I had the pleasure of capturing photos for Sonya and Dalton around Vanderhoof again this year. A gift for her birthday, the plan was to do a Mommy & Me focused session with Sonya and her daughter, and include Dalton in a few as well. Ahh the best laid plans....
Family photos bring up a lot of different emotions for people. Some love them, some hate them, and some are pretty neutral or just want to get them over with. No matter what kind of person you are when it comes to photos, I can pretty much guarantee you have had something go wrong during a session. You forgot a detail item, your kid didn't want to be there, the dog wouldn't sit still, or some variation of this.
Sonya and Dalton's photo session was no different. On the day of, Dalton had to work, so we did the Mommy & Me session. No big deal, that was the main focus anyway. We met up at Berman Lake for the photos. It's a beautiful lake with easy to access forests and water, making it a prime location, even if it is a bit of a drive. It had snowed that week and in Vanderhoof there was almost no snow left, but at Berman Lake, there were still a couple inches. It made for a beautiful backdrop.
Sonya and Dalton were one of the first couples I ever photographed, probably in the first ten! They had responded to a model call I held when I first started out and I really enjoyed my session with them. They were so into each other. Not in a "Ugh, get a room" kind of way, but in that subtle, fun, obvious to everyone around them type of into each other. Last Christmas I squeezed them in for family photos before I took off to Mexico, which was the first time I met Jocelyn. She is such a sweetheart. She's quiet but radiates with energy and enthusiasm and loves to smile for the camera. They made my job easy with their love for each other.
This time was no different. Sonya and Jocelyn were both excited about the session and they showed up looking ADORABLE. About 10 minutes into the session, Jocelyn got cold. She was wearing super cute, but non-functional dress shoes. You know the black kind that have one strap across the top of the feet and look like they are for dance class? Those ones! The couple of inches of snow was too much for her little feet in her cute shoes, so she got carried from spot to spot. It worked for a while...probably about 10 more minutes. We ended up calling it early because she was so cold, and us wrapping her up and putting her in the car between photo spurts didn't make her any warmer. We decided we would do another mini-session day to make up the rest of the time on a day when Dalton could join us.
Fast forward two weeks! We meet up at Beaumont Provincial Park for the second half of their session. Round 2! Nothing can go wrong, right?
WRONG...
At the turn off for the park there are RCMP members doing typical road checks for drivers licenses, insurance, and probably drinking and driving as well. It's winter in northern BC though, and they don't have winter tires on the SUV, so they had to turn around, switch vehicles, and come back. For perspective, the road block was about 400 meters from the entrance to the park. So I wait. We have lots of daylight left (I hope) and it'll be fine! That's what I tell myself as I wait.
They arrive! We walk in (the gates are closed during the winter), and Jocelyn realizes part way there she doesn't have her headband. She didn't need it for the shoot so we assured her it would be at the truck when we got back (spoiler: it was!) and we carried on. It was a beautiful afternoon, and we ended up with plenty of light for the session. The field had a small layer of snow that had become patchy, which gave us the opportunity for snowy photos and some of the fall aesthetic of dead grass.
