Several weeks ago, I had a session out at the beach with one of my favorite families of all time.  This is the third year I’ve taken their pictures and I’ve loved watching them grow up in front of my camera.  When we started, the baby wasn’t even walking yet and this year, she’s playing soccer!  Soccer!  These children are naturally photogenic and have personality in spades, so it’s never really difficult to get wonderful pictures of them.  The past two years, even getting a wonderful picture of all four of them together was a fairly simple process.  Witness last year’s “all four together” picture:

 

 

Unfortunately, this year, the day we picked to do beach pictures was also the start of biting black fly season.  Fortunately, black fly season only last a few days but it happens after the weather turns a little cooler in the fall and the things hang around until the wind shifts again.  It was just bad timing on our part that we were out there the same time as the flies.  (I was there the week before and the week after our session and there wasn’t a fly to be seen…see what I mean about a short season ).  But, while it’s a short season, it’s brutal – biting flies are no fun!  So, while we were able to get some wonderful shots like this one:

 

 

I wasn’t happy with the ones I got of all four of them together.  So, we tried again last week.  This time we just hung out in their yard and on their dock.  It was so much fun!  And we had much better luck.  No flies, great lighting, and beautiful children.  Who could ask for more?

 

 

And, we got to sneak Rusty the dog into some of the shots (actually, he made it into quite a few of them!)

 

What I loved about this second session was how relaxed everyone was:

 

 

 

 

 

It was a wonderful afternoon…the second time was definitely the charm!