Family photos

Once upon a time we scheduled a photo shoot in December 2015 with our favorite local photographer ShutterHappy.  Said photo shoot was then rescheduled the day of because it was too cold (temperatures in the teens). Then it was rescheduled a second time because it was too windy (winds were outrageous that particular day). Third times the charm? Um, not so because the third time we had to reschedule due to temps in the teens again! Then finally the fourth time came around and it was rainy. Seriously???? Instead of rebooking again for the fifth time in January or February I decided to wait and reschedule for April in hopes of better weather. Come April, we did all the prep for photos once again (haircuts, getting outfits ready) and there was beautiful weather all week....until the day of our shoot came when it was raining AGAIN! At this point our photographer said she thought we might be cursed! She also mentioned she rarely has to have people reschedule more than once due to weather issues. At this point it was pretty comical that the weather was so uncooperative for us. We rescheduled for May and geared up for photos once again....only to find out that one of her moms (she also does birth photography something I SO wish I had done with Scout!) had gone into labor that same evening we were scheduled. We were getting to be pros at this rescheduling thing. Next up...June. We marked our calendars for the evening of June 9th and hoped for the best.


June 9th, six months after we had our original date set for photos, it finally happened! We finally managed to get them done! Last night we met Sarah (the owner of ShutterHappy) down by the Boise river and the next hour proceeded to be both exhausting and challenging in trying to get the two littles to participate.  You'd think after six months of planning and prepping to get family photos done they would have had enough practice sessions down to get it right, but unfortunately that was so not the case. Sarah was so incredibly patient though with both Sawyer and Scout, one of whom does not understand the concept of smiling naturally (ahem....Sawyer) and the other who has a mind of her own and tends to do the exact opposite of what you ask her to do and if forced to do something else screams and can summon big, fat crocodile tears to tumble down her cheeks. Combine that with swarms of mosquitos, black ants on a log that Sawyer was sitting on, a tick found on our photographers pant leg which sparked a feeling of itchiness over all of us,  epic toddler melt downs, a six year old who says his mouth is getting sore from smiling, and a setting sun whose warm temps were making Matt and I sweat profusely and I thought well let's hope she got at least ONE good one!

Well folks, we got our photos back today (yes, less then 12 hours after she took them! She is crazy fast!) and I was speechless when I saw them. She got not one, not two, but 19 photos! They are amazing! If I hadn't been a participant I would never know by looking at them that there was sweat, tears, and mosquitoes involved in the making of these photos. I love the colors, the crisp details of us combined with the hazy quality of the background, the flecks of light floating in the air. I love each and every one of them. And yes, the expressions on my children's faces are not the "smile" I was hoping for, but it captures them as they are now at this moment in time and when I look at them I will be reminded of this phase of life with a six year old son who tries so hard, but just can't quite nail the "photo smile" down and the two year old busybody what can't be slowed down enough to even think about smiling.  I just can't stop scrolling through all the photos so I had to share! I sent our photographer an email this morning saying:

WOW!!! I am speechless! My husband Matt and I both agreed we would have been happy to have just gotten three good photos out of our session with you last night (especially with how difficult it was to get smiles out of Sawyer and Scout), but we are blown away that you managed to get 19!! And not just 19 decent photos, but 19 seriously amazing ones! Looking at them, you would never know that Scout had been crying and batting mosquitos away :) The one of her holding the flower is magical. I am in LOVE with them ALL!! Your talent is incredible and I appreciate so much how patient you were in working with our children, who were melting down right before our eyes! Thank you again!! These are the first family photos we have had taken with the four of us and seeing how wonderful they turned out made me tear up! They are priceless. 

Thanks again for sharing your talent with us!

Kristen Koprowski

And she responded with : 

Aww! Glad you like them :)
Parents always worry that the session was a total fail but almost never is that the case. Kids are kids and my shutter is faster than their meltdowns ;)

Sarah and Ryan Ledford
ShutterHappy Photography
208-707-2727
www.ShutterHappy-Photography.com 

Click on the link above if you would like to see her other work. And now without further ado....here are our photos for your viewing pleasure :)