I met this beautiful family while working with Jen and Blake for their wedding. It was such a joy to reconnect with them for this extended family session, split between the golf course and the rocky beach in Goderich. I have such fond memories of Jen’s father’s kindness and humour, and I know he is deeply missed and fondly remembered by many. I am finally catching up on some blogging and wanted to share some favourites from this session that is close to my heart.
Extended Family sessions tend to come with a list of important groupings and must-haves - after all, how often does everyone get together in coordinated outfits with the sole purpose of documenting family memories? We make it count and get every combination that is meaningful, including individual photos of the kiddos and mini family sessions for each individual unit in addition to the large family groupings. The challenge can sometimes be to find those playful, affectionate, candid moments throughout the session as we go down the list of must-have photos (it’s a bit more structured and regimented than an individual family session where we go with the flow more), but this family came to have fun. I absolutely LOVE the playful, hilarious photos we captured as they not only ran in the water together, but pushed each other in. It was a survival of the fittest situation, and it was so.much.fun. Let’s be honest, family sessions can be stressful (outfits, hair, getting there on time, kids arguing, weather uncertainty, all that pressure to get the photos you’ve been planning (and sometimes saving) for), but this session shows how amazing it can be when you let fun memories, too. Scroll to the end for the FUN! :)
I am so excited to share this beautiful sunset family session today. This shoot took place on a beautifully sunny, incredibly windy late Summer evening. There were actual wind warnings for the area, and the waves were unbelievably high. Nonetheless, after chatting about our options, we decided to go for it. And I am so glad we did. We mostly stayed away from the water’s edge to avoid the worst of the wind, and the beach was completely empty due to the weather conditions. The delicious golden hour light was to.die.for., and this gorgeous family put together the most beautiful outfits for their beach session. So many playful, snuggly candid moments. The whole shoot was a dream. Here are some favourites!
(P.S.: Johanna is a talented photographer herself - check her work out here!)
This was such a fun morning family session at Little Beach in Port Stanley. I don’t usually shoot at this beach because I tend to book evening sessions in Port Stanley, but Little Beach was perfect for that beautiful morning light. The beach tends to always bring out that candid playfulness I love to photograph, and this session was no exception. I hadn’t seen this sweet family since baby brother’s newborn lifestyle session, and it was so lovely to see them again. Here are some favourites from their fun beach session!
So many of my favourite things collided for this fun family beach session. An empty beach? At golden hour? With a friend and her gorgeous family? And so many fun, candid moments to document? YES PLEASE. Saleme is such a beautiful person inside and out. She has assisted me with weddings here and there and is an amazing photographer herself (her brand/product styling photography is perfection). I really loved photographer her family and am sharing some favourites on the blog today!
Booking opened up to my advance notice list for this year’s beach minis, which means it’s the perfect time to reminisce about last year! We had SO MUCH RAIN last year. I don’t think I’ve ever had to reschedule beach minis so many times. I studied the weather radar like a hawk and despite that, got caught in the rain multiple times. But despite all of the weather frustrations, these were some of my favourite beach sessions to date. Here are some highlights!
I wish you could have seen me putting this blog post together. First of all, it took a very long time. But most importantly, I smiled from ear to ear the entire time. So many beautiful families. So many favourites. So many. Some obvious ones that I previewed on social media and were stand-out favourites from the very beginning, and some that I had completely forgotten about, that for some reason didn’t really grab me during the editing process but made my heart sing during this yearly review.
As always, I feel the need to point out that my initial selection was so large it was ridiculous. In fact, one might argue that this selection is ridiculously lengthy. But I can only narrow them down so much, ya know? At the end of the day, whether a session appears in this compilation or not, I am so eternally grateful to each family that trusted me with capturing their memories - some for the first time in 2018, and some for the 8th time. It sounds so cliche, and we photographers like to throw around phrases like “I want to tell your story” and “capture your milestones” and “document your real life”… but it’s the truth. It’s why I do what I do.
Looking through all of these images made me so excited about the upcoming shooting season. For now though, I’m still reminiscing about the incredible year that was 2018. Here are some favourites!
This year's beach minis are about to start booking, and as always it's about this time that I love to reminisce about the previous year's sessions. I'm so excited to share last years beach minis on the blog this evening!
If you'd like to get on the advance notice list for the next round of minis (and all subsequent rounds), you can email me at sophie@rawfootagephotos.com, subject line "Advance Notice Minis".
