I absolutely love it when clients come to me with an idea for a session that I have not done before. Annie asked me if I could do a portrait session of two best friends that are graduating from 5th grade. I was immediately very excited about this because friendships at their age are magical, so full of laughter and silliness. The bonds forged right around middle school are usually the friendships that are carried on for the rest of your life.

The girls got their hair done, had an outfit change planned and had all sorts of fun ideas for poses. I had been so looking forward to this session but unfortunately was not feeling very well the evening of. I’m still bummed about that but I tried my very best to exude the energy needed for a fun session like this and we got some really great shots. The show must go on, right!? We met at my favorite place to take pictures, a local reserve with hiking trails. ticks, cactus, mosquitos galore – I’m still pulling some quills out of my feet.

Two beautiful girls with bright futures ahead, I was honored to document the way their friendship looks right now!

behind the pictures | the session started at 6:00 pm. I had several poses picked out but the bubble series was chosen with a specific vision using the lighting at this time of day. I imagined gorgeous rim lighting, sparkles and laughter and am pretty pleased with what I got. sometimes a photo in my mind is in b+w before I even take it, and am so happy when I’m able to pull it off. the sky was clear and the sun very bright, normally I would pull out a diffuser but I spaced bringing that along, so of course that’s when perfectly exposed pictures are important despite the harsh sunlight so they can be softened a bit in post. session was taken with a Canon 5D III. I used a 35L lens for all of the session except the portraits of the girls by themselves, for those I switched to my 85 1.8.

These are some of my favorites from the session – enjoy!