After rescheduling about 9878586 times due to rain, I finally got to take Hazel’s one year portraits! Erika is actually the one who introduced me to Arbor Hills Nature Preserve. Now I shoot here ALL. THE. TIME.

Her sister was sweet enough to gift them a session for her niece’s birthday back in like February! We got the session booked. Erika wanted to do them at Arbor Hills. I was excited because I had never been here before. The Friday before our shoot, I grabbed some friends and had them let me take their pictures at the location.  I wanted get a feel for the spots I wanted to shoot with them (click here to see). Here’s what I thought; I love it! It’s so beautiful! I can’t wait to shoot here! But the next day, rain came and we had to reschedule.

This happened over and over literally 5 or 6 times. Once I FINALLLY thought we were in the clear and went to meet up, it started raining on us after shooting for 5 mins. While driving home, I saw what I swear was a tornado off to my right, then drove through rain so hard I couldn’t see a thing. By the time I was exiting to get back home, clear blue skies.

Texas weather sucks ya’ll.

The Erika and Brennan are SUPER nice and understanding though!
Every time the rain ruined our plans, they were so gracious with me! I am so glad they were! THANK YOU, GUYS!!

Check out this adorable family below! And if you ever wonder what it is like to have a photo shoot with a one year old, it’s kind of like chasing cats ;).

As a result, these sessions turn into candid memories, a true representation of what life is like during this stage of life. It’s also the most fun for me because I am constantly on my toes trying to think of new things to do to get the baby to smile. This particular session included a first for me, I gave her a private concert of the ridiculously catchy “Over the Deep Blue Sea” song (click here to get it stuck in your head).

OUR TIME TOGETHER: HAZEL’S ON YEAR PORTRAITS AT ARBOR HILLS

BLOOPERS

And now my favorite part, bloopers. One of the great things about taking nearly 1,000 photos at a photoshoot with babies is that it provides plenty of bloopers that I can’t just throw away.

When you try to get that cute family shot, and the baby just wants to run around and ISN’T having it!

Hazel liked my little monkey I had for my camera. I actually had to put it away because instead of making her smile like intended, she just cried because she wanted to snuggle it. haha