The location for K&C's maternity session was sort of a happy accident. 

Originally we had planned on shooting at Taghum Beach Park that beautiful, sunny, summer evening. Unfortunately I grossly underestimated how many people would be soaking up the sun at 6pm on a Wednesday afternoon, and when I arrived (15 minutes early, as I always strive for) I was met with nearly the entire population of Nelson, BC on it's shores. 

Whoops! 

But what started out as a total flub on my part, ended up being a major win! In a desperate, very last minute, search for an alternate location I found a second spot just a mile down the road. This location was completely private, and even more beautiful than the first. What luck!

I have this gorgeous friend, who has a gorgeous little boy, who live in a gorgeous house that backs on to a gorgeous little creek. Since the Spring I couldn't get the vision of her son in some adorable little shorteralls, knee deep in the water on a sunny summer evening. I just knew that I had to make this vision a reality. 

The problem is that for much of the year, the creek's water is rather high and fast moving. Not at all safe for a 3 year old to be playing in. But by the time August rolled around, things were finally low enough that we could get out there and make some magic.

Funnily (and not at all surprisingly!) when I showed up, little X* made it known that he wasn't thrilled to wear the shorteralls that I had purchased for the session (which were basically the corner-stone of the entire thing!) But Mama Lauren convinced him to give us 15 minutes of his time. Thank God for Skittles!

We made those 15 minutes count and got some fantastic shots.

One of my greatest joys as a photographer is getting to lend my skills to my friends. It's such a pleasure to capture images like these and to show them just how beautiful they are to me. 

Whenever I am planning a session with clients, I like to ask if they have a location that has some special, sentimental meaning to them-- the place they got engaged, or where they went on their first date, or where they frequently spend their weekends, etc. 

Not only is it fun for me, as a photographer, to shoot in new-to-me places, but I find that clients are much more relaxed and at-ease in locations that they feel comfortable. The point of Family & Engagement photography is to tell the story of you as a family or a couple. The setting, there-for goes beyond just a pretty spot with a nice view. It's better when the setting is *part* of your story. 

When I asked Amber and Quinn if there was anywhere significant to them as a couple, I was thrilled when they mentioned their incredible boat on Arrow Lakes in the West Kootenays. Quinn and his Dad have been fixing up their boat together over the last couple of years, and it has become something that their family does together every weekend. I was so excited to include this enormous aspect of their life together in their session!