They told me this was their first time as a family of three to have professional photos taken. I cannot even begin to express how much it meant to me to be able to capture these memories for them. And I won't lie, Laguna also seemed to be thrilled, delivering one of its gorgeous skies. With this "first" came a very refreshing element for me, and that was their willingness to simply let things be. They didn't have a shot list in their head or a list of must haves. They really had no idea what a family photo session was supposed to look like and so they simply played and ran and got completely soaked, and it was everything beautiful.
When I first started in photography I would try to memorize all these Pinterest perfect poses before heading to a session. They never seemed to go the way I had envisioned. ;-) With time I have realized that it is the most simple of directions that produce my favorite images. And when we stop trying to get kids to smile and simply let them be, that's where my heart soars. <3
