When Rachel reached out to me about photographing her family and shooting her maternity session I was so excited. I met Rachel years ago through instagram and asked for her and her kids to model for me. Still to this day it is one of my favorite motherhood sessions I’ve ever shot.
Winter in Oregon can be somewhat tricky. There are weeks we get nothing but rain and I have to reschedule so many photoshoots but on this day we got so lucky with the sunshine. I know you can’t tell from the photos but it was freezing during this session and the kiddos were both so cold. I knew going into this that it would be cold and I would have to shoot pretty quickly but not rush.
I went up to the location the day before to scope out the spots I wanted to shoot in. I also wanted to get a feel for the lighting at the time we were shooting and how cold it was going to be up there.
On the day of the shoot I was prepared for the cold, I knew exactly what I wanted to shoot and where so when Rachel and her family showed up I was ready to make it happen in a timely manner before the kids couldn’t handle the cold anymore.
Sending out a questionnaire to get to know more about each kids is extremely important. I like to be able to talk to kids about how old they are, and that I know their favorite flavor of ice cream or how much I love watching Bluey too. That is a way to distract them from the cold and for them to start to feeling comfortable with me. Establishing a connection with the kids right from the beginning makes our session go smooth and always turns out amazing.
I highly suggest families bring blankets and keep their kids jackets on until it’s time to take them off. When I was photographing Rachel with one child the other kiddo would be with dad all bundled up until it was their turn.
I love to play calming music during these sessions to set a vibe and its always a sweet moment when the parents are dancing with the the kids. I encouraged Josh and Rachel to snuggle with the kids a lot. Lots of hugs and playfulness to keep the kids interested. I was able to get all that I needed for this in less than an hour to head to our next location. Before heading to the next location I made sure to let Josh and Rachel know that we don’t need to rush and let’s just take our time and let the kids warm up in the car for a few. Even though I shot pretty fast during this session I still took my time with each pose and moment that I was capturing.
