LAKE PARK — Becky Platt stands in the front yard of her home in Lake Park, taking photos of her niece, Sammie Grace Pettigrew. Sammie Grace’s mother, Heather, stands behind Platt, making funny faces so that her daughter will smile for the camera.

Instead, Sammie Grace walks away and over to two neighborhood dogs who are playing in the grass.

“Taking pictures of kids is the hardest,” Platt said. “You just have to go with the flow with them.”

Taking photos of kids isn’t a strange concept for Platt.

As the owner of a small photography business, Platt Photography, which she runs out of her home, she has been taking photographs of children, weddings, sporting events, you-name-it, for years.

I was introduced to Platt by my mother who thought she had an interesting story and by my cousin, Platt’s sister-in-law Heather.

Platt grew up in Lowndes County and graduated from Lowndes High School in 1988. She began dating her future husband, Jody Platt, when she was a sophomore and he was a junior. After high school, she went to Georgia College in Milledgeville on a gymnastics scholarship.

It was during that time that Platt was introduced to photography. Jody began modeling and Platt would always attend the photo shoots with him.

“I’ve always liked taking pictures,” Platt said. “I got my first camera when I was maybe 10 years old. It was a little point-and-shoot, so I would always go around taking pictures. I never thought of it as a career until Jody was modeling and I went to photo shoots with him.”

Platt ended up finding a school, Southeastern Center for the Arts, in Atlanta where she could study photography.

“It was a year program. It was very intense, everyday, and kind of geared toward the fashion part of photography, especially with [Jody] being a model and all.”

During that time, Platt worked at an advertising agency but decided to move back home and get married.

Becky and Jody married in 1992 and she began working with Deland Guthrie and Scott Nichols. She worked, helping them out at the studio or going

to weddings.

“I started doing more portraits and weddings,” Platt said. “Fashion photography isn’t big around here. You have to go to Atlanta or Orlando, Miami, places like that.”