It’s August. This means back to school, hot weather and realizing that Christmas is only 141 days away…which means, I have to have gift purchases and mailed by the end of November.
For some brilliant reason known only to the heavens, I decided that this morning was the morning to get out and get some shots for my yearly calendar for the grandparents.  Yes, despite the bright sun, record humidity, and damp ground, today was the best day ever to do this…I should have gone back to bed.

I had wanted to check out a nature area for months now but between the heat and our family vacation, it didn’t happen.  I’ve been searching for locations for my upcoming portfolio building sessions so I thought it was a great chance to get some pictures of the kids.

As any photographer knows, you can capture beautiful timeless images of a client’s children but when it comes to your own…well, it can go either way.

With the best of intentions, we hopped in the car and off we went to the natural area.  After nearing choking to death on the fumes from the bug spray, we started out on our trek.  The weatherman had called for dense fog this morning so I had planned  a rain theme complete with fun umbrellas and rain gear…which meant I got to shlep both the rain gear and umbrellas.

There was a beautiful patch of wild sunflowers but it was too bright.  Squinting doesn’t make for timeless portraiture.

So off we continued past the exceptionally swollen creek that runs through the park.  The water had long since crested the banks and if we get much more rain, that section of the path will be flooded.

Finally, we found an area that was shaded so no hands over eyes and it was mud free.

Here’s what I got:

With that, we headed back to the parking lot.  Sweaty, thirsty and happy to be back in the A/C.  Yep, I should have slept in.  But maybe I’ll use the last one for the calendar anyways, it makes me smile.