This amazing senior dancer contacted me during the last days of sunflower season. Luckily, she was spontaneous enough to meet me that same evening for a mini-session, bringing a variety of quick-change dance costumes and a wide repetoire of jumps.

We were sharing the popular sunflower field with many shutterbugs, armed with cellphones to DSLRs. Almost everyone else wanted the taller sunflowers in the middle of the field, though. I wanted the shorter sunflowers at the edge of the field where I could set up lights and my senior dancer had room to do her leaps.

Senior dancer sunflowers

She’s been dancing since grade school, and the years and hours of practice were evident. I just sat back and watched her pull jump after jump out of her bag of skills.

Senior dancer sunflowersSenior dancer sunflowersSenior dancer sunflowers

Did I mention that in addition to being beautiful and talented, she is also amazingly resilient? The heat index was over 90 degrees even at 8 p.m., and she jumped for a solid hour without complaint. And she left her water in the car.

We’re going to do a more planned session soon. Can you imagine what she can do with a little preparation? I can’t wait to see.