Sunset maternity session over the Ozarks
“I’ve learned the value of absorbing the moment. I remember the first time Ripley saw her shadow. My God, it was like shadows had just been invented. It was the most exquisite moment.”
This story is so cool. Several years ago now Melissa and I got the call to shoot a wedding down in Florida. The connection was special. Kaitlin and Dusty were good friends of a few of our closest friends. I could go down that rabbit hole but the easy way to put it is that even though we didn’t know Kaitlin + Dusty personally, we felt like family right off the bat. The wedding was actually one of the early destination weddings that kind of gave us some serious momentum (and one of the first times I had ever seen Melissa truly blow my mind with images). This wedding went down without a hitch and set the bar for their photography that I didn’t know I’d have to live up to at the time. Fast forward a year or two and Kaitlin called me for another couple’s session. This one was again pivotal for me. Shooting them soaking wet under a waterfall I took a few of the first dark, moody, emotionally based images that would quickly start to redefine me stylistically. In fact after this shoot the number of requests I had for rain, snow, wind, and waterfall shoots tripled and our clientele suddenly curved into a much more adventurous group of people. Not complaining about that - believe me. It’s been years since that shoot and though we all still follow each other on instagram and love to give each other the occasional emoji high five we haven’t talked a ton since that day. It turns out however, that while our company has grown, our adventures have expanded, and our dreams have continued to evolve - so have theirs. They’re officially expecting a little baby to join their party of 2 and for some amazing reason not long after they found out, before they even told most of their friends and family, I got the call. If you’ve been following along with me lately on social you know Melissa and I just got back into town from Cananda yesterday and initially we discussed meeting them in Banff for this session, however timing didn’t quite line up and to be honest the amount of hiking we did probably wouldn’t have been great for Kaitlin or that amazing little baby inside of her. So with plans changing they mentioned this spot they had seen me shoot before and the request was simple, “How awesome can we make that place?” I think the answer was definitive - but the awesome all came from them instead of me. Just like the sunset in florida where I first fell in love with dramatic clouds, just like the waterfall leaving drops of water dripping down their cheeks as they hovered a half of a breath from a kiss we found the bar and raised it a bit with this shoot. Beautiful light, beautiful chemistry, and two amazingly kind friends who went on their third adventure with me (this one just two hours down the road and a short hike in). I can’t wait to meet this little baby and hope to be down in Florida shooting them as a family soon. I don’t do many portrait settings these days - I’m really a wedding guy, but when our couples have families it’s the biggest compliment that they ask me to work with them.
