Though we returned from the Wild West exactly a week and a half ago, we still have so many photos of a couple Sessions left to share with you! One of these Sessions is a Family Portrait Session we photographed in Surprise, Arizona for the Zook family! The Zooks are a calm, sweet family that we've gotten to know over the years who will soon be Jenny's sisters in-laws. They hired us when we were out West to photograph their family which has expanded recently to include a sweet (seriously calm) baby girl as well as new engagement!
We love and prefer sunset portraits (the natural light gives a soft, warm glow rather than harsh mid-day light shining straight down making everyone look like zombies with wild shadows all over the face), so the date was set for a nice Sunday evening. Of course Arizona is wonderful in winter, so we had a lot of beautiful light and surprisingly lush grass to work with in the Zook's neighborhood. It was our second day in a row of photographing a Portrait Session at sunset, so we were ready to capture their images!
The family that started with 1 couple grew to 5 when they had kids and has now grown to 8-! Well, 11 if you count the fur children. (Grace and Kristina will be bridesmaids along with Jenny during Jill and Adam's wedding, by the way!) It's always a treat to photograph an entire family as it expands and the Zooks were amazingly natural in front of the camera!
We had a blast with all of them and extended our 20 minute Mini Session to a full hour! Sometimes when adding an adorable new baby girl into the mix ya have to take full advantage of that precious time.
The Zook family was born and raised in Arizona, so like Jason they've been around desert and dry weather their entire lives. We could really use some of that dry weather around our parts here in Indiana sometime soon-! (This winter season up near Lake Michigan that's supposed to have feet of snow for us from November until March has quickly evolved into what seems like Spring with 60 degree weather and large rainfalls in Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter-!)
Thanks so much to the Zook family for hiring us for your portraits this year AND for inviting us to your Christmas holiday fun last year within our 48 hour 2015 ChristmasPalooza in 5 cities in 2 states out West! We can't wait to see you all again this year in August at Jill and Adam's wedding during the fun that will surely surround that momentous occasion! (And Jenny will catch Grace & Kristina at the bachelorette party wherever/ wherever we figure that out to be!)
Coming up next Weekly Wednesday is Maggie's Malibu 30th Birthday Portrait Session! We love families, weddings, engagements, and everything that generally makes up our photography career AND we fully support all working singles, so we are very excited to share this empowering Session with all of you next week! What better way to kick off February- the month of love- than with some good old self love and friend love?! No better way in our minds!