This family is so sweet, I’m so blessed to call them friends! Crystal wanted to create a session of pretty pictures to remember baby A’s first birthday, so she brought several great ideas to me that she wanted to capture. I *think* we got them all in, and I was very happy with the pictures we got. A lovely mix of details, posies, candids and out-takes (those are my favorite by the way…notice their hilarious dog peeing on the tree behind two adorable children, five pictures down). You’re welcome 😉

behind the photos | It was sunny, so very sunny in these pictures. Because of this, the edits are a little darker and more contrasty than my normal style, but the colors were so vibrant and I know that Crystal loves color so I worked with maintaining the color instead of toning it down like I often do. I hand-edited in Lightroom with minor tweaks of the whites, blacks, contrast, exposure and clarity, with a light sharpening at the end. I did do one head swap in Photoshop, and it didn’t even end up making my favorites cut. Since I am editing primarily in Lightroom right now, it’s always fun to keep honing my PS skills. This session is an excellent example that family photography does not fit in a box. Although I would love to be able to categorize each session by portrait, documentary, lifestyle, what have you – kids are unpredictable. I go into family sessions with zero expectations and that has absolutely changed the moments I am able to capture. I always have a loose game plan in place, but my favorite shots ALWAYS end up being those that just naturally happen. In this session I have two and they are both when G has just had it. Two pictures down, he was completely exasperated with the sun being in his eyes. His honesty and dramatic reaction was the best. 4th from the bottom, he was hot, sweaty and exhausted. Bless his heart, he held it together for an hour and he practically melted in mom’s arms. Dad was over it too at this point, but what I love the most is he knew it was important to Crystal and he made it work. FYI we need more dad’s like this out there 😉 These interactions are why I fell in love with photography. Shot with Canon 5D III + 35L.