Kim+Ginny’s Engagement Session in Raleigh

Man oh man, we were lucky to find these two (or three, if you count Levi the dog, which we certainly should count). Our lovely photographer friend Julia Wade is friends with these ladies but was booked for their wedding date. She lovingly referred them to us and we are eternally grateful because they’re amazing and beautiful people inside and out… plus we obviously got to meet Levi. ;)

So third time’s a charm, right? Sometimes you come down to Raleigh from Virginia for your engagement session and it rains all weekend. Then sometimes you try to move your engagement session to Virginia but it happens to be negative seven degrees the day you try to take them. Then finally you come back down to Raleigh… again… and there’s actual sun and a not-quite-freezing day. :)

Kim (longer darker curlier hair) and Ginny (straight hair) thus finally had their engagement session with us after much patience and much weather-watching! They gratefully came in from Virginia and hung out with us for a while and we had a splendid time! They brought with them their amazing dog who has the uncanny ability to make the craziest faces ever when you take his ears and put them out at their sides like Dumbo. We promise he’s not being tortured… he just looks like it? It’s some kind of crazy Levi reflex. So we took a lot of pictures of him making crazy faces. And adorable faces. And Kim and Ginny spent some time making the most ridiculous high-pitched squealing noises we’ve ever heard trying to get him to tilt his head (a success). It was fantastic. And we cannot wait to be reunited with these two for their wedding in DC in August!

At home with the Coreys.

We’ve been waiting for a family session like this to fall into our laps for a while now. We’ve even been approached by a few families asking for family portraits who have disappeared once  we’ve suggested how we’d prefer to shoot the session. :) So we were beyond thrilled (and honored!) when (amazing!) photographer Emily Corey e-mailed us and asked us to document her family in a come-to-our-house and photograph-us-hanging-around-on-a-Saturday-morning type of way. As she worded it: “a snapshot of life.” She was pregnant when she e-mailed us and wanted to wait until after the baby was born, so we’ve had it on the books, but we waited for a bit until the timing was right and it couldn’t have been more perfect.

Meet the Coreys. They live in an awesome house and make chocolate chip pancakes on Saturdays and walk their dogs and graciously let us follow them around with cameras while they did all these things. There is an amazing and incredible amount of love and patience and kindness in this family and not one single tear was shed (except maybe for like ten minutes with the baby, but even then they were kind of like those baby cries where babies just scream but no actual tears come out).

So here is it. We are kind of addicted to this type of session now. Addicted. So much fun, so little pressure on the kids to act a certain way and pose a certain way (and they’re much more relaxed since they’re at home), and the parents aren’t stressed out because they’re just doing their thing. It’s probably one of the most chillaxed sessions we’ve been on. Feel the love!