Sometimes you get to be a part of something that’s really, really special. And that was this session.
Mom and Dad were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary, and their three lovely daughters planned an amazing, fantastic weekend getaway for the whole family down at a beach house in Galveston. That alone is a super huge feat of coordination (and also celebrating one of the daughter’s birthdays in there as well–yeah, they were busy!)! But to top things off, the girls got the idea to have a family portrait made–as a surprise. Special, right? I mean, really special. But what makes this really, really, really special is that Dad thought (as the family photog) that *he* was going to be the one taking the family portrait. Tripod, remote, everybody smile. I said smile! (Trust me–if you haven’t tried to take a family self-portrait this is
stressful. I have in no way mastered being able to be in the picture and not
look like I’m still taking the picture. Trust me, it’s stressful!) So the daughter who had contacted me (who I know through our awesome church,
Crosspoint) worked with me to make it *such* a surprise for Mom and Dad when it came time for the good ol’ family portrait. So the plan was for the family to show up, ready for Dad to take the pictures and then I would just pop out of the dunes. Okay, not really, but as they arrived at the designated spot, I was tooling around on the beach, snapping away at shells and interesting seaweed and trying to sneak up on sand crabs when the whole family comes down to the beach. Dad carrying camera bag, tripod, remote. Stressful! And I can see he’s checking out what I’m doing. .. what kind of camera I’m using (because, let’s face it, we
all do that with other photographers in the vicinity!) and then
SURPRISE! The daughters announce that he is off the hook for the family portrait! They’ve hired someone to come in and let him relax! It was a pretty cool moment!
And it was a pretty awesome session! This family is super awesome. I have to confess that I’m planning on kidnapping the parents and making them adopt me, they’re that cool. (No offense to my own Mom and Dad, of course! Love you!)
So here’s the family sneak peek. In my mind’s eye this is a total black and white session, but some nice warm tones are growing on me!
So enjoy! Feel the love! I could and want to sneak the whole session but I also want to get this to everyone ASAP!
What a great family! Thanks again, everyone!
Starting off with Mom and Dad. Celebrating a milestone. Big pink puffy heart love their connection!
And if you know me, you know I can’t resist a beach silhouette. With shadows. And a tiny bit of a sun star/flare. Gasp. Love.
So here was the boss of the show:

Little man just turned two years old and this day was the first day he was really “into” playing in the sand and getting pretty dirty! It was so fun to see how fascinated he was with playing in the dirt!
One of my “I’m trying not to look conspicuous” photos from prior to the session and the three lovely daughters who put the whole weekend together. Gorgeous family!

And can I just pause to say that I was SO impressed with how willing to get sandy everyone was! I mean, not just the two-year-old! The whole family was really up for an adventure! Thank you all!
Okay, this one would be a canvas on my wall. Seriously.
And the little guy cracks me up with how completely content he was with what he was doing. I think he was pretty oblivious of the rest of us at this point!
I usually ask ahead of time if families are “huggy” families, but I had not asked this group so I was worried up until about a microsecond after meeting everyone that they would be relaxed and easily enough convinced to get in close and act like they liked each other. Piece of cake!
After a little while we got in the water and kicked and splashed a little bit. Then I asked the group to jump. And then jump again with some “flair”. Very impressive jumping!
Again, love their connection. A parting shot.
Thanks again for a wonderful session! Can’t wait to have the rest up to you soon!