A Clown, A Pirate, An Indian & A Cowboy. Family Photos? Or The Village People?

I wrote this blog post a few months ago and have yet to post it....

My sweet friend Bobbie was in town a few months back and shot our family photos.

We had been going back and forth for days about the feel of the photos. We talked about wanting to  take pictures of our family at home (maybe making waffles, playing in the back yard and wrestling on the bed... I had a vision for the vintage couch of ours and was hoping to get a shot similar to {this} one, but our place isn't quite put together yet and we've still got boxes here and there, so next time I think we will do something more like that, in our element at home.) Way back when I saw {these} photos, I loved them so much, it put this desire in my heart of wanting to capture families doing normal stuff- like going out to breakfast together, or hanging out at home together, having a feather fight and playing in snow! (I have asked a few clients if they wanted to do something like this and no one has caught my vision yet....I am determined to photograph a family at breakfast as soon as someone will agree.) A friend recently shot a session similar to what I'm talking about, which I loved. It's always the "real" moments during a session that I end up loving the most. Capturing families at home has truly been such a joy to photograph lately.

I couldn't be happier with out photos though. It was sort of stressful during the session only because my three year old just wasn't jazzed about another camera in his face (he's usually quite the ham but it takes him a good while before he starts being himself. He LOVES my camera. He loves setting up my tripod and snapping photos of his toys & his sister.) In the beginning, he was kind of whinny which stressed me out a little. I kept thinking, "I brought gummy bears and costumes and you actually wore the suspenders and the cute Tom's shoes I found at that yard sale for 2$, Dustin looked so cute in his bow tie and I was feeling really pretty in my dress.... can't we all just have fun here!?" But Alas, Bobbie came through and captured the images that I will so cherish of us right as we are, grumpy-faced Conrad and all.... I always love how her images feel like art. I'd much rather her capture real "moments," which she does so beautifully, than posing us. (Can you believe she's shot us a total of 9 times in the last 6 years?! Crazy huh?)

As we're sitting there taking photos with our silly costumes on, Dustin whispers to me, "Yep, we totally look like the Village People!" When our kids are older, they may not let me get away with stuff like this, so I have to do this silly stuff now.

After our photos, we all had dinner at Casa Don Juan, our favorite Mexican food place in town. It was SO refreshing to hang out with this lady and spend time with her. I don't think anyone inspires me creatively more than she does.

Anyway, Sorry for rambling on forever. I'll get to the pictures now.

AND before you go, you MUST check out these BEAUTIFUL engagement photos 

Bobbie shot recently. You will die, they are SO sweet.