July 2024
Hello everyone! I wanted to share with you this lovely summer morning session that I did with my best friend's older sister in her backyard garden. This is actually the second year in a row that I've captured her gorgeous work, and I was super excited to add her little sister (and my bestie) into some shots as well. I am TOTALLY down for making this an annual thing!
For some background, Emily is a certified horticulturist and has an amazing green thumb, and her hard work is well reflected in her beautiful garden. As you'll see from this session, multiple types of plants, vegetables, and insects are found all around her yard. She loves nature and spending time outdoors.
We started early on a Sunday morning, around 8 AM to try to beat the unrelenting July heat and humidity. Luckily, we were met with overcast (which photographers LOVE because it's like a giant soft box) that eventually leaked little bits of sun rays towards the end of our session. We all had coffee together and then started shooting in the front yard.
Her garden is heavily centered on the side of her house with tons of colorful zinnias and sunflowers among other types of flowers. Emily loves nature and insects, so she was happy to get inside of the actually flower bed to pose with some of her blooms.
I loved the choice of her sage two piece outfit with all of the other shades of green outside, like she's truly blending in and growing from her own garden!
Another piece I wanted to highlight about this session was details, including Emily's gorgeous black and white tattoos. As you can see, they're very fitting for this session.
Then it was time to include her beloved pup Louie, a sweet little almost 13 year old Chihuahua Dachshund mix with a spunky personality. We kept his attention with lots of treats, including his favorite, grape tomatoes from Emily's own backyard. He was so happy to walk around the front yard with us.
After capturing the front yard, we moved to the backyard where her vegetable garden and more sunflowers were blooming. The fun thing about her yard is that there are so many mini gardens with different flora throughout it, including tomato and pepper plants, tiger lillies, Queen Anne's lace, and sunflowers.
At this time, Emily's little sister, Liza, was ready to hop in some shots with us. She also shares her love for greenery and flowers, and has an ever growing collection of house plants that thrive in her care.
First, I wanted to capture some sweet sister portraits in her cluster of zinnias. I really appreciated the color coordination in their outfits!
The flower in the hair was their idea which I thought was suuuuper cute.
They picked flowers together and collected them in a basket to make homemade bouquets, fresh from the garden.
Next it was time for group portraits with the pup! Lou wasn't too happy to be held sandwich style, but we didn't need very long for the perfect shot.
Emily really wanted to show off her sunflowers, but said that they had yet to reach peak bloom, so I might be coming back later this summer to capture that.
However, we still got some shots with the sunflowers, and even though they weren't at their peak, they still towered over both of them. Emily made sure to cut some for the bouquets too.
At the end of our session, Emily continued to collect flowers to make homemade bouquets on her deck for all three of us. I'm typing this almost two weeks later and mine is still going strong!
I feel so grateful to have been able to capture this wonderful portrait session with people I love. We were able to do so much within an hour, including headshots, pet portraits, some sister shots, and lots of little details in between. It turned out to be such a whimsical summer session and I loved the beautiful bouquet I got to take home as a souvenir. And we got it all done by 9 AM!
I cannot wait for next year's shoot!
Thanks for reading!♡
