Family Photo Shoot!
Melissa Fischer
A couple weeks ago we had my good friend, Emily Blake, take some family photos of us. The main reason we wanted to get the photos done was that we needed some updated family pictures for our adoption family profile book. If I'm being honest though, I was really grateful for the excuse to get some family photos taken. The last time we had even semi-professional looking pictures taken was two years ago when a friend offered to snap some of us as a hobby. {Do the math. That was when I was six weeks pregnant with Raena!} So, it's been awhile.
If you're a parent, you understand. If not, take a look at my Instagram feed. Once you have kids, all of your photo taking efforts shift to trying to capture every last cute thing they do. Any photo that I am a part of is usually the result of me taking a group selfie with my kids or Travis attempting to capture a moment {per my request} mid-motion of the kids and I. Most pictures turn out blurry and few end up in a category I would deem "flattering." I have often thought, when our kids grow up, they will wonder if we ever actually did anything with them because we are never in any of the photos. This was one of the reasons I was so happy to get these photos taken, a record of us and them together.
Even more rare than a photo of Travis or I with our kids is a picture of Travis and I together. I would go as far as to say those pictures are nearly extinct these days. The last time we had photos taken of just us together was at our wedding. It has been six years since that wonderful day, so you could say we are a bit out of modeling practice. This resulted in us feeling pretty awkward and camera shy during our shoot as our sweet {+ patient + kind + gentle + encouraging} friend, Emily, attempted to get us to be natural and affectionate. Lucky for us, Emily is extremely talented and was able to capture some great moments despite our awkwardness. I can honestly say I am surprised she was able to get one photo where we all look good much less the stack that she gave us. She is a true talent.
Also, we couldn't have made it through our shoot without the assistance of two of my sweet friends, Shanelle + Laura, who chased after our kids and got us all to laugh. So grateful for them.
I'm sure you've noticed the new photos up on various pages around the website. You will find some of them posted here, but click around the site and you'll find a few hidden gems I didn't include in this gallary. {Yes, it was nearly impossible for me to narrow it down to just these}
Don't ask me how Emily was able to turn a city park into a tropical jungle in these photos. It's magical. So grateful to have these moments captured. I will treasure them forever.