Having just returned from a week and a half in Seattle, Alaska, Canada, and cruise times a couple mornings ago, we thought it high time to get back to business as usual. A little over 2 weeks ago in August we were able to within the same week schedule and capture the annual Lehman Family Portraits up in Cassopolis, Michigan at Diamond Lake! As we sink into this last month of summer (which you wouldn't believe is still summer for another few weeks since many businesses already closed over a week ago on Labor Day... though it WAS 90 degrees out yesterday) we are excited to squeeze the last summer beauty and fun out of the final weeks of warmth and lakes.
Up here near the East side of Lake Michigan, many businesses close their doors on Labor Day including not only pools, but restaurants, theme parks, etc. This seems VERY premature to us since fall colors don't even start coming in for another two months (the start of November) and it always makes us sad after the Labor Day summer closings. Since we're not in school though, to us fall means that we're getting close to our Autumn Wedding, Engagement, & Family Portrait Session clients-! Mikayla & Matthew's wedding coming up in a couple weeks in South Bend is even taking place on the first official day of fall on the 22nd and we follow that up with wedding couple Lex & Jessica's Engagement Session the next day and we can't wait for all of that end-of-September fall fun!
But back to the Lehman Family Portrait Session: Sunrise for their Family Portrait Session was an early 7 a.m. Since we had more portraits to capture for clients later in the day (and the following day) and since it's a 45 minute drive for us to get up to their house, the Session time was set for 8 a.m. near sunrise. The patriarch John is Jenny's dad's good friend and had a place near her parents, so growing up summers often consisted with dinners and fun with the Lehman family. John and Julie (the parents of Leslie & John Jr.) now have 4 grandchildren (and furry grandkids too!) and thought it would be nice if professional photographers captured some Family Portraits while everyone was in town for the weekend. We were unavailable for the two other weekend time options, so Saturday morning it was! (Luckily all of the kids are generally awake bright and early at 8 a.m., so that's always ideal.)
Since on a lake an hour after sunrise, we decided to utilize the pier as one of the main spots for their Family Portrait Session. We started off with some nice sun and clouds, but an extremely rare fog washed over the lake near the end of our hour with them. We honestly didn't mind as this covered some houses in the background and gave for a soft palette.
It's always interesting juggling 4 young children, multiple dogs, and a whole group of adults, but we plan on Photoshopping a few of the images further to ensure that the happiest faces of the kids, adults, and dogs remain in the main chosen printed photos for their official large portraits! We'll hopefully be getting their choices for images this week and cannot wait to print their along with 4 other couples' photos this week for a whopping 340 images printed just this week! (Whew! And we even worked during our trip and immediately upon landing Monday morning!)
Thank you so much Julie for thinking of us to capture your Family Portrait Session! We had a blast and it was great catching up with everyone and meeting the newest family members (the kids)! We hope to see you all again soon and cannot wait to get you your final printed images!!