a mother daughter photo session at union station

Since I started changing things up with my business a little, I kind of stopped blogging sessions. While my photography was having an identity crisis, I photographed some really fun people. In fact, I actually shot one of my favorite sessions ever right after declaring that I was quitting. Ha. Oh, life. Courtney contacted me about photographing her and her daughter at Union Station in LA. I was simultaneously excited and terrified. Union Station is such a cool place.....but it is LA. Oh, LA, how you give me panic attacks. The old freeways with exits on the wrong side, the one way streets, the lack of parking. Have I mentioned that I don't know how to parallel park? I know. I can drive a stick, so I feel that helps balance things out a bit. Anyway, I made it. I am pretty sure I narrowly escaped the underground parking stairwell with my life, but I made it. And Union Station is pretty beautiful, which is weird, because...a train station? But it is. And Courtney and Elena were awesome. Courtney mentioned that she had tried to do something with Elena's hair, but she wouldn't keep it in. Oh, toddlers. Toddlers are my spirit animal. Elena's hair was just perfect. It fit her personality, and it made me love each picture of her running around and exploring that much more. She had zero interest in posing for the camera, which is just fine by me. So I spent a couple of hours giving chase and letting Elena be Elena.

When I fell in love with the day in the life style of photography, I wondered if people would see the beauty in it that I do. When I struggled with clinging to what I knew worked, fearing change, this session was my gentle encouragement that this beauty in the everyday is what I was made to photograph. Thank you, Courtney for choosing me to photograph you and your daughter. And thank you for embracing the beauty in Elena being exactly as she is in this time in your lives. I hope that in ten years, when you look back at these images, that it takes you right back to the days of chasing a toddler and opening string cheese. The days of negotiating with bags of cheerios and feeling like you won the lottery when you check and a diaper is poop-free fly by, and you will miss them someday. Really. Not that I won't be doing an extended and obnoxious happy dance when we finally get Charlie to use the potty, but you know what I mean. If you think the years are going by way too fast, and would like your own session like Courtney and Elena's for your family, (or your pet, or your grandma, or your boyfriend, or your best friends), let's talk.