The Capture Sweet Moments Blog

It feels as if I have known the Palmer family my entire life. I went to elementary school with them, and Stephen is one of my brother’s closest friends. So I was very excited when Stephen contacted me last November to set up a family photo session as a Christmas gift for his mother.

I’ve done some location scouting in my area. It starts with an internet search, creating a list, driving around to attempt to check out parks during golden hour, even doing some self portraits at these locations to test them out. I’m always looking for places with beautiful backgrounds, not too crowded and yet not too difficult to access. And yet, the truth is that my favorite location is the one that my client suggests.

It feels as if I’ve known Brad and Jess forever. I have at least know them since Bradford, who we used to refer to as Little Brad, was around my Noah’s age. He recently had a birthday and is now in the double digits . . . not so little anymore. My parents and Brad’s parents met as “neighbors” at the beach, as in they had condos in the same building and spent several summer weekends soaking up the sun and good company in the sand in Ocean City, Maryland. And whenever I go to the beach, even though my condo is 17 streets away, I always end up on the beach by their condo because their street just has this amazing sense of community. And that is where I got to know Jess, Brad, Bradford and Josie.

I had just had a baby via c-section and I had picked up photography 9 months before. I had been blessed by having my first son’s newborn photographer as my mentor, had shadowed her on sessions, and had done a few newborn sessions myself over the past several months.  Surely, I could do newborn photos for our newest addition myself. Now, almost a year and a half later, I’m going to tell you why I regret that decision . . .