As a photographer, when you show up to a family session and meet people for the first time, you aren’t always sure what to expect. Don’t get me wrong, I always expect to love the people and have a wonderful time because obviously we have gotten to know each other somewhat through phone calls and emails ahead of time, but you have not always had the chance to meet them beforehand. I was in for SUCH a treat when I met these three for the first time at their DC apartment. As I arrived, Liz said something like, “so I found this amazing Vera Wang wedding gown at goodwill for $30 so I bought it – do you think we could use it for a few of the photos?” Umm yes, please! I absolutely love how adorable these three are together, their incredibly fun style, and just how happy sweet Cecilia is. We were able to make this session happen just before they were about to move back to South Dakota and I am so glad we were able to capture them in Cecilia’s first home and neighborhood. 
so fun and beautiful!!
If you follow me on Instagram, then I am sure you know by now that I love spending time on the lake. In the summer it is obviously a blast but even in the winter, we really enjoy spending a weekend on the water just relaxing. A couple months back we went down to hang for the weekend – we grilled, played corn hole, did some skeet shooting (the boys at least), and just relaxed. That Sunday I decided to take out my camera and shoot some film because far too often I forget to take pictures to just remember a random weekend.
When Kristen first contacted me about photographing her and Lee for their Christmas card, I must admit I was slightly terrified. The reason being that Kristen is an amazing film photographer herself and I admire her work so much (see that pretty photo of me to the right, she took that). Although nervous, I was also flattered and really excited about the opportunity to photograph these two. First of all, these two are beautiful together and such naturals in front of a camera but the best part was that Kristen encouraged me to try and basically just shoot film during their session. What a gift that was! Once I didn’t have to worry so much about making sure I got the same pictures on digital and film ‘just in case’ I was able to really focus and enjoy shooting film. I absolutely love how these images (all film) came out even with the cloudy skies (towards the end check out the really dark skies behind us that brought in a downpour right as we finished). Kristen and Lee, thank you for this opportunity and the encouragement! Y’all should check out Kristen’s beautiful work after looking through these images.
Happy weekend everyone! I don’t usually blog on weekends but I just couldn’t wait until Monday to share this session. Dana & Kyle are incredibly kind, gorgeous, and adorable together and I had such a great time meeting them and spending an afternoon together (though oddly enough, Kyle and I actually met once when we were much younger at a wedding). I absolutely love that these two had inspiration behind their engagement session and especially loved the awesome colorful backdrop Dana found. Although it was cloudy and rained a bit during the session, these two were so positive and didn’t let it bother them one bit. I absolutely cannot wait for their wedding next summer in Charlottesville!