Sierra Sharry’s family photo with a twist is strangely comforting

A YOUNG man who died before his son was born has been reunited with his family, thanks to a creative photographer. 

Mesmerising ... a family broken apart by a tragic accident is reunited in this moving image. 

Kayli Rene writes on her Facebook page that a client, Sierra Sharry, had booked for photos with her six-month-old son Taos ... including an unusual request. “They asked me if I would be willing to ‘play
around’ with capturing their first family photo, by editing Taos’ daddy in one of their pictures,” she writes.

Facing the future ... photos of six-month-old Taos came with an unusual request. 

 

The outcome is mesmerising. Ms Sharry holds Taos in her arms, in a softly lit outdoor scene, as a ghostly image of her deceased partner, Lane Smith, seemingly looks lovingly over her shoulder.
The image has since gone viral, touching people emotionally around the world.

Plans for the future ... Sierra Sharry and Lane Smith.

 

In early July 2014, when Ms Sharry was around eight months pregnant, Smith died in an accident. “[It] was the absolute worst day of my life,” Ms Sharry writes, in an account also posted to Ms Rene’s Facebook account to accompany the unusual portrait.

 “I lost my best friend. The father of my unborn child. And since that day I have felt so empty inside. A part of me will forever be missing. I loved that man more than life itself.”

“I have a beautiful child to remind me of what I had,” Ms Sharry told KPTV.
Nevertheless, she felt something was missing. “I just got to thinking, ‘We don’t have a picture with Lane in it,’” she said.

Memories ... Sierra Sharry says she has a beautiful child to remind her of deceased partner Lane Smith. 

 

Ms Rene was able to use an old image of Smith to create the haunting image of what might have been. “Lane’s not physically here with us of course, but that picture represents to us that he’s always watching over us and he will always be there for us, no matter what,” Ms Sharry said.