions to “hug” younger brother Wells, but things didn’t quite go as planned. Wells seemed taken aback when both Emmerson’s arms came from behind and wrapped around his neck.
With the crunch of leaves underfoot, the smell of autumn, and, of course, the warm fall colors, the photoshoot is a yearly tradition for the Delaneys.
Photographer Alex Uselton has experience with and loves photographing little ones, and she knows all too well how short their attention spans can be. Ms. Uselton goes in with “zero expectations as to how the session should flow,” she told The Epoch Times, and “encourages the little ones to be themselves” while showing “their amazing personalities.”
Let’s not force them to sit still and be quiet, she tells parents. Where’s the fun in that? Let’s prompt Emmerson as he runs and plays freely.
“Oh, my goodness!” Ms. Uselton told the 4-year-old. “I want to see how you give Wells big hugs! Can you show me?”
And, boy, did Emmerson oblige. “That just happened to be in the form of a headlock,” the photographer told us. “Emmerson really was giving sweet loves to his little brother, and you can tell how much he does truly love sweet Wells, so the fact that his hug inadvertently ended up as a headlock was all the more funny!”
Laughter from the adults was followed by Mom’s swooping in to make sure the “hug” wasn’t too tight, Ms. Uselton told The Epoch Times, calling the moment both “funny and endearing.”
She also assures parents that though these times with little ones can feel trying, they won’t last. “Take. The. Pictures,” she said. “Because this chapter will close sooner than you realize, and you will want to look back on that time, as wonderfully chaotic as it is when you’re right in the middle of it.”
