Back in February Hannah and I did the first session I did this year for the 2013 Down Syndrome Association of Central Texas calendar. DSACT produces a calendar every year to help with raising funds for their efforts to help individuals with Down Syndrome. For each month, there is a photograph of one of their “models” with Down and a local celebrity who will volunteer their time to pose for the calendar. That calendar is unveiled at the annual Share the Passion Gala, which I have photographed in past years.

This first session had one of my favorite actors, Kyle Chandler, who has been in the TV series Early Edition and Friday Night Lights. The chosen model was Jane, a vivacious little girl who already rides horses as a part of her life. We met at the Red Arena hippotherapy property and walked around looking for a great backdrop. My first choice was down by the water for some great Texas thicket. We let Jane ride down and back from the arena on the horse, which she loved.

As soon as everyone got in position, Kyle and Jane hit it off right away and started interacting almost faster than I could react. In such a situation, I find it’s almost beside the point to “pose” people; we just let the scene unfold while they played around. Jane took an immediate liking to Kyle’s hat, which you can see in her hand in this photograph. Kyle grabbed Jane’s cowboy hat and plopped it onto the very-compliant horse’s head. At the moment of this photograph, I was just loving the fun and interactions between the two of them. I think we created a great portrait of life for the calendar. This image ended up as the main image for the month of December:

Here is one of the images from the walk back up the path to the arena after we had the main photograph: