A Spring Family Portrait Session

The extreme summer heat has arrived! I love taking a break from weddings during the hottest part of the summer. It gives me a chance to recharge ahead of the fall season. Don’t think for a second though that the break from weddings means there’s no work going on around here. In fact, this is the time of year when I work on a lot of non-wedding related shoots (and things are definitely busy!). This is also the time of year when I’m working on timelines for fall weddings and catching up on blogging family shoots from the spring/summer.

Back in May, when the temperatures were much cooler than they are now, I met up with the Terrys for a family session with their adult children and adorable grandchildren (y’all the triplets were just too cute)! I had previously worked with this family on one of my  2021 weddings, so it was such a treat to have them back in front of my camera. This was also my third time to shoot at this beautiful property. I first got a glimpse of how magical it is at Caitlin and Ryan’s engagement session last fall! I can now report that it looks fabulous in every season!

While the majority of my annual calendar is full of weddings and engagement sessions, I intentionally save a few time blocks in certain months for family sessions, which are often snapped up by my past clients. Working with the same families over multiple sessions and seasons of life is so very special! Enjoy my favorites from this sweet spring session and I’ll be bringing a few more family sessions to the blog soon!

The triplets favorite was when I said we could do a silly pose!

Spring Hill College Senior Portraits

I love photographing high school seniors! They are seriously so much fun to work with! Samaha was in town visiting family and wanted to take senior portraits while she was visiting the Mobile area. We met up at Spring Hill College because the chapel on campus holds special meaning for Samaha and her family. She was baptized at St. Joseph’s Chapel when she was a baby. I love that she wanted to return to this place for her senior portraits!

On this summer evening we actually had a bit of a breeze, which made our usually oppressive humidity tolerable. Samaha is an athlete at Knoxville Catholic High School and wanted to incorporate her love of cheerleading into her session with a few jumps! I am not much of a sports photographer, so we had to attempt this a few times, but Samaha is so good natured that she didn’t mind one bit.

Before the shoot, Samaha told me she was a smiley person and I found that to be absolutely true! Her joyful spirit just shines in front of the camera. I’m sure you can tell by looking at these photos just how much fun we had during the shoot! Samaha is still undecided on which college she wants to attend, but has her eyes on Notre Dame or North Carolina. With her senior year of high school ahead of her, she still has time to decide.

Samaha, thank you for such a fun session! I hope you have a fantastic senior year!

She saved this trick for last!

A Bragg-Mitchell Mansion Portrait Session

Each year, the color pink is reserved for the young lady chosen to be Queen of the Azalea Trail Court. I was so excited to learn that someone I know was chosen for this honor for the 2021-2022 year! Myrna’s family and I go to the same church and she is representing McGill-Toolen Catholic High School (my alma mater!) as an Azalea Trail Maid this year.

We attempted this session two times before it actually happened (thanks to our typical rainy Mobile weather). I was delighted to finally get this session in on a day where we had a beautiful Golden Hour (even if it was quite humid)! I loved that Myrna’s sisters came along with her to the session. It was so fun getting to photograph all three of them. They seriously are the sweetest young ladies! Some of my favorite photos from the shoot are of the three of them together.

So much work and attention to detail goes into each Azalea Trail Maid dress. Myrna told me that a couple of her cousins had served as Azalea Trail Maids in prior years, so she already knew of the dressmaker, Janet Hollinhead, who made her dress. Each Trail Maid gets to have input on the design of their dress. No two are identical. I particularly loved the ribbon embroidery on Myrna’s!

It was quite cloudy for the first half of this shoot, so I was astounded when the sun burst through the clouds and made the majestic oak trees at the Bragg-Mitchell Mansion sparkle with a golden glow. I could barely contain my excitement!

Myrna, congratulations on being chosen as the Queen of the 2021-2022 Azalea Trail Court! I know you’ll serve our city well!

All Azalea Trail Maids love their pockets! This is where they stash their car keys and cell phones during appearances. The pockets can be buttoned to the pantaloons that the girls wear under the dress. One of Myrna’s pockets features her name written in Arabic.

A Summer Family Portrait Session

It’s hard to believe how many years have passed since the first time this sweet family was in front of my camera. Their youngest, Lucy, wasn’t even born yet and now she is old enough to be chasing after her older siblings!

Getting to work with the same families year after year is such a treat. It’s so fun to see how the personalities of the kids change and evolve. Big sister Mary Helen seems to remember me from shoot to shoot, but little Gus promptly asked who I was when I arrived at their home for this portrait session. He also wanted to know why I was wearing running shoes, which made me laugh. I told him it was so I could chase after him and that turned out to be quite true!

As with all summer sessions, you never know what the weather will do. We have a chance for rain almost every day from June through August. Fortunately, if it does rain in the afternoon, that often means that things get cooled off a bit ahead of an evening portrait session. The day of this shoot the weather was actually pretty enjoyable. Yes, it was warm, but we had beautiful light and even a tiny breeze!

After taking some portraits at their family home, we finished up the session at their church. The change of location was a bit of an adventure for the kids and we ended up getting some of my favorite shots from the shoot at this location.

Celebrating 50 Years in Love

When my grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, the whole Gelineau family went on vacation together to celebrate the milestone. That was the same summer that I first took a photography class. When Linda contacted me about taking portraits of her and Ralph in honor of their 50th wedding anniversary, I immediately thought of my grandparents, that trip we all took back in 2005, and how far I’ve come since those early days of learning how to work a camera.

We considered many location options for this session, starting with the University of South Alabama. Linda and Ralph first met there when they were in college. We also considered going to their church to take photos since their church community is so special to them. A week before their session, Linda asked if we could go to the Japanese Gardens for pictures. It had been quite a while since I’d last shot at this location, but Linda and Ralph had visited just a few days prior and loved the scenery. We settled on the garden for our shoot and it turned out to be the most amazing choice for their session!

Linda told me that these portraits were her anniversary present. They hadn’t had formal portraits taken of just the two of them since their wedding – except for portraits that were taken on cruises. I loved that Linda and Ralph were so easy-going in front of the camera. I would have never known they didn’t have portraits taken regularly if they hadn’t told me!

Linda and Ralph will celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary later this summer! I’m so delighted that I was able to take these portraits for them in celebration of this wonderful milestone!