Of course my little pea brain was spinning with ideas of doing this, funny stuff like that, creative posing like this, etc. Then I received a couple of snap shots from their wedding day and chucked all that out the door. Not that they might not have been willing, or I couldn’t have pulled it off. But quite honestly in my opinion their look deserved nothing more than perfect timeless images. Nothing distracting us from her stunning features, and his subtle vintage flair.

Just like any busy 1 year old boy, he had a world to see and a ball to chase and his family nor I was going to stop him. So we didn’t. We just let him run around and be a boy!

While I was there, I was also commissioned to photograph her entire family (6 that is…or 8 if you include grandma and grandpa that jumped in a couple of shots). We decided on a field-esque location that we had found the day before, made a quick stop at the Gap for styling a coordinating wardrobe and ventured out for some nature trails.

I will be the first to tell you that family photography takes patience. Lots of it…especially with kids 8 and under. There is nothing wrong with them…they are just kids…with their own agenda and generally that is not stopping here, stopping there, shift this way, shift that way. During a session there is a slight need of psychology to figure out what mood each child is in, and how to best tamper with it to get what you are looking for. Meanwhile we need to keep assuring the parents that everything is just fine, even though it seems like complete chaos to them. This goes for photographers kids too! I have my own three that test every ounce of patience in me when I try to get a group shot of them.

But…I always promise that things are just fine. This session is a perfect example of that. The kids were everywhere. Why wouldn’t you be? Trees, trails, snails, rocks, ducks, etc…distractions galore! We had ideas in mind…but we constantly had to teeter between their world and ours to make it work. You would never know from looking at these images that the 2 year old cried a good bit of the time because she was sick, the boys where in 2 different directions at all times and we felt like it was a hundred degrees.

It is the Calm in the Chaos. It is always there…there are always those moments in between, we just have to be patient and ready for them!

One of my favorite locations and sessions to date!

My absolute favorite family portrait to date…I need this tree back in Virginia.

At 5:20 am I stepped outside into the early morning darkness to be greeted by….lightning? Immediately I took out my phone and checked the weather, confused since literally the night before it said 0% of precipitation. Sure enough…there was a storm passing by…WHAT!? Where the heck did that come from? I check in with the B & G and they were willing to risk it since the storm was due to pass. So, I jumped in the car, grabbed a yummy cup of Chai Tea and head north on 95…smoothly…so I thought. Next thing I know I was at a crawl 95 north at only 5:45 am. Apparently of all the mornings, we not only get a magical storm pop up outta no where, but a water main breaks in NOVA (just where I was heading and then a gas leak. So roads were shut down, traffic became a mess and it took me 1.5 hours to get to the metro (normal 35 drive). So on the metro I went and I finally arrived in DC 2.5 hours later. Luckily my severe delay gave us enough time to wait out the storm to be graced with stunning morning light. We were a touch late for the great blossoms…but I think we still managed to get some stunning images.

The Cherry Blossoms in DC scare me…I was nervous of dealing with the crowds (you know me, an open secluded field kinda girl)…but now that I am working on these images…I have a feeling I could go back for sure. Jennifer & Chris I cannot wait for your wedding!